In a typically thoughtful contribution to my post Why not play the premier league composers more often? Richard Bratby - who is professionally involved in classical music - mused "speaking solely from my own experience - there is a very noticeable falling-off in ticket sales when a symphony orchestra programmes pre-Beethoven repertoire, irrespective of the quality of the performance or the music, or the energy with which it is marketed. But why?" Now Kea has answered Richard's question with the following comment: Wagner, Mahler, Shostakovich, etc, all sound more or less like film music (or -- more accurately -- film music sounds more or less like recycled bits of Wagner, Mahler, Shostakovich, etc) and therefore don't require any intellectual involvement or serious effort to listen to. Understanding the music of Bach, Mozart or Haydn, etc (or for that matter Schumann, Brahms, Webern, Cage, etc) actually requires people to listen actively rather than being pulled alo...
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I am not sure where you stay when you are in Paris, but have you ever tried Les Pipos (2 Rue de l'Ecole Polytechnic)? A slight caveat in that we have not been for about 3 years, but it had not changed in the 10 or 12 years we had been visiting on a fairly regular basis.
Affordable hotel and restaurant recommendations make a change from suggested CDs. Does anyone have any ideas for Lille where I will be in a couple of weeks?
http://www.opera-lille.fr/en/saison-09-10/bdd/cat/music/sid/99185_mohamed-rouicha