[contextly_auto_sidebar]
Dancing violinist! Pandemonium in the audience!
Here’s a story from my friend David Snead, formerly Vice President of Marketing, Brand and Customer Experience at the New York Philharmonic. And now President and CEO of the Handel and Haydn Society, the plainly terrific chorus and period instrument orchestra in Boston.
David and I were emailing about what classical concerts could be. And in response to something I said, he emailed this:
OK, true story. I was on tour in California with H+H during my first week here; the first concert I saw was at the Mondavi Center, UC-Davis. An old friend of mine, Don Roth, is Executive Director there, and before the concert he was taking me around, introducing me to donors.
The concert starts with a Handel Coronation Anthem, Zadok the Priest, which I’m now also hearing in McDonald’s and AT&T ads
Anyway, the first half ends with our punk red-haired concertmaster Aisslinn Nosky doing a Vivaldi Double Violin Concerto that segues via an improvised bridge into “Summer” from The Four Seasons, which she does Eddie Van Halen-style: dancing around the stage, blazing fast, stopping the orchestra on a dime. . .pause. . . then exploding. The audience e-rupts. Pandemonium. The lights come up and one of the donors runs up at me, pointing his finger into my chest, exclaiming “This is how all classical music concerts should be!!”
Posted with David’s permission, of course, and also with permission from Don Roth (hi, Don), Aisslinn Nosky (I’d love to hear and meet you sometime), and the unnamed donor.
Absobloodylutely!
Agreed… Or it least this is how a lot of them should be. 🙂
On Sunday evening, I played a set of new works for solo piano along with Chopin’s fiery Scherzo no. 2 at Caracol in Santa Fe, NM. Caracol is a rock venue/rehearsal space. My collaborators for the evening were Flamingo Pink and Mega Bog, a singer-songwriter and Brooklyn indie band respectively.
My set of new and old classical music fell between the two more “pop” acts. And what did we find? The audience of about fifty was fully engaged and comfortable. They sipped beer and tea seated on chairs and the floor, sometimes leaning against their dates.
If more classical music could also happen alongside other genres in venues that allow for a more relaxed experience, then I think Classical music would be alive and thriving!
http://grishakrivchenia.com
And what did I find?
Shocking ! 🙂 🙂
I have very mixed feelings about this. I have to assume that people are no longer capable of enjoying classical music without adopting the “bells and whistles” approach to the concert experience. I’ve seen a lot of examples of this on You Tube where instrumentalists jump around like clowns and do St. VItus dance while they perform. Is the concert hall and classical music really in need of a steady stream of buffoonery and gimmicks like what is described in this article? If so, we are in far worse shape than I had imagined. There is room for musical satire in the mode of PDQ Bach, Victor Borge, Gerald Hoffnung and others, but the thought of every concert experience turning into a hip, punk haired version of slapstick disturbs me. Another point. Orchestral musicians overall are not comfortable with the expectation of being “hip” on top of the other expectations heaped on them by the demands of their jobs. This aspect is never discussed, and orchestral musicians are not in a position to complain or give their opinion because they are afraid of not being seen as “team players” or something. They are seen as cogs in the wheel anyway, which is part of the problem. I could be wrong about this, but I would like someone to confidentially gather the opinions of orchestral musicians about these types of concerts where they are expected to be funny and entertaining on top of playing their music to perfection.
“Is the concert hall and classical music really in need of a steady stream of buffoonery and gimmicks like what is described in this article?” Well, it was evidently “in need” of it in the age of Paganini and Liszt – and for that matter in the age of Vivaldi. Other performers such as Mozart seem to have had a less… let’s say, extroverted stage manner, but then, concert music in Mozart’s time was basically a once-a-year stopgap when people couldn’t go where they really wanted to go – the theater and the opera – because those were closed for Lent.
Anyway, there’s no “buffoonery” or “gimmickry” to Aisslin Nosky. Her manner may or may not be a good thing, but it comes across as completely unaffected. (I’ve had the good fortune to see her perform with the H&H Society many times, but anyone who hasn’t can of course still consult Youtube.) And the actual music she produces is very conventional by HIP standards – thus the polar opposite of the German and Benelux performers who make Bachmozartbeethoven sound like Celtic punk but dress and stand like Toscanini.
It sounds to me as though Ms. Nosky was just being herself and having a fun time (with the aid of some good design and production).
I think that giving more Classical artists the opportunity to be themselves (hip or not), as opposed to fitting them into our stale, bourgeois concert culture, will produce better art.
Let’s allow the artists and visionaries to rule the day… that way, more expectations are not heaped upon anyone, except perhaps an expectation that the concert will actually be fun!
Guess I’m ‘out of it’ for wanting to actually ‘listen’ to the music itself.
Then close your eyes during the performance and enjoy! Other audience members might prefer a more multisensory experience…
Point taken. At the same time, some achieve a stupendous level of thrilling theater with a relative modicum of movement.
When I met Leonard Bernstein at a party following a student concert he conducted at Tanglewood, I was astonished at how human, even ordinary he seemed, exhibiting insecurities, and a less than noble figure.
That following Sunday, sitting front row center, the maestro, gleaming in elegant white garb, strode onto the stage in front of the Boston Symphony Orchestra to conduct the Fifth Symphony of Dmitri Shostavovich, and I was completely slain before he even gave the downbeat.
The performance? A tempestuous mixture of blood and snow before being rinsed by pure waters.
I love this approach to music-making. Equally, I love the quiet, still, “old-fashioned” experience of listening to an orchestra and applauding at the end. What I hate is the fact that we don’t seem to think there’s room for both of these experiences anymore; it has to be one or the other. And the people that think that what they don’t like is wrong, no debate.
Agreed… Even as one person, I prefer a diversity of concert experiences.
Traditional versus innovative: one is not necessarily better than another, and each has its benefits. The broader Classical music culture should be able to offer (and even appreciate) both…
I agree with you. Perhaps what the concert hall experience needs some variety in this way. I actually would love to see more musical satire as well in the tradition of Victor Borge or Peter Schickeke (PDQ Bach). There’s plenty of room for different forms of expression.
Are you Elaine Mack, the cellist and author of Black Classical Musicians?
Yes I am! Greg Sandow was one of the very first people to take an interest in my work. I have tons of respect for him because of that, and also because of his love and true interest in the future of classical music.
I am presently working on another book about Black men in the vocal arts. I’m pretty sure it will be completed this year.