A note to people who think I might have written too much here about sports. Once you've gotten what I'm trying to say, sportswise, feel free to scroll down to the subhead that shows I'm moving on to classical music. I won't be offended. Thinking some more about about the comments I've gotten trashing my idea that sports and classical music could be compared in any useful way. Plus my responses, both in the comments, and in my "Underestimating" post. One theme in the comments has been that classical music is about uplift and … [Read more...]

This may come as a shock, but -- continuing my posts on the artistic quality of orchestras -- the larger American orchestras normally have no one who functions as their artistic director. You may think this is nonsense, when you read it. What's the music director? you might ask. Chopped onions? But in fact -- as insiders know -- many music directors, maybe most, don't take responsibility for the concerts that they don't conduct. In some cases, they may not even take much interest. There may be reasons for this. A top-class music … [Read more...]

About orchestra culture...I got a comment on one of my posts from Henry Peyrebrune, a bassist in the Cleveland Orchestra, whom I know from the Mellon Foundation's Orchestra Forum. I want to thank him for the comment, which was this:Greg - we talk about performance all the time - it's called rehearsal. While it's primarily led by the conductor, there are always side discussions within sections and sections taking time during rehearsal breaks or after rehearsal to go over passages. And - individual players can focus on their own performance … [Read more...]

Two big developments. The Toronto Symphony seems to be finding a young audience. Or that's what a Los Angeles Times story the link takes you to says. Thirty-five percent of the orchestra's audience, we're told, is younger than 35. Which compares to data from past generations, when the classical music audience was no older than the rest of the population. In 1955, for instance, more than half the Minneapolis Symphony audience was under 35. (That orchestra, of course, is now the Minnesota Orchestra.) If the Toronto story really is true, … [Read more...]

Often people say that classical music -- instrumental music -- is abstract, and therefore not easy to understand. Thus, as one commenter said a few days ago, it can't be compared to baseball and movies, which aren't abstract, and therefore are things that people can readily understand. To understand classical music, by contrast, takes education. And preparation.But I don't think this is true. Here's a response I wrote to that comment, edited slightly to make it more understandable as an independent blog post:I think that in past generations … [Read more...]

I'm preparing a post about the culture of orchestras, one that I fear some people won't like. Orchestral musicians, especially. Which will be ironic, if true, because they're the ones who know best that what i'll be saying is true. So there's a teaser. To prepare for that post, I want to share something one of my Juilliard students wrote this past semester, which I'm quoting with her permission. I'd asked the class (in a takehome exam) to react to a blog post by Jade Simmons, a pianist who's on a crusade to help classical musicians be more … [Read more...]

Thanks, everyone, for all the comments on my recent posts, including those that disagree with me. I've responded to some, by commenting directly on the comments. So I won't address anything in detail here in the blog. But there are two threads, two motifs, in the comments that I think are worth mentioning.      Sports are simpleFirst -- because I said that sports fans know far more about how their team plays than classical music fans know about how orchestras play -- comes the notion that my comparison isn't valid, … [Read more...]

Just a little bagatelle, as a diversion...A few weeks ago, I saw the Kennedy Center's production of Follies, the great but difficult Stephen Sondheim show, a cult item among musicals if ever there was one. Not the world's most successful effort, the Kennedy Center show (though it's coming to Broadway). But it sent me back to the recording of the truly great live New York Philharmonic concert production of Follies, which happened in 1985. And which had as someone in the biz just observed on Facebook, had the most electric audience he'd ever … [Read more...]

And now we get to the hard stuff. The questions that truly are difficult.Here's the first of them. Why -- given what I've said in my previous posts -- aren't orchestras subject (in public, or even very much in private) to detailed comparisons, revealing how well they play? I think there are four reasons. First: it would be hard to do anything with the information these comparisons would supply. Suppose you're on the board of an orchestra, and now -- because, magically, comparisons came your way -- you can't doubt that your … [Read more...]

Continuing from my previous post, about applying criteria to measure how well orchestras play...Why should it matter, to measure orchestra quality in such detail?Because, to begin with, we for the most part discuss how well orchestras play only in the most general way. We have an idea, let's say, that Cleveland (or at least this used to be the belief) stands above most American orchestra. Or that Berlin might be the best orchestra in the world. But what exactly do we mean by that? Or we think that San Francisco, under MTT, stands very … [Read more...]

[Forgot the links when I first posted this. Sorry!]In previous posts:How well, I asked, do our orchestras play? In my first post about that, I said that I thought this subject is -- to say the least -- curiously muted inside the orchestra world, and not adequately discussed in public outside it. I got some pushback on that (no surprise), which I'll address next week (though some of what I say in this post might clarify what I meant). And then, in a post Wednesday, I offered four criteria for judging how well an orchestra … [Read more...]

The story so far: In an interview with The Australian, about the Philadelphia bankruptcy, I said that -- just possibly -- a new orchestra with eager young musicians might surprise everyone by playing with more fire than an established group. This caused some commotion (as I noted in a post), and I thought I might talk more broadly about what I think is a difficult topic: how well orchestras play. So I started with a post about how this topic, rather strangely, I thought, isn't often discussed.  So now to continue. Maybe after this post, … [Read more...]

How well do orchestras play? That's a question I raised, implicitly, by asking whether a new, young orchestra might surprise us with some edge-of-the-seat commitment. Playing better, in some crucial ways, than the big established orchestras. But that's a long discussion, which -- at bottom --  invokes a larger question. How good, overall, are classical music performances these days? In my recent talk to graduating students at New England Conservatory, you'll find me urging them to play with more heart-melting passion, more edge of the … [Read more...]

I've had some urgent personal business, and couldn't immediately respond when Dixon -- the cartoonist at Adaptistration -- so wonderfully lampooned me. Adaptistration, as people in the business know, is Drew McManus's enterprising blog about the orchestra business. Enterprising enough, in fact, to have a cartoonist, and here's what Dixon did to me (follow the link for the original):I don't think I've ever been caricatured before. And, quite honestly, I wouldn't have thought I was well enough known to caricature. So I'm really quite … [Read more...]

Here's the cover of Soap Opera Weekly (captured with my iPhone), screaming in rage about the news that two iconic soaps were cancelled. Didn't matter that people weren't watching, that ratings for soaps have been sinking for a while. No, the cancellations were an outrage. Appalling. Irresponsible. We want our soaps!Am I the only one who might see an echo here of what we in the classical music world have been known to do, when (let's say) public radio cuts back on classical broadcasts? We're outraged! How dare they?And, often enough, we bypass … [Read more...]