Fixing What Might Be Broke
Sorry for the extremely light blogging this past week, but Sarah and I are scrambling to get this week's (exceedingly complicated) Inside the Classics concerts ready for prime time, and on top of that, I've spent the last seven days in five different cities, conducting various bits of orchestra business.
But I'm home now, and later this week, we'll be putting up our great big Cutting Room Floor post for this week's Four Seasons show, where you'll get all sorts of extra info and musical tidbits that we won't have room to get into on stage. (By the way, if you're free this Wednesday or Thursday and haven't bought tickets yet, by all means, do it - we've got a fun night planned, and our soloists, Gina DiBello and Jonathan Magness, are spectacular violinists besides.)
I'm still fighting the jet lag this morning, but to tide you over until I make it back to coherence, here's an article that popped up in one of Britain's leading dailies over the weekend, in which various luminaries of the English classical music scene opine on what they think ought to be done to make orchestras more accessible to a wider audience.
To be honest, a lot of the responses are pretty impractical (concerts in a fallout bunker? really?) or backward-looking (stop experimenting with all this new stuff and just play the warhorses,) but there are a few diamonds in the rough. Violinist Nicola Benedetti has some interesting things to say on the way we light concert halls, pianist James Rhodes sounds like he's gunning for my emcee job on Inside the Classics, and Gillian Moore of London's Southbank Centre tells an excellent story about some crusty musichead complaining that someone dared to insert dancers into a performance of Stravinsky's Rite of Spring. Which is a ballet.
I definitely tend to come down more on the side of those who believe that what some classical fans call "tradition" in the concert hall is actually a deliberate effort to make the uninitiated feel unwelcome and stupid, but at the same time, it drives me nuts when someone goes on and on about how we should give up our big fancy halls and just play our concerts at The Fine Line, because that's where the kids are. (As if the kids are primarily interested in the building and not the music they're hearing there.)
So what conceits of the concert hall would you dump in the name of making orchestras more welcoming to outsiders? Which would you cling to because to get rid of them would be to cheapen the experience? And if you're something of a concertgoing traditionalist, do you think those of us in this business are way too focused on the folks who never darken our doors, at the expense of those who loyally buy tickets season after season? Give us your two cents in the comments...
But I'm home now, and later this week, we'll be putting up our great big Cutting Room Floor post for this week's Four Seasons show, where you'll get all sorts of extra info and musical tidbits that we won't have room to get into on stage. (By the way, if you're free this Wednesday or Thursday and haven't bought tickets yet, by all means, do it - we've got a fun night planned, and our soloists, Gina DiBello and Jonathan Magness, are spectacular violinists besides.)
I'm still fighting the jet lag this morning, but to tide you over until I make it back to coherence, here's an article that popped up in one of Britain's leading dailies over the weekend, in which various luminaries of the English classical music scene opine on what they think ought to be done to make orchestras more accessible to a wider audience.
To be honest, a lot of the responses are pretty impractical (concerts in a fallout bunker? really?) or backward-looking (stop experimenting with all this new stuff and just play the warhorses,) but there are a few diamonds in the rough. Violinist Nicola Benedetti has some interesting things to say on the way we light concert halls, pianist James Rhodes sounds like he's gunning for my emcee job on Inside the Classics, and Gillian Moore of London's Southbank Centre tells an excellent story about some crusty musichead complaining that someone dared to insert dancers into a performance of Stravinsky's Rite of Spring. Which is a ballet.
I definitely tend to come down more on the side of those who believe that what some classical fans call "tradition" in the concert hall is actually a deliberate effort to make the uninitiated feel unwelcome and stupid, but at the same time, it drives me nuts when someone goes on and on about how we should give up our big fancy halls and just play our concerts at The Fine Line, because that's where the kids are. (As if the kids are primarily interested in the building and not the music they're hearing there.)
So what conceits of the concert hall would you dump in the name of making orchestras more welcoming to outsiders? Which would you cling to because to get rid of them would be to cheapen the experience? And if you're something of a concertgoing traditionalist, do you think those of us in this business are way too focused on the folks who never darken our doors, at the expense of those who loyally buy tickets season after season? Give us your two cents in the comments...
