can anyone think for themselves?

[BoliverAllmon]

I recently got all the concert schedules for all of the various venues around my house.  When it comes to PC's there is no originality. This fall I can hear Rach's 3rd, Rach's 2nd twice, Brahms 1st, and Mozart's 20th. What makes it worse is that they played the Rach's 2nd twice last year.  geez, variety please.

boliver

[xvimbi]

As long as every young hot-shot is hell-bent on learning Rach2, Rach3, and Tchaik1, that's all we are going to hear. Who knows how to spell Scharwenka? Also, listeners like to listen to familiar things, just like everyone tends to eat and drink what they already know. It takes people like Hough and Hamelin to try to make the rarer composers and pieces more popular. Normal orchestras don't have that kind of luxury. They need to fill their halls, and that's why they must play crowd pleasers. To change the system, one has to start educating the listener. But as I said, musicians are just as much to blame for this situation. What pianist is familiar with piano concertos by Vianna da Motta, Holbrooke or Litolff?

[BoliverAllmon]

As long as every young hot-shot is hell-bent on learning Rach2, Rach3, and Tchaik1, that's all we are going to hear. Who knows how to spell Scharwenka? Also, listeners like to listen to familiar things, just like everyone tends to eat and drink what they already know. It takes people like Hough and Hamelin to try to make the rarer composers and pieces more popular. Normal orchestras don't have that kind of luxury. They need to fill their halls, and that's why they must play crowd pleasers. To change the system, one has to start educating the listener. But as I said, musicians are just as much to blame for this situation. What pianist is familiar with piano concertos by Vianna da Motta, Holbrooke or Litolff?

uh I don't know them. It would be nice to hear those, but even Rach's 1st, Beethoven's 2,3,or4th, some early mozart PC, something. If it  has to be a well-known composer at least pick something besides his most popular.

boliver

[lisztisforkids]

I totally agree with you guys. There is not enough variety in the music scene. As musicians we should branch out and explore more than we currently do. There are houndreds of othere composers out there that dont even get looked at, but hopefully that will soon start to change.

[alzado]

Part of the problem is the huge expense of today's orchestras.  Many mid-sized cities do not have them anymore.  Added to this is the major expense of renting or maintaining a large concert hall or theater, fees for the guest pianist, salaries for the director and support staff, and the like.

I think the planners are terrified of anything that is off of the beaten path.  They just cannot AFFORD concerts that are badly attended.

So, cut to the chase.  What does this amount to?   The commoditization of the fine arts.   

There is no bad guy here, and there's no sense to trying to "blame" anyone.  It is the same with opera seasons.  What operas are performed . . . .   again and again?  Those that are so well known, they are bywords of the opera-going public.  And it seems that each year the seasons grow shorter.  Where formerly a met opera company performed eight operas, now they are down to six.

Perhaps we need to take a page from Chopin's book and go more to salon performances.  Small concert halls that can seat 60 or 80 people.   The program would have a number of truly excellent pieces by lesser known musicians.  The sort that Xvimbi and Bernhard are often offering to our attention.   Guest pianists play for us, consist of but younger talent that does not demand extravagant fees.

Currently, the senior recitals at the local private university -- a school noted for fine arts programs -- offers this sort of superb salon entertainment.   Very talented seniors in performance who are quite capable of playing works that are indisputably excellent, but somewhat off the deeply trodden ruts.

Along this line . . . .   that is, the same tired "giants" being played to death . . . .  -->

I always love those posts that show up here in the form of polls.  Who is your favorite composer?   About eight are listed-- always the same ones.  As though the persons creating these polls could not IMAGINE that their list does not contain one's favorite.

Well, lotsa luck, guys and gals . . . . .

[quantum]

There is nothing wrong with playing all the popular stuff, but the problem is that that is ALL that people are willing to listen to. 

I am trying to implement a new policy for myself when granting requests to play: Yes I will play a popular request, but before I do the requester will hear a piece of music they do not know.  For every request of a known piece, the listener will hear an unknown piece as well. 

[BoliverAllmon]

There is nothing wrong with playing all the popular stuff, but the problem is that that is ALL that people are willing to listen to. 

