Posted by Jim Andrada on May 06, 2003 at 20:22:03:
In Reply to: Saving orchestras posted by David Mills on May 04, 2003 at 22:28:15:
I think orchestras and musicians, have to save themselves. By which I mean doing the things necessary to remain relevant and competitive with other forms of "entertainment". I think they can do it!
But I'm afraid that most choose not to.
Lately, my wife and I totally avoid our "almost" local orchestra in San Francisco.
A) MTT seems determined to shove some modern "stuff" down everyone's throat at nearly every performance. We've been lured by the promise of Mozart, Beethoven, etc and subjected to the unimaginable torture of having to sit through something that sounds like an exercise in tuning gone horribly wrong. Or sounds that would make the SPCA suspect something. Flame away - we don't like this stuff! We know we're old fogeys! And we won't keep going back if we don't like what we get. We're old and stubborn and don't want to be "educated" in the joys of atonality.
B) A symphony performance is dull in the visual sense. There's nothing for your eyes to do unless the tubaist is juggling his mutes or or the conductor drops his baton, or something.
C) The conductor's backside is not something we enjoy staring at for a couple of hours. Admittedly there are some in SF who might particularly enjoy it, but my wife and I aren't among them. And MTT is so SKINNY!
D) Davies hall, while really quite nice acoustically, feels so damned "cold". And like a lot of the large modern halls, you can hardly make out the faces of the orchestra mambers in the distance. Are they really people or are there a hundred giant penguins on stage? Was this music really intended to be heard by 2500 people at a sitting?
Across the street from Davies, is the Opera House - we go there a lot. There is something happening that delights the eye, the ambience of the hall is great, and most of all, it's realtively easy to walk up to the orchestra pit and talk to the performers during intermissions, or chat with them in the restaurant before the performance. My goodness - there's a real sense that real live people are making music!
I think this last is really important. The sense of dealing with real live people with whom you can identify I believe is really crucial. And this is something the players need to do better to promote.
I had a cousin (recently deceased) who played cello in the Philadelphia Orchestra for over 50 years. He (and at the time a lot of his collegues) were a pretty gregarious bunch. I recall one story about how he had actually taken his cello into a bar after a concert in Japan and played for the patrons while he had a couple of "relaxers". Sounds "corny", but after he retired he visited me once while I lived in Tokyo, and he had people from all over Japan calling and visiting who remembered him from the orchestra's road trips. And they all went to all the concerts, bought the CD's, etc etc etc. They had become "fans".
Orchestra management has to do better with the finances, but I think the musicians have to take a greater initiative in "personalizing" the symphony experience.
DISCLAIMER - THESE ARE MY OPINIONS - YOUR MILEAGE MAY VARY - CONFLICTING OPINIONS WELCOMED.