Welcome to the 2006-07 Season! by Music Director Michael Christie
Welcome to the 2006/2007 season of the Phoenix Symphony. I hope everyone reading this blog had a restful summer.
I spent the summer with the Colorado Music Festival for the sixth year as Music Director. Afterward it was straight to the local U-Haul office to pick up a truck to move from Boulder to Phoenix. My wife, Alexis and I have been slowly acquiring furniture and learning about how not to kill the cacti in our yard. I’ve only lived in townhouses to this point; single-family home ownership is a different ball of wax!
In the meantime the Phoenix Symphony welcomed its new General Manager, Jay Good. Jay comes to us from the New York Philharmonic and has already brought a great deal of energy and savvy to the front office.
This season we introduce a couple of new features to our typical offerings. 3 composers have been chosen as this season’s Composer Spotlight. The idea is to give our patrons the opportunity to know more about the composers we play and help build a sense of expectation about how their music sounds and what impacted their compositional style. It is my hope that in future seasons when one sees Shostakovich on a program for example the response won’t be “well, it isn’t Beethoven, I’m not coming” instead “his music is politically charged, full of underlying meaning and the way he uses the orchestra is very exciting.” This isn’t a music history lesson but we will certainly be offering many different ways for you to experience the composers.
You will notice that we have the orchestra enter together at the top of the concert. I wish to keep the performance of the music as the central focus of the concert and I have the feeling that having the orchestra on stage while I talk is distracting for you and for them. Secondly, I think it is particularly nice to see the orchestra come out and receive applause for the artists they are.
The use of television screens to enhance the concert going experience has also been streamlined. Obviously our efforts at the end of last season were experimental in nature and we have implemented a phased approach for the coming couple of seasons. For at least the first half of this season we will use the screens to pass on valuable information about upcoming concerts, development activities as well as “Did you know…” in our Composer Narrative series and the numbers for Keeping Score. As the funds and equipment become available we will add more features. You can expect that they will be used in our presentation of Hansel and Gretel as well as the Holst Planets in January.
I certainly hope you will enjoy the variety and scope of music we are playing this season. So far the orchestra is really enjoying some challenging new music as well as getting to know familiar favorites with a different perspective, as one would expect with a new Music Director. If ticket sales are any indication the message is getting out and the response is looking very good.
-Michael Christie
I spent the summer with the Colorado Music Festival for the sixth year as Music Director. Afterward it was straight to the local U-Haul office to pick up a truck to move from Boulder to Phoenix. My wife, Alexis and I have been slowly acquiring furniture and learning about how not to kill the cacti in our yard. I’ve only lived in townhouses to this point; single-family home ownership is a different ball of wax!
In the meantime the Phoenix Symphony welcomed its new General Manager, Jay Good. Jay comes to us from the New York Philharmonic and has already brought a great deal of energy and savvy to the front office.
This season we introduce a couple of new features to our typical offerings. 3 composers have been chosen as this season’s Composer Spotlight. The idea is to give our patrons the opportunity to know more about the composers we play and help build a sense of expectation about how their music sounds and what impacted their compositional style. It is my hope that in future seasons when one sees Shostakovich on a program for example the response won’t be “well, it isn’t Beethoven, I’m not coming” instead “his music is politically charged, full of underlying meaning and the way he uses the orchestra is very exciting.” This isn’t a music history lesson but we will certainly be offering many different ways for you to experience the composers.
You will notice that we have the orchestra enter together at the top of the concert. I wish to keep the performance of the music as the central focus of the concert and I have the feeling that having the orchestra on stage while I talk is distracting for you and for them. Secondly, I think it is particularly nice to see the orchestra come out and receive applause for the artists they are.
The use of television screens to enhance the concert going experience has also been streamlined. Obviously our efforts at the end of last season were experimental in nature and we have implemented a phased approach for the coming couple of seasons. For at least the first half of this season we will use the screens to pass on valuable information about upcoming concerts, development activities as well as “Did you know…” in our Composer Narrative series and the numbers for Keeping Score. As the funds and equipment become available we will add more features. You can expect that they will be used in our presentation of Hansel and Gretel as well as the Holst Planets in January.
I certainly hope you will enjoy the variety and scope of music we are playing this season. So far the orchestra is really enjoying some challenging new music as well as getting to know familiar favorites with a different perspective, as one would expect with a new Music Director. If ticket sales are any indication the message is getting out and the response is looking very good.
