Posted by Agreed! on July 01, 2003 at 19:22:51:
In Reply to: Re: Re: Re: Re: Re: "How to Kill Orchestras" - NY Times posted by richard on July 01, 2003 at 18:22:27:
Agreed - there is just a huge amount of very good, very listenable 20th century music (and 21st too, I'm sure) that just seldom, if ever gets programmed. Nobody wants to pay for the music, or take the time to learn the stuff.
I can't believe that audiences in S.F. and L.A. would be THAT much more open minded and sophistocated than those around the rest of the nation. We simply do not such huge problems getting people to come hear modern music. They may not care for it, but they necessarily go running for the doors either. It just ain't that big a deal out here. Then agin, MTT and Salonen are both masters at more modern music.
I think that the main problem is simply that symphony orchestras are extremely expensive instutions that draw ticket sales from a relatively small audience - plain and simple. It's amazing that more of them don't go broke.
Barry Guerrero