I am trying to implement a new policy for myself when granting requests to play: Yes I will play a popular request, but before I do the requester will hear a piece of music they do not know.  For every request of a known piece, the listener will hear an unknown piece as well. 

now that is a cool idea. I saw a guy perform once who won some national chopin competition, therefore we came to his recital expecting to hear Chopin. And we were not disappointed he played lots of Chopin, but also played some other great stuff that wasn't well known at all. He suckered us in with the Chopin.

boliver

[thalbergmad]

A few years back, I remember 5 out of the 6 finalists of the Leeds Piano Competition played the Schumann Concerto.

Don't remember who won, coz i switched off.

I once complained to my teacher about his playing only the popular composers in concerts.

His reply was "i've got to put bums on seats"

[Bob]

Supply and demand.

Someone has to pay somewhere. 

There must not be enough demand for lesser known works.

[dmk]

Sydney Symphony Concert Schedule for next year...not too bad

Brahms 2
Shostakovich 2
Rach 1
Haydn Keyboard Concerto in D
Greig
Dvorak
Ravel Concerto for LH alone

[brewtality]

Rach 1?! who's the soloist? I'd definitely go see that.

[dmk]

Rach 1?! who's the soloist? I'd definitely go see that.

Alexei Yemstov under Vladimir Ashkenazy

[xvimbi]

I have the rare pleasure to see a piano concerto world premiere (Tsontakis/Hough/DSO). I'll let you know how it went. Perhaps it is a good idea to stick to the old guns

[prometheus]

Its because the audience is lazy and uninterested.

Some of those orchestras have state support. They and still they play the same crap.

I looked through the concert agenda for the next one and a half year and I was not able to find many interesting affordable performances. Some of those concerts are three of five times in a row. Music mass-production.

[Teddybear]

Helsinki Philharmonics, this autumn:

[concerto, soloist, conductor]

Schumann PC, Helene Grimaud, Esa-Pekka Salonen
Ravel PC, Helene Grimaud, Esa-Pekka Salonen
Hakola (Finnish, modern) PC, Nicolas Hodges, Jukka-Pekka Saraste
Beethoven 3rd PC, Leif Ove Andsnes, Jukka-Pekka Saraste
Raitio (Finnish) PC, Joonas Ahonen, John Storgårds
Mozart PC No. 14, Ralf Gothoni, Ralf Gothoni

Finnish Radio Symphony Orchestra, this autumn:

Brahms 2nd PC, Antti Siirala, Paavo Berglund
Mozart PC No. 21, Gianluca Cascioli, Manfred Honeck
Beethoven 4th PC, Yu Kosuge, Sakari Oramo

spring:

Heininen (Finnish, modern) 4th PC, Matti Raekallio, Dmitri Slobodeniouk


It's not bad, I think. ("Stop boring us, Teddybear."    )

T

[BoliverAllmon]

who is helsinki?

[stevie]

the capital city of finland...

and i agree with whats been said, although i have never even been fortunate to hear a rach2 or 3 around here.

[brahmsian]

Going to see Marc-Andre Hamelin- He's playing Beethoven's Fourth Concerto. Should be a good show.

[brewtality]

Alexei Yemstov under Vladimir Ashkenazy

I've never heard of Yemstov but its cool that Ashkenazy will be conducting. I feel that he conducts this work much better than he plays it.

[dmk]

I've never heard of Yemstov but its cool that Ashkenazy will be conducting. I feel that he conducts this work much better than he plays it.

Yemtsov was one of Viktor Makarov's pupils before he was..unavoidably detained shall we say.

He performed for Ashkenazy last year when he came down under to conduct the Sibelius cycle.  Apparently (or so the promo tells us) he discovered Yemtsov and asked him to play the Rach 1 this year....a good gig for Yemtsov.

more on him here
https://www.masterperformers.com/alexeiyemtsov.htm

[BoliverAllmon]

Going to see Marc-Andre Hamelin- He's playing Beethoven's Fourth Concerto. Should be a good show.

lucky you. He was suppose to come here and play a solo recital in Feb. but backed out or something.

boliver

[Dazzer]

well... we just had the Barber pc played here in Singapore.

and rach 3 on sat.

[BoliverAllmon]

I always wanted to hear the Barber. how was it?

[Derek]

Hahahhaa. My piano teacher is performing the Rach 2 on tuesday. I'm excited, it'll be the first time I see it performed! =)