-Michael Christie
32 Comments:
I have these observations about the 9/14/06 opening Classics concert. The pre-concert chats returned, on this occasion with composer Christopher Rouse as guest. Then, before the concert began, Michael Christie offered 10-minutes’ worth of snippets about each of the three composers featured on the program and during the coming season. Nothing he said about Shostakovich or Beethoven would have been a surprise to any regular listener to classical music, and he offered no insights not found in the always excellent program notes by Orrin Howard.
Then the music began, accompanied by Keeping Score. During the intermission we again had Intermission Insights, with another appearance by Christopher Rouse. (Many thanks to whoever decided to quit piping the intermission sound into the lobby areas and restrooms!)
Am I the only one who finds this all-out attempt to educate the audience to be overkill? If I had wanted a musical education, I would have signed up for a music-appreciation course. Instead, I bought a subscription to the Phoenix Symphony, expecting to hear great music, lovingly played. Anything else, in my view, is a distraction, and all distractions ought to be structured so that they are optional. Mr. Christie’s pre-concert remarks were the hardest (impossible) to ignore, and he didn’t explain the most mysterious (to me) factors. Why did he choose these specific composers? Do they or their music have some relationship, knowledge of which would enhance my appreciation of the music? Why did he choose three “funereal” and angry compositions for this program, instead of more joyous compositions to open a new season of music-making? (I admit to having the perhaps irreverent thought that it would have been nice if one of the three had been Johann Strauss Jr., to lighten things up a bit.)
I suppose that I should be grateful that the Thursday Classics audience is not being subjected to additional distractions, but after a disappointing opening concert it’s hard to be grateful.
Grayce
Welcome to you and Alex too. And many good wishes for your settling into your new home - plus cactuses.
Your new seating/arrival arrangement for the orchestra seems to work well. I miss seeing the violas, but you are right. It sounds better this way. And having them enter together at the top of the program makes good sense.
My only remaining gripe is the way the TV screens, the flowers, and the flags are all bunched at the sides of that beautiful atrium stage. Would it work better to have the flowers first, then TVs, then flags?
See what happens when you let us comment?
I'll be sure the production staff reads your entry about the placement of the "extras". Comment away, that's what this forum is about!
I'm glad Sonny the Cat is so keen about the Composer Narratives and I am particularly pleased that the Rouse performance on Saturday will not be a first hearing for you.
Just returned from the Beethovan Eroica Concert (9-16-06). I am a huge fan of classical music and concerts with decades of attendance. While my husband (himself an accomplished violinist), and I have had some memorable concerts here in Phoenix the past four years,I do have three things that would enhance and improve the concert experience.
1) Please ditch the fake flowers! This just isn't acceptable. Have either REAL flowers, or NO flowers. I am confident that various Phoenix florists would provide (3) free arrangements for each weekend if a half page insert thanking them for the flowers were put in the programs. After attending countless concerts, this is the first time I've seen (including very modest productions), real flowers not used. Fake is tacky.
2) In the opening comments regarding the pieces, please refrain from including disturbing stories such as the Shostakovich one, (pianist being raped). This was a disturbing image that haunted my enjoyment the rest of the evening. History is great minus descriptive tragedies.
3) And last but not least, for the future, please do not force feed your dedicated concertgoers into listening to contemporary,hostile music such as the Rouse number. Even Michael Christie seemed to know it was out there when he spent the intermission with the composer convincing the audience that Rouse has other works that are more enjoyable to the ear. I would suggest respectfully, to please group those contemporary works together and let all of their fans go and enjoy a whole night of THAT stuff. As for me, the Rouse work gave me a headache and made my blood pressure rise. Any effort at listening with an open mind was blared away by the blasts and it was an exercise in patience to endure it through.
Thanks for all the hard work you all do. We are looking forward to our 18 concerts we have tickets for. :)
I liked the Shostakovich piece and, not surprisingly, thoroughly enjoyed the experience of the performance of Beethoven's Third Symphony. The orchestra and your direction were superb.
On the other hand I totally detested the Rouse piece. In my opinion, it was extremely cacophonous. It was such an ugly and excessively noisy experience that I needed to put ear plugs in my ears. I have been attending classical music concerts in different cities for well over 50 years and this is the first time that I had to resort to ear plugs because a piece of "music" was so offensive to my senses.
