[...]The administrative rules' stuff makes it nowadays difficult. Only one minute exceeding the time-limit determined for the orchestra, and somebody of the pay-office will have to pay a whole fortune for the extra-minutes!It seems the establishment doesn't like uncontrolled increase of people's interest in classical music. In America, it's even worse, at many points. Not long ago I guested with Prokofiev's first violin-concerto at the West Coast. It was only a short concert, but my performance seems to have been successful. The audience applauded, and even the orchestra joined in the applause, and an encore was demanded by the audience.Since I was called onto the stage again and again, I gave a short encore, by which obviously, as a positve effect, the evening was even better "filled" and the demands for "more" at least could be met to a certain degree.But the next day, my American agent, who had been attendant at the concert, sent the following Fax to John (i.e.: John Stanley, Kennedy's manager. He wrote the preface of the autobiography, too.) :Quote from: Fax"You surely have heard about Nigel having been unbelievably successful in San Francisco. Orchestra and audience really were enraptured! / really loved him! ...But I still want to inform you that Nigel gave an encore on the evening I was attendant, and the next one two. In the bigger orchestras of the USA people don't like these actions very much. The audience, of course, was enthusiastic, but administrative management's department didn't like that at all.You should talk to Nigel about that before the New York concert. If it happened in New York again, it would be a very bad nonconformance / mistake."It seems I had been terribly wrong.It seems I hadn't been to play for a normal audience, but for an "ever-so-small" man, who, sitting somewhere with the earnings of the evening, and with a pocket calculator and a Rolex-watch.What an absolute crap!Of course, the agent only had reported about the opinion of those people there. And it's clear, that my acting had made him quite nervous.If the show had exceeded the time-limit limited by the american labor union, then it would have been really irresponsible of me. But that wasn't the case. Not even nearly. I know that, until a short time ago, big orchestras on the East Coast had been having a clause in their contract, which allowed them to engage ONLY soloists who obligate themselves to NOT GIVING ANY ENCORES.So, there's no wonder, that classical music "is sitting in the dark."Classical music never has been able to escape the obstinate elitarism of the "guild" and the total blindness of the record-companies. Maybe I'm a punk, but I'm not of the sort of people the rainbow-press badmouthes. But perhaps in the sense, that I don't like to completely obey / take orders from the establishment. Of that, I'm really proud, and I hope to shatter the barrier and that it breaks down.[...]
"You surely have heard about Nigel having been unbelievably successful in San Francisco. Orchestra and audience really were enraptured! / really loved him! ...But I still want to inform you that Nigel gave an encore on the evening I was attendant, and the next one two. In the bigger orchestras of the USA people don't like these actions very much. The audience, of course, was enthusiastic, but administrative management's department didn't like that at all.You should talk to Nigel about that before the New York concert. If it happened in New York again, it would be a very bad nonconformance / mistake."
Not sure it's down to the minute, but orchestras are payed for the time they are there, and are expensive. Not a happy situation, but it us what it is, and concert profitability is precarious at best.For solo recitals, or small groups, the issue doesn't arise as much (depending on how the fees are calculated), so encores don't give rise to the same cost considerations.It's never going to be a happy situation where art meets soulless bean-counter.
Because, my music-teacher told us, that we had to pay GEMA-fees, because of Albeniz's works I played: He was dead for more than 70 years, then, but I played from the SCHOTT-(silvery-colored) Edition . . .
It's never going to be a happy situation where art meets soulless bean-counter.