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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Please. Given some of the activities in the news recently of actual police, this comment goes beyond silly.
As I said in a recent comment, I have easy and inexpensive access to a wider variety of recorded, downloadable, streamable, and live classical music than ever before in my 40+ years as a listener.
I understand that you are deeply unhappy about some of the means and mechanisms, but the reality is as I've stated it.
And wouldn't it be wonderful if the music humour police could be persuaded to hibernate as well?