I understand that you are exposing the audience to different kinds of music and that is a legitimate exercise of your teaching function. I also realize that many who read my comments will not agree with me, and they are certainly justified in doing so. I would appreciate it if you could position future performances of Rouse and Rouse-like pieces at the beginning or the end of the program so that I could attend that part of a concert that would be an enjoyable and memorable experience. I certainly don't want to deprive other individuals, who like music such as Rouse's, of listening to it.
One final comment, I hope that you will not offer even more contemporary and less 19th and 18th century in future years.
I am a newcomer to the ASO, having moved here from Ann Arbor, by way of Chicago. I used to here Solti and Barnboim/CSO so we'll see how goes the ASO.
If you are still collecting 'votes' I too would prefer to ditch the flowers and the 'numbers'.
Must be quite a challenge for you - to bring in new customers yet not loose the old ones.
Well, good luck to you/ASO.
Only complaint is 'no Mahler" in the season? That's not good!
Aha Mr. Music Director -- now I understand. I guess I hadnt really heard all the vehement protests about contemporary music and wondered why we - the Arizona concert goers - didnt get more of it. So thanks again.
Im glad you are playing some Rouse and have told everyone I know to come out and listen. (Many of our friends stayed away because past Symphony Maestros were NOT playing contemporary music and the sound in the old Symphony Hall was so dead dead dead.)
But fake flowers? Are they really? It never occurred to me.
I can assure you whether they are fake or not the concerns about the flowers will be passed along to the appropriate staff member. I couldn't tell you whether they are one or the other.
I don't think any of you that are reading this will be surprised to know that there many people who are intrigued by the concert enhancements. They tell us that they see them as a viable option to give those who are interested in an opportunity to grow into their own level of comfort with symphonic concerts a point of reference.
I have to say from my perspective I find it disturbing to see a trend from some suggesting that their concert going routine is the best one. The sooner we get past the idea that we have to hold on tight to some special knowledge or that people who don't have the background or the time to get the information should be left to fend for themselves the better off the industry will be.
I can appreciate that change causes anxiety but I challenge the more erudite among you to see more forest and less trees.
Michael Christie said, "I have to say from my perspective I find it disturbing to see a trend from some suggesting that their concert going routine is the best one. The sooner we get past the idea that we have to hold on tight to some special knowledge or that people who don't have the background or the time to get the information should be left to fend for themselves the better off the industry will be."
Excuse me, but I thought the point of this blog was to solicit comments. If you don't want us to express negative opinions or you don't want to consider those opinions to be valuable, then you should turn off the blog. Our points of view are, I believe, just as valid as yours.
Further, I think that most negative opinions so far have had two themes: a) not everyone liked the Rouse composition, which is surely their prerogative, and some suggested that you ought to program less "new" music; and b) not everyone likes to be force-fed information about the music. The latter doesn't mean don't provide information; it simply means make it optional. The pre-concert chats are an excellent example of how to present information; some concert-goers attend; others choose not to (or perhaps can't easily do so). Program notes are optional; we can read or ignore them. Keeping Score is optional; we can read along (or read ahead) or not. When you move from optional to integrating remarks into the concert itself is where the disagreement arises. I believe these are valid disagreements, and should be accepted as such.
Grayce
I find myself agreeing with Michael regarding the concertgoing routine. While I agree that differing opinions should be posted here and should definitely be taken into consideration, I have always disliked the notion that "people can go find their own information if they really want to know", as well as the "let's leave out the unpleasant parts of history" point of view. I personally found the comments prior to the previous concert helpful, even though the facts imparted were disturbing. They gave me something else to consider when listening, particularly to the Shostakovich piece. Human beings are quite honestly the meanest, most cold-hearted, superior from a do-anything-it-takes-to-survive predator that this Earth has ever seen, and I think that members of the species would do well to remember that fact. If the notion sickens you, then that is good and it says something good about you as a person! But savagery is part of our nature and I found it useful to be reminded of that prior to the Shostakovich piece. A unique, special, and insightful people, these Russians.
By the same token, the remarks did seem to run a bit long. I wonder if brief remarks prior to the first half and additional remarks prior to the second half would have made for a smoother and less obtrusive feel.
On the subject of the Rouse piece, I personally did not care for the piece as a whole, but I am not disappointed that I heard it. I don't generally identify with the overly cacophonous view of rage, but I certainly appreciated several aspects of the piece. Is it something that I would go out and buy, and then put the CD in to listen to on the way to work? No. But I am not unhappy that I experienced it. Neither do I have any desire to hear it again. However, there were elements of the piece that were intriguing and I have no objection to hearing more of Rouse's work before forming a more distinctive opinion of my feelings toward this particular composer.
