Free the Piano Player

Commentary Magazine ^ | April 2008 | Terry Teachout

[Liberty Valance]

Don't shoot me. I loved Five Easy Pieces.

[neb52]

I work at night including a second job. I don’t have the time or money to go to a concert. But what would be great would be to view the concert online for a fee($5-$10 per viewing). That way I can view it anytime. Maybe one day I will be back to one job working during the day and can attend more concerts.

[Publius]

Classical music ping.

[Borges]

Classical Music Ping

[Borges]

It is now widely acknowledged that classical music in America is in dire, even desperate straits. Critics, commentators, and managers have noted with alarm that concert audiences are aging steadily and that people under fifty seem disinclined either to attend classical-music events or to support the organizations that present them.

They have been saying this for 50 years. I go to concerts all the time and see young people there all the time. If anything Classical is more popular now that there is no singular pop music monolith dominating the culture. This is an outdoor concert by the Helena Symphony, in Montana. The population of Helena is 30,000; it would appear that about half that number were in attendance.

[mylife]

I havent been to a concert in a very long time, but there were always a lot of young couples.

[MeekMom]

good idea. I’d do the same.

[Borges]

A lot of concerts have rush seats for as little as 10 dollars.

[Misterioso]

Viewing a concert online isn't really much different than listening to the recording. It never will replace live performance. Live music in a proper setting is beyond reproduction and will not disappear as long as the music is enjoyable. Music (classical and jazz) must be attractive to great numbers of people if it is to survive on the stage. Some of what is performed today is either ugly or boring and I think that music is becoming less intelligible to the public. Instead, enjoying a classical concert should be a thrill, not a chore.

[Borges]

The postwar avant-garde set out to suck all vestiges of personality or national character out of music. IT was a reaction to music being used as a propaganda tool by the Nazis. They wanted to create music that couldn’t be co-opted by for propaganda. But the resultant music drove a lot of people away.

[Misterioso]

Can you give a reference for this idea? I hadn’t heard of a conspiracy of this type.

[MinuteGal]

Ah, so many of those old 20's and 30's recordings I want to hear....so little time to do so.

I really must put my mind to it and start writing down a liszt of what I want to buy. I'm chopin' at the bit to get started.

Thanks for this article of critique....it triggered my little grieg cells to begin planning for a musical shopping expedition.

Leni

[jammer]

I just read After the Golden Age: Romantic Pianism and Modern Performance last month and it is an eye-opener. Highly recommended.

[aristotleman]

True. On the other hand, if classical music concerts keep the model of conservation of the old and the rejection of the new, they will only attract the older crowd. There's a sub-genre of music being written now that appeals to the younger people. It hasn't reached the large halls so much though.

[Borges]

There was nothing conspiratorial about it. People like Boulez and Stockhausen wrote articles about their music. In Germany there is still suspicion by contemporary composers of new music that uses triads or any sort of repitition.

Read Alex Ross' recent book about 20th century music 'The Rest is Noise' It really stretched back to German Expressionists wanting to throw a rock at the decaying 'Cult of Beauty' that the Viennese cultivated.

[Misterioso]

Thanks. I’m on my way to Amazon.

[garyhope]

The entire world culture is being dumbed down and coarsened down to please and appease illiterate morons and idiots.

Nobody wants to work and think about much of anything that takes time and concentration.

Thank you rap music.

[billorites]

One of my favorite music books, one that really broadened my appreciation for the piano repertoire, was Harold Schonberg's The Great Pianists.

It turned me on to Busoni and I'll always be grateful for that.

[Borges]

I have that one and enjoy it quite a bit. Condi Rice has said that Schonberg’s ‘Lives of the Great Composers’ was her favorite book as a child.