Labels: state of the art
posted by Sam at
11:44 AM
6 Comments:
(This is a general comment unrelated to this particular blog post.) I'm really excited today to see the pieces for Inside the Classics 2010-2011! Thanks, Sarah and Sam, for having Stravinsky's Rite of Spring. Somebody might recall that I left a request for this piece in one of your after-concert posts. This piece is one of my absolute favorites for its complexity, and I'm dying to learn more about it. I've also actually never heard it live in an orchestra hall. Can't wait till May 2011!
Somebody might recall that I left a request for this piece in one of your after-concert posts.
Yeah, we definitely read and remembered that request, Lydia. It's an amazing piece of music, obviously, and the only thing that's kept us from featuring it before was a lack of adequate rehearsal time for the concerts on this series.
But that's all changing next season, along with our move to weekends, so we're thrilled to be able to fulfill your request!
Just wanted to tell you our story about how the Minnesota Orchestra successfully lured in some non-regulars. Perhaps you can pass it along to the marketing department and others.
Although my husband and I both love music and play in two community bands, sing in church choir, and participate in musical theater groups, we had not darkened the door of Orchestra Hall since Jimmy Carter was president. We had received free tickets along with a bunch of other undergraduates at the U of MN, but after a musical snob wrote a scathing letter to the editor in the Minneapolis paper about "boors" clapping between movements that evening we avoided classical music for decades.
Here is how your marketing worked:
1) In late 2009, we received a glossy booklet promoting a deal where one could set up their own 'season' with a choice of three events. The cover featured some non-classical performers such as Bernadette Peters, so I thought of buying a series for our Broadway-loving adult son for Christmas.
2) When purchasing his 3 concert/6 ticket gift, the online program encouraged me to choose some other concerts at a discount, so I picked out a couple light events for my husband and myself.
3) When we went to our first event ("The Wizard of Oz" evening), we were immediately struck by how friendly everyone was, starting with the first security guard saying, "Welcome to Orchestra Hall." We also enjoyed the festive atmosphere (and the food, drink, and lockers were surprising cheap!)
4) Our program for that event cleverly included a coupon for $5 tickets to the next "Inside the Classics" concert. Of course we had to take advantage of such a great deal! We enjoyed this evening very much and will be attending the "Inside the Classics" concert this Thursday as well with our son.
5) The helpful box office folk have encouraged us to use our "subscriber" status to purchase other tickets at a discount and we have done so.
So, after not attending a concert at Orchestra Hall in over 30 years, after Thursday we will have attended four events in about two months! (with more scheduled)
Teresa Anderson
I am not an outsider and shouldn't speak for them, but I believe a lot of outsiders do not comprehend the "do not clap between movements" ban. It can be a little intimidating for the atmosphere of the hall to imply that the audience is supposed to know the music well enough to recognize the end of the piece.
Also, I think it would help if the program notes started with a paragraph written with the assumption the reader has never heard of the composer. A lot of the program notes are well written but assume a significant amount of prior knowledge.
Signals that this is a club, and that you have to learn your way in, are not always welcoming.
Loved Teresa's comment!
As an orchestra member, I'm always tickled to hear between movement clapping at concerts since it suggests the possibility of new guests enjoying live classical music. Except for premature bravos that disrupt the peace at a magically quiet ending, when it comes to applause more is more!
Teresa, thanks so much for letting us know about your experience - I forwarded your comment to our VPs of Marketing, and they were thrilled!
To the clapping between movements issue, I'm generally a major proponent of letting people clap whenever they feel moved to. It always feels very strange to me to finish the hugely dramatic first movement of a symphony by, say, Tchaikovsky or Mahler, and have the electricity in the room immediately dissipate into awkward silence.
Ironically, though, I'm actually going to be specifically requesting that our audiences at this week's ItC concerts hold their applause until the end of our second half performance, because of the unique way we've sequenced the featured works.
And I think that might just be the right solution overall: if you feel it's really important not to have applause until a piece is well and truly over, tell the audience directly. Otherwise, let the people who paid for the tickets express their appreciation as they like.
Post a Comment
Subscribe to Post Comments [Atom]
<< Home