I find myself looking forward to learning more about the composers and pieces featured this season, and most importantly I look forward to the musical journey. Bring it on Michael. I need to hear it. See you for the Haydn and Shostakovich 6.
So the Rouse isn't everyone's cup of tea. No one said that you have to like every piece. As alluded by sonny the cat, perhaps you should have gotten up out of your seats and rioted like they did for the Rite of Spring. At least the orchestra would know that you are alive out there and paying attention. This is how music evolves. Rite of Spring is now considered "tame" if you will. Maybe in another 75-100 years the Rouse will be another staple of the orchestral repetoire. Wouldn't that be a cool story for the history books, but instead of Paris it would read Phoenix?!
To sonny the cat re: the seating of the strings - this very common, other orchestras use this frequently. It is my understanding that in the past for various reasons that the PSO did not employ this seating. I personally like having the seconds as a "stereo" feature if you will, and having the bass line (cellos and basses) right beside the section that usually carries the melody in this era of music (Classical era). I think the argument that you lose the sound of the second violins is just an excuse. If my youth orchestra way many years agocould make it work, I think the professionals of the PSO can rise to the challange.
Maestro: Thanks for making yourself available in this way.
You seem intelligently focused on enlarging your audience through innovation and risk taking. Trust me, it won't happen any other way.
Bernstein is a big hero today, but when he first brought new ideas to NYPhil he met considerable hostility and accusations of being a showboating egomaniac. Your preconcert talks may invite that same criticism, but are great ways of exposing concert goers to your unique insights about the music as well as to your warm personality. Both are assets. Keep it up.
Ditto for playing new music.
When I served on the symphony board in the 80's, our main goal was to achieve 'major' status so that we could give the musicians full-time employment. That transition is complete. Now we have to get more and younger bodies in the seats.
A few things you might consider:
A. Joint promotions with our sports teams, e.g. Phoenix Suns night, AZ Cardinals night, etc. Let Steve Nash conduct O Canada. Have the musicians wear jerseys instead of those archaic and uncomfortable tails.
B. Let any kid with a student ID fill the empty seats at all concerts for $2.
C. Have rock and pop (even,ugh, country) musicians as guest artists. We all know that if Mozart were alive today, he'd have a rock group.
D. Make the PSO a statewide orchestra, ala the Arizona Theater Co. Change the name if you have to.
Whatever you do, don't worry about alienating the geezers: we have no place else to go.
Good luck, Bruce Cole
There will be a new listing for this week's concerts in the morning. Meant to have it for today.
Great discussion this week.
To Grayce I would like to say that your comments are very thoughtful and provocative. i enjoy reading them. You'll have to permit me to join in the fray though. Although it is my job at this point to give the blog its jumping off points, comments that I add in the course of the conversation are certainly not meant to be stifling. They may disagree like any one else is entitled to do. Let's keep at it but know that I'm in here to be a participant not the referee.
See you tonight!
We don’t have a new thread for this week’s concerts yet, so I’ll post here. Perhaps someone can move this post later.
I enjoyed the 9/21 concert, especially the Shostakovich 6th. It’s what I call “music you can get your teeth into.” The Stravinsky and Haydn were also very well played; bravi to everyone involved. And the introductory comments at the beginning of the second half were short. : - )
I am still struggling to understand why the focus this season is on Shos., Rouse, and Beethoven. It would help if I knew who Michael Christie and the PSO management envision as new audience members. If the target audience is mainly people who are already familiar with classical music but don’t attend PSO concerts, then I think there are a number of composers – including some late-20th century composers – whose music would be more accessible and more readily accepted, and which would help to entice those people to become repeat attendees.
If, however, the target audience is young people whose experience of music is mainly whatever is popular today (which is a complete mystery to me), then maybe Rouse et al are good choices. I’d surely like to know. (I spent a lot of years in marketing, and one of the things I learned is that if you don’t know who your target audience is, you’re not likely to sell anything to them.)
BTW, I’ll take all the “new” music you can throw at me, as long as it’s balanced with some great classics. I don’t like every piece of new music I’ve heard, but if I don’t hear new works I can’t know if I would like them or not.
