Mark Likes Music

As a guest blogger on the Cross-Eyed Pianist , Simon Brackenborough argues that programming composers like Arnold Bax, half-lost to history but still with passionate advocates, will invigorate concert music and attract new audiences: It’s not about whether enough people will like Bax. But by confidently confronting the question of why he produces both obsessive fans and sniffy detractors, you have exactly the opportunity to engage people that the Proms should have seized with both hands. Disagreement, after all, is a sign that an art form matters: a repertoire of limited risk is a repertoire of limited relevance. The industry will be in a healthier place when concert-goers are less sure that they will enjoy the experience, but are willing to pay to find out. I'm not sure we should promote concerts with the slogan, You May Not Enjoy This: Pay to Find Out, but I do agree that there is great value in putting "masterworks"--pieces we hear all the time, season in and season...

In June,  the board of the Hartford Symphony approved cutting the orchestra's budget by 20% , from $2.5 million to $2 million, as the administration begins negotiating a new contract with the musicians, talks that promise to be contentious. Writing on the WNPR website, Steve Metcalf argues that saving Hartford's orchestra does not mean resorting to performing more pops concerts, as he claims is the direction proposed by CEO David Fay, but by remembering that the primary purpose of the orchestra is to perpetuate the canon: The pesky underlying issue here is that a great professional orchestra exists to play the great orchestral repertoire – both modern and vintage – at the highest possible artistic level. Yes, of course, pops concerts can be fun, and can furnish a nice little ancillary zone of activity and outreach. And sure, maybe there is an additional stream of revenue to be had from backing up, you know, aging rock groups or video-game soundtrack nights or occasionally a...

From Mark Swed's review of Yuja Wang's performance at the Hollywood Bowl last Tuesday:  Dressed in a strapless, snug, sparkling gown with a black zipper down her back Tuesday night, Yuja Wang has clearly become the belle of the Bowl. Ever since her Hollywood Bowl debut four years ago wearing a short skirt that became a fashion statement, in classical music circles at any rate, audiences expect that the 28-year-old Chinese pianist will be a dazzling presence the moment she walks on stage. Hi-def Bowl monitors help. F rom his 2011 review of Yuja Wang with the Los Angeles Philharmonic : Her dress Tuesday was so short and tight that had there been any less of it, the Bowl might have been forced to restrict admission to any music lover under 18 not accompanied by an adult. Had her heels been any higher, walking, to say nothing of her sensitive pedaling, would have been unfeasible. The infernal helicopters that brazenly buzz the Bowl seemed, on this night, like long-necked p...

On the Neoclassical blog, Chattanooga Symphony Orchestra concertmaster Holly Mulcahy gives us her two cents on why orchestras can't seem to get their communities excited about what they do : Having a logo and concise website is a good start, but ultimately it’s a narrative, a story, that has the most power to capture attention and hearts. ... As orchestras try to share what they can about education, entertainment, and culture, the huge thing lacking is a story arc and tension to draw people in.  For Mulcahy, it's all about finding a more compelling way to tell the story, which is true, but orchestras also have to remember that they're writing non-fiction. How many orchestras have adapted their mission and strategies in a way that will help make the yarn they spin compelling? Orchestras still program music, pick their soloists and music directors, and cultivate donors under the tired, threadbare, unsubstantiated assumption that their music has some inherent high-culture ...