Greg Sandow on the future of classical music

Last night (Thursday, 5/27) was the first test of this device that I've been part of, a test we did with the New York Philharmonic. The Concert Companion is the heldheld PDA that audiences may, in the future, be able to rent from orchestras, or might get free with special ticket deals. It gives real-time program notes, that change with the music -- ongoing descriptions of whatever you're hearing at a given moment. I wrote the text for this test, which involved Stravinsky's Petrushka, and Ives's Three Places in New England. After the concert, … [Read more...]

I'm sure we all saw the front page story in The New York Times about the Metropolitan Opera orchestra and James Levine -- about how some of the musicians think Levine can't cut it any more. In reaction, two prominent New York critics defended Levine. But in the flurry -- "He conducts as well as he ever did!" "He's lost it!" -- that naturally followed the Times piece, I think we lost one crucial part of what's going on. Even if the complaining musicians aren't right, the mere fact that they're complaining -- and, above all, that they were … [Read more...]

Out of the blue, unsolicited, from Matthew Burns in Los Angeles, came this marvelous comment on the LA Philharmonic's performance of music from the videogame Final Fantasy. I hope everybody takes it seriously, and reads to the end, for Matthew's answers to a couple of questions I asked him:  So how many standing ovations do you think a modern - as in still living - composer of orchestral music could get in one night? The answer, as I saw it the other evening at the first live concert of video game music in the United States, is upwards … [Read more...]

Note the following, from a Pittsburgh Post-Gazette story by Andrew Druckenbrod, about the Pittsburgh Symphony and its new head, Larry Tamburri: Publicly, the new CEO of the Pittsburgh Symphony Orchestra is a laconic leader. Privately, however, he has spent his first four months on the job in nonstop conversations within and without the organization."Meeting the community has been very important because the Symphony is a community institution," Larry Tamburri said. "I have been out in the arts, business, political and religious communities to … [Read more...]

Can't quite believe that it's been a month since I blogged, but…my schedule, like Crazy Eddie's prices (for those who remember those long-ago, screaming TV ads), has been totally insane. And it's all blog-related, all involved with projects that touch on the future of classical music, including my Pittsburgh concert series (for that elusive new classical audience), the Concert Companion (program notes that describe orchestra music in real-time, as the music changes), my Juilliard course (about the future of classical music), and, almost back to … [Read more...]

Last night (Saturday) I went to hear Götterdämmerung at the Met. When Levine came out to conduct, the crowd gave him the largest, warmest ovation I think I've ever heard for a conductor at the start of an opera. Now, maybe they were so friendly because it was the last night of the season, or because it was the last night of the last Ring cycle (certainly many people there were hearing all four operas, and for them Levine's appearance at the start wasn't the beginning of something new, but the continuation of something wonderful). But I'd … [Read more...]

One thing to clarify (as I prepare a post on what might be the worst press release I've ever seen): Publicists don't do their most important work with press releases. They do it with direct contact -- phone calls to members of the media, lunches with them, e-mail, all building personal relationships that, over time, develop trust. So if a trusted publicist pitches a story, the writer or editor on the receiving end will know the pitch might be worthwhile. The best publicists, in fact, are those who never pitch a story unless they really know the … [Read more...]

I'm sure some people are laughing at the 24-hour prolongation of Beethoven's Ninth, as wonderfully described in a New York Times story linked on ArtsJournal today. But don't laugh at something you haven't heard. Instead, listen to it, here. Or listen to some of it, since, realistically, most of us don't have 24 hours to spare. Listen through headphones, if you can, and just let the sound flow over you. It's a wonderful adventure, almost like (because it microscopically examines something familiar, and does it with immediate physicality) … [Read more...]

The Boston Philharmonic -- thanks to its amazing conductor, Benjamin Zander -- has almost a cult following. I haven't heard them live, but their CDs suggest a depth of committment, almost a deeper level of truth, than we usually hear. And they certainly know how to write about music. Here, from their website, is a description of a program they're playing on April 29, May 1, and May 2. I've been complaining about how badly the classical music world talks about its art. This shows a better way: THE AMBIGUITY OF ADULT LIFE Of all Mahler's … [Read more...]

From a music review in The New York Times: The program, part of the Cooper Arts series, offered exactly the kind of cerebral contemporary music that is supposed to be frightening off potential new concertgoers. Yet the audience at the Great Hall was noticeable for the number of enthusiastic young people, shaggy-haired listeners in jeans who responded to the charismatic Alan Feinberg's electrifying performance of Charles Wuorinen's Third Piano Sonata, an uncompromising 12-tone work by one of the brainiest composers around, with shouts of … [Read more...]

I've gotten lots of e-mail about press releases, most of which -- including one message from the executive director of a notable orchestra -- agrees with me. (Forgive me if you've written, and I haven't answered yet.) Though one major orchestra publicist felt just a bit "offended." Some people raised an important point, that the materials -- biographies and photos -- that publicists get from artists and their managers aren't any good. That's true (and in fact I've been hearing that complaint for years). I'm going to address it; I've got a … [Read more...]

Some weeks back I commented -- maybe just a little brattily -- on the Fat Matter. Which provoked this, from a very fine professional in the vocal music world: I actually agree with what you wrote about the "fat issue" though I don't think the Planet Debbie should have been bought out or let go from that production of Ariadne. The friggin' costume could have been modified. That's just fairness and non-discrimination. This was not a new production, after all. The whole thing was avoidable, and I think Covent Garden handled it shamefully--now … [Read more...]

Many reasons for not blogging lately. One of them is an enterprising idea called the Concert Companion, which has gotten lots of intermittent press. The Companion is a handheld device -- a Palm PDA, or a Pocket PC -- that displays program notes cued to music. (They're broadcast to the device via a simple WiFi network, the kind of wireless hookup many of us, me included, have in our homes.) The Companion been tested at a couple of orchestra concerts, in Aspen and at the Philadelphia Orchestra's summer season at Saratoga; it'll soon be … [Read more...]

My wife and I were coming home on the bus from Lincoln Center (we'd been to the movies, for once, at a theater near there, not to a concert). On the bus were people immediately identifiable as a concert/opera crowd, and we overheard one couple saying that whatever they'd come from was the best thing they'd seen in 30 years. We couldn't restrain our curiosity. What was that? we asked them. Salome at the Met, they answered, and even as we'd asked the question, we'd guessed the response. Nothing else at Lincoln Center has evoked that much … [Read more...]

Here's a press release from a major classical music publicity firm: S U S A N  G R A H A M  S I N G S  A T  Z A N K E L  H A L L Well, stop the presses! Susan Graham, a singer, is going to sing! Who knew? And here I thought that she was going to tap dance. Again we have a headline that doesn't tell us anything. Or, anyway, doesn't tell us enough, because, just maybe, the fact that Graham will sing at Zankel might be news. Zankel is Carnegie Hall's spiffy and artistic new performing space. The season there has … [Read more...]