tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8060605.post8773691844665113616..comments2024-03-26T15:57:13.443+00:00Comments on On An Overgrown Path: Classical music must go on a diet to surviveUnknownnoreply@blogger.comBlogger4125tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8060605.post-51821898394461969932015-01-27T18:13:47.993+00:002015-01-27T18:13:47.993+00:00Like the previous three commenters, I noticed the ...Like the previous three commenters, I noticed the issue of narrow band of repertoire. As to audiences being smaller for unknown composers, the suggestions I could think of that would e firstly the obvious model employed by rock shows - have a headline act supported by less and less well-known music. In other types of music, audiences are drawn to what's new. Partly, this is driven by media, like radio, dedicated to uncovering or promoting the next big hit. Some promotion for new composers, using radio and online media could go a long way. The BBC in particular seems to keep going for new stuff from the same old people and often really don't pick the composers I would characterise as most interesting or exciting.Charles CĂ©leste Hutchinshttps://www.blogger.com/profile/18123138871494922485noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8060605.post-52454291255282928002015-01-22T17:24:17.720+00:002015-01-22T17:24:17.720+00:00As to the "narrow band of repertoire", I...As to the "narrow band of repertoire", I note that the Royal Northern Sinfonia concert at the ABO conference will conclude with a "warhorse": Beethoven 5. Wouldn't some "inextinguishable" Nielsen or a Villa Lobos symphony have made a more fitting statement?Davidhttps://www.blogger.com/profile/12037901644167481168noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8060605.post-74590529119405941012015-01-22T16:30:43.753+00:002015-01-22T16:30:43.753+00:00Update to my submission - you do address the samen...Update to my submission - you do address the sameness of the releases with that #3 line above, "Supply has been concentrated on major metropolitan areas and <b>a narrow band of repertoire</b>."Joe Shelbyhttps://www.blogger.com/profile/07371019210357778459noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8060605.post-84474977488862160932015-01-22T16:25:01.291+00:002015-01-22T16:25:01.291+00:00Well, keep in mind I'm writing from America, w...Well, keep in mind I'm writing from America, where we don't have the glut of a dozen orchestras within 100 miles. Here in DC, I have access to 2 (outside of universities) - the NSO and Baltimore, and that makes me rather fortunate. Others have access to only one and they're faltering for lack of funding (Atlanta, Detroit being the most public about it. Minnesota, too).<br /><br />The glut of recordings you mention does lead me to one other note. You say "there is too much classical music" but I might consider a clarification: there is to much of *the same* classical music. (This has the counter-caveat: audiences aren't as likely to attend concerts with too many unknown pieces, but that's a discussion already had).<br /><br />In particular in recordings, this bothers me greatly.<br /><br />I don't need another Beethoven cycle (glaring specifically to MTT's SFO, who wonderfully perform contemporary music but on record that talent is lost with the management's desire for another 'cycle'). Nobody really needs another Beethoven Cycle. How many Mahler cycles are in progress, including Gergiev's and now Dudamel? Do I need another Planets (I'm up to 11 recordings, thanks to various low-priced conductor compilations like Karajan, Stokowski, and Previn)? <br /><br />How much other music could be played, recorded, enjoyed, that won't be because of all of the resources being spent on "yet another cycle"?<br /><br />I look at the reviews and the ads in BBC Music and constantly see the same names come up. I jump at the moment of seeing a name I never saw before, and race to wikipedia and amazon to find out more.<br /><br />This is a reason I generally have enjoyed Rattle's time with the BPO. While he has released plenty of standards (including 3 more Mahlers, Fantastique, the Nutcracker, and a new Rite), he has also released a lot of music that isn't nearly as well known, including Dvorak Tone Poems, a brilliant Messiaen piece, some lesser known Debussy, the Stravinsky Symphonies, and an interesting completion of the Bruckner Ninth.<br /><br />Maybe I'm weird. I probably am. But the weird are more willing to buy music than not-so-weird these days, who are more content with Spotify's business model of "here, we'll buy the CD once and share it with 2.7 million of our closest friends".Joe Shelbyhttps://www.blogger.com/profile/07371019210357778459noreply@blogger.com