Grayce
The Saturday night concert was a complete joy from start to finish. Maestro, keep improving the experience for us all! We were disappointed that there was no review of the Thursday night concert in Sunday's Arizona Republic. Apparently the newspaper management feels there is not enough reader interest. We have complained by e-mail to the paper and hope that all who read this will do the same or telephone, voicing their wish for a concert review each week. Also, the paper's web page for the arts doesn't even mention any classical concerts. We need to let the management of the Arizona Republic know our needs. Please call or write and request better weekly coverage of classical music. The squeaky wheel gets the grease.
I very much enjoyed last night's concert. I was particularly gratified that Maestro Christie offered two 20th century composition that were a pleasure to experience. We thought that Alban Gerhardt gave an excellent performance and urge you to invite him back for another concert.
I frankly think that the stage area looked better with the artificial flowers than with none.
Memo to Maestro Christie: The sound of a well-played cello is among the most beautiful in music. It is regrettable that the cello repertoire is not nearly as extensive as the violin's. Has anyone thought about transposing violin pieces to a form that could be used by the cello in performing those concertos? I would love to hear pieces such as (but not limited to) the Beethoven, Tchaikovsky, Sibelius, Bach and Vivaldi concertos played on the cello. Of particular interest would be hearing the Bach double concerto played by two cellos. Is there any chance that some talented individual in the Phoenix symphony Orchestra could perform this transposition, assuming that there are no legal difficulties involved with doing so?
A brief reply on the blog would be very much appreciated.
Hi Sonny the cat -- Your comments are great. Thanks.
As for your question about how recently Nielsen, Martinu, or Carter have been presented here? -- I do remember hearing Nielsen sometime, but not the others. Does anyone else remember? (Ive been attending for 25 yrs, but Im old, Father Xmas...and dont remember everything.)
And, if you - Sonny etc - are one of the Physicians for The Phoenix Symphony - thanks for that too. I loved the comments by your leader quoting Hippocrates last week before the Gerhardt cello solo. Who knew that water, exercise, and MUSIC were the three vital ingredients? Not I. (Do I have it right? I sort of woke up with a start when he began talking...)
First is a response to an old comment by Sonny the Cat where he talked about "New vs.Old music..." and asked whether an historian...could document in the last 10 years whether Nielsen, Martinu, and Carter had been presented by the Phoenix Symphony.
My memory is that we DID have Nielsen a few years ago, but I dont recall any Martinu or Carter. Can you hum a few bars? Or can someone else remember? I am old, Father Xmas...and may not remember.
On the other subjects -
-- I agree that the Thursday night Classics concert should be reviewed in the AZ Republic. Panning is better than being ignored. If it was reviewed I didnt see it.
-- No flowers on stage is better than fakes. Its a huge space and really an important visual. I could live without those TV screens but do understand and can just blot it out of my side vision.
-- A little explaining is good and Michael is right up there with Lenny: not perfect, but always fascinating. As for whether it should be Thursday, Saturday, or both: we were told before the season began that Thursday would be less talky and more music. Did I get that wrong?
-- Herr Gerhardt and the cello were wonderful. Young and funny with his mellow cello.
Dear Sonny,
The composers I mentioned are no longer alive so they could clearly not authorize transposition. In addition, copyright protection for intellectual property is good for a limited time and not in perpetuity. The length of time that a piece of music is protected would vary among countries.
An attorney specializing in such matters would have to be consulted to obtain a definitive answer regarding whether the transpositions I mentioned could be made, but it is my understanding that copyrights do not last forever.
I suspect that some of the composers you mentioned who have written cello concertos may be those whose music I don't care for. That, however, is due to differences in individual tastes, and you and I are certainly free to decide for ourselves whose music we like most to hear.
Dear Sonny,
We are talking about individual tastes and preferences, and it is reasonable to assume that we should respect each other's subjective values. I happen to like the sound of a cello as a solo instrument very much more than the tuba. I also prefer the music of the composers I mentioned than the ones that you mentioned.
