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I am a symphony musician and I agree! My concerts get LONGER and LONGER--we never get out of the hall before 10 PM! Shorter concerts are a good start, but better programming would do wonders. My main orchestra is so stale--the conductor never programs new work. BORING!
Our audience is so blue/grey it's a wonder we even survive.

"the conductor never programs new work. BORING!"

Apart from poor acoustics at many concert sites, I find the need of my local conductors to do so many contemporary works so unpalatable that I no longer attend. I love my classical CDs and my classical FM stations, and I do attend the occasional local chamber group, but find most orchestral performances less than memorable. I was spoiled in my student years by hearing Sir John Barbarolli and the Halle frequently.

I used to perform with various community groups, some of them quite good. My main complaint (that I kept to myself) was that there seemed to be a lot of music on the schedule that only a very small percentage of elite die hards would enjoy. Most folks don't want to pay forty bucks to hear a performance in which half of the concert is comprised of atonal, experimental contemporary music and other odd stuff.

I have always had the belief that music is one of the most uplifting forces invented by man. I love attending concerts which keep the audiences interested and engaged in the art as it happens on stage. You simply cannot lose with the music of Mozart, Beethoven, Brahams, Tchaikovsky, Mendelssohn, Rachmaninoff, Dvorak, and Copland. I am skipping some, I know.

Want to mix things up? Have a chamber music night. Do a vocal work -- The Brahams German Requiem for example -- Have talented soloists lined up for performances, play more pops concerts and lighter music of the Strauss family, for example. Perform a suite from a ballet (there are a lot of wonderful works out there that go without being performed, but I think are accessible to an audience. Occasionally do a Mahler symphony.

There are many ways to keep an orchestra's season interesting, exciting, and uplifting. But a focus on challenging audiences with music the orchestra itself struggles to comprehend loses every time.

Hardly anyone gets excited about a concert in which the most accessible piece is the Bartok Concerto for Orchestra.

I've ranted enough. I realize tastes in music vary greatly, but I really believe a great performance of the classics never loses. There will always be an audience for Beethoven symphonies as well as lighter fare.

Tex Chrsytal, hi there, I played cello in the Austin Symphony for 11 years, started while still in high school and stopped doing that ~15 years ago. Which orchestra/what instrument do you play? I studied with Phyllis Young and Paul Olefsky at UT Austin, had offers/interest to do a Masters at a top school but decided against it as I'd already started doing computer work, was married, and decided I did not want to have the nights/weekend work hours of a musician because we wanted to have a normal family life.

I agree with what the pianist from Julliard (Cosmo) wrote in his post, the quality of playing at the highest levels has gone downhill. Rostropovich, Heifitz, Horowitz, Michael Rabin, Ashkenazy, these were all-time greats IMO.

The best we have today is Yo-Yo Ma, and he is most focused on maximizing his marketing potential rather than elevating his playing to the highest echelon of classical performance. Given his success at doing so I don't really blame him, but he pays a price for that. His Bach Suites recordings are his best, but I think his major concerto recordings regularly show some strange interpretations/liberties. Technically very strong (as long as I don't hear him snorting), but I often find passages in his concerto recordings to be off the mark. Just my opinion.

I believe that there are likely several players today who could be known as all-time great soloists, but for various reasons do not choose to do a solo career. For instance, I knew John Sharp when we were growing up together here in Texas. He beat me out for the first chair spot in our All-State orchestra more than once, but I'm over that, really... :) We later were both in a music festival in Manchester, Vermont in 1979 or 80, I forget, and I heard him do some concerts there that were absolutely perfect. Seriously, just perfect. REALLY deeply moving, flawless, effortless, music from God kinda' stuff, but that's all. Shortly after that he got 3rd prize in the Tchaikovsky competition, then became principal cellist in Cincinatti from 83-86, went to play in the orchestra at the Met for one year, and then won the principal cellist in the Chicago Symphony at the ripe old age of 27. He's still there today. John is pulling down some serious coin, gets to do solos with various orchestras when he decides he wants to, and is playing on a 1690-something Guanarius cello (I think his cellos are better than Strads). He is married with 2 kiddos - what reason would he have to do a solo career? But if did decide to do that and devoted himself to it I have NO doubt he would be considered an all-time great.

And there's the rub - in our society today there is no motivation/need for somebody to totally devote their lives to playing their instruments at the highest level. I simply think those days are gone forever.

Which sort of brings me back to the original post - our entertainment options today are so enjoyable that concert attendance is going to continue to suffer. But I think people will always want to hear live performances of the great orchestral works, because there is simply nothing like it. I don't think technology will ever truly replicate the sound of a live performance, and even if it did I don't think orchestra performances would go away. You see, concerts are a two-way street. The audience responds to the players, and conversely they inspire the orchestra (in some cases...). I always enjoyed concerts in the park more than when we played in the hall because you can sense that people go to the parks concerts to just relax and have a good time (plus they are more comfortable), whereas I felt that in the hall there were many there who were just listening for a wrong note/mistake. Because of the better atmosphere the orchestra often played more enthusiastically in the parks concerts - there were often a few more mistakes because everybody was so relaxed, but nobody cared. Live music involves human interaction, and technology can never replace that.