There is no right or wrong here. We are all entitled to our opinions. With Maestro Christie selecting a variety of compositons to play at concerts, there is no reason why we can't all be reasonably satisfied. The point to remember is that we cannot expect to get everything we want in the music offerings of the Phoenix Symphony Orchestra. I certainly would not want to dictate what should be played and I hope that you (especially with your legal background) would also not want to dictate what everyone should hear.
to all the posters on this blog who don't appreciate the new additions to the concert experience I would like to offer a thought. It is common that audiences who cherise the old masters are reluctant to chance anything or at least very little, including musical choices. And a static concert would be fine if there were enough die hard Brahms fans in the valley to fill the seats.That is just not the case. The reality is the empty seats stare back at the symphony every night. Including new ideas, both musical and non musical, into the hall can only be a good thing. M. Christie may not have the answer exactly but at least he is trying. Maybe an imperfect answer is better than pretending there is no problem at all or that the source of the problem is stupid audiences. Maybe those people who find the talks to be too simplistic should be the ones who encourage him the most. He is trying to include the audience in the concert which is a foreign concept to many "maestros." You are the ones who can push the discourse to a higher level. But something has to give and it may get worse before it gets better but the truth is things cannot continue the way they are all over the country for too long.
- A member of the orchestra
To sonny the cat,
Thank you for the response and your concern. I think we need to agree on some language though. I don't believe that the music is the primary problem.I also believe that there are many musics of our day. The ones you have mentioned are doing just fine and except for rare examples don't need us. Classical musicians playing rock music is just a cheap imitation in most instances. I am a huge rock fan and I know we cannot recreate that energy nor should we try. Also those acts are way more expensive than James Galway and other A list soloists.
So that leaves us with other music of our day like Rouse. This is the music we are trained to learn and under good leadership can perform well. Some may argue that if there is little or no audience for Brahms there is none for Rouse. My argument is the Brahms audience generally knows who they are and find their way to supporting our concerts. The Rouse audience does not know it exists yet. I would point to other major arts organizations (ballet, theater, art museums etc) it would be virtually unthinkable for them not to include new works. Look at the appetite that readers have for new works of fiction. Somewhere along the way musicians have lost touch with that crowd. We have to find a way to tap in. I don't believe that piggybacking on pop stars is the way to go. Not because the music is not "real" but because we don't do it well. It is not our music to interpret.
I would like to leave a quote for the departing music critic of the Boston Globe, Richard Dyer. "The whole history of Western music is all there as a resource and an inspiration for the person who wants to discover it and for the composer who wants to use it. But the paramount issue remains: how to make a person want to discover it. In the final analysis that's not a question for the music business or the educator or the media, although they can help or hinder. This remains, as it has always been, the primary challenge for the creator or the interpreter, the composer who creates the message and the performer who delivers it. If the message and the performance are human, compelling, craftsmanlike, and honest, they will reach the public."
Reading the posts so far this season I sense that many, perhaps most, posters are uneasy with the direction the symphony is taking, and I’d like to try to summarize the apparent causes of uneasiness.
First, some of us are not happy with the attempts to provide the audience with additional information about the music, composers, etc. Some of that unhappiness may be due to uneasiness about change in general; some may be due to the specific forms in which the information is being offered: video screens, conductor’s comments before the music, etc.
Second, some of us are not happy about the program choices, and in general the comments indicate unhappiness with “newer” music. Again, some of that unhappiness may be due to the specific compositions being played, such as the Rouse #2, and some of it may be due to a general disinclination to accept unfamiliar music.
However, it seems that most posters agree that there aren’t enough posteriors in seats except when we have a superstar soloist, and that small audiences represent a threat to the symphony’s future. The difficulty, I believe, is that neither Ms. Gleason nor Mr. Christie has articulated a coherent strategy for how they hope to improve this situation. If, for example, they had said that they plan to focus an entire season on “light classics” in hopes of enticing people who don’t care for Mahler, Shostakovich, et al, we might not like or agree with that plan, but at least we would understand what’s going on.
Instead, from the audience perspective, it looks like the symphony is running experiments that are poorly explained and perhaps poorly defined. I suggest that one way to enlist the support of posters like me is to give us a clear plan for enlarging the symphony audience and/or enlarging its donor base. I can then decide if I can support that plan, just live with it, or stay home and play CDs.
BTW, as other posters have noted, this problem is not unique to the Phoenix Symphony, and I am unaware of any orchestra that has hit on a sure-fire solution. The orchestras that are currently the most successful seem to have built programs around charismatic conductors (Osmo Vanska, MTT, James Levine) that are perhaps unique to their specific cities. Clearly if any city had a solution that was both perfect and generally applicable, it would be easy to suggest adopting that solution.
Grayce
Grayce,
I understand your comment about the direction of the symphony leadership. Your point about MG and MC just experimenting may be true; however, the point about there being no sure answer is right on the money. There has never been a time when everyone will be pleased. It seems to be that the plan to fill the hall is playing fresh new works, older less familiar works, and the standards. Playing these works better and more convincingly each time. And to provide the audience with a more comprehensive and inclusive concert experience. I don't think those ideas need to be articuated so much as experienced.
But I am not a PSO official this is just my opinion.
I just sent a comment and tried to preview it, but the message page disappeared and was replaced by a "time out" notice. So, I don't know whether my original comment went through or not. At any rate, I wanted to suggest that the Symphony management look into improving attendance the way the Diamondbacks do by bringing in busloads of people from various organizations in the Valley for each copncert. The cost of the bus is included in the price of the ticket for these groups. We've done it for the ballgames, and it works out very well for everyone. Someone should look into starting a system like this soon to fill all of those empty seats in Symphony Hall. Many first-time concertgoers would return.
Tonight (Friday) we attended our first Pops concert at Symphony Hall. Does anyone else think the orchestra played far too loudly? We hope future concerts will not be so unpleasantly loud. We have season tickets and are a bit afraid of what is to come. Anyone else feel the same way? If so, please tell the orchestra.
Hello Anne, I wonder where you were seated because the only aspects of the performance that were amplified were the singers. The remodeled Symphony Hall does bring out certain sounds more than others but I think this perception is based on where you are seated. Would you consider moving your seats to a different section? The balcony perhaps where I personally find the sound to be much better.
Dear Maestro:
My husband and I sit in Row 1 of the Balcony for the Pops concerts and Row 2 of the Balcony for the classics. This is the first time we have had season tickets. Some time ago a reviewer for the Arizona Republic wrote that he thought the orchestra played too loudly, and I think he was right. We frankly have found the music too loud at times even at the classics concerts, primarily a recent contemporary piece. Maybe you could seat monitors in the empty balcony seats and main floor seats and get independent feedback. We very much appreciate all of your innovations and hope you keep trying new things. We miss the big screen. Your "Keeping Score" is helpful as are other innovations. Thank you for your response to my previous e-mail.
Sonny the Cat quoted Ken LaFave as follows: "since it is the only arts forum in which the new is encouraged, and therefore the only form of art destined to survive" referring to popular culture.
Unless I misunderstand LaFave's comment, he's certainly overstating the situation. Ballet and modern dance regularly introduce new works, even here in Phoenix. Opera companies in the U.S. -- and more so in Europe -- are introducing new works, even though it's horribly expensive to do so, and also "re-discovering" early works like Handel's "Semele" which AZ Opera gave last season. The legitimate theatre of course thrives on new works. All of these non-popular art forms also regularly present classics: sometimes it seems like another "Carmen" or another "Swan Lake" will be one too many, but such great works deserve to be seen and heard.
Why is classical concert music different? That is, why do many audiences have such a hard time with unfamiliar music? And will that difficulty lead to the end of classical music concerts as we know them? I wish I knew the answers, because if I did I would be making a fortune as a consultant to symphony orchestras!
Grayce
Wow, Anne -- Too LOUD! Interesting. Before Symphony Hall was renovated I had trouble hearing the orchestra over the airconditioning (on the main floor). So, I thot the Maestro had a good suggestion. Now what?
Maybe you should wear a mink coat and scarf to soak up some of the sound? Its tough living in the desert....But seriously, you could move around at intermission and find out where you like it best -- there are plenty of seats.
Thursday night was a 3 ring circus of rearrangements and accommodations. But gave out super-sound. Great small group brass,drums and woodwinds (but whatever happened to clarinetist Alex Laing? I miss him.) and a beautiful stage with flags spotlit showing lovely light patterns on the wall. Yummy.
All was fun and interesting, even watching the stage changes was entertaining, but the finale of Beethoven singers and players and piano was to kill for. Fantastic! If R.Levin doesnt knock the piano into the first 3 rows youve got a winner.
Even tho I DO like contemporary music, a little Debussy, Mozart, and Beethoven never hurts. And isnt it fun to have all that vocal sound. How about it Anne, does singing sound good where you are in this hall?
To AZJane: In response to your question, the sound was beautiful in the second row of the balcony for the Saturday night concert. Nothing, including the singers, was too loud. What a stimulating concert! We are concerned about the volume at the Pops concerts, though, since there seems to be a trend to "rock concert" volumes. We don't want to have a premature loss of hearing from loud concerts at Symphony Hall so will be prepared with our earplugs.
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