tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-2201118595222755418.post8124518360097003193..comments2024-03-17T04:11:59.055-04:00Comments on Seated Ovation: food for thoughtWillhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/00001122423953519326noreply@blogger.comBlogger3125tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-2201118595222755418.post-27141621805816309062010-04-08T19:27:47.783-04:002010-04-08T19:27:47.783-04:00Thanks for your comment, Robert. I actually mostl...Thanks for your comment, Robert. I actually mostly agree. Just like Gopnik, I don't think everything old/traditonal is bad, and I think there's a proper way to integrate the repertoire entrenchment with creative programming of new music. I'm really pointing out that many people's perception of the orchestra as a conservative unit, and Le Fooding's view of French cuisine, are quite similar and have a number of interesting parallels. <br /><br />The canon does make sense, as does the accumulation of repertoire, and I think that's the best thing about the orchestra. Yes, most American orchestras are playing works by our most important composers, but it's usually not enough of them and not enough of their music (with recent exceptions in L.A. and New York). Also, it's not just about New Music--it's also about programming creatively and intelligently, something very rare. It would be great if "think" music/programming, to paraphrase Gopnik, were the norm. The overture/concerto/symphony format in orchestral concerts, which still seems to pervade, usually does not work.Willhttps://www.blogger.com/profile/00001122423953519326noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-2201118595222755418.post-15054701316908587562010-04-08T18:21:09.033-04:002010-04-08T18:21:09.033-04:00Interesting post on your interesting blog.
Howeve...Interesting post on your interesting blog. <br />However, I don't think the situation with out orchestras is quite as bad as you make it sound.<br /> Many do in fact play new works with more frequency than you might think, such as the New York Philharmonic, which despite the critical drubbing it has taken in recent years for its supposed "stodginess, has played new works by just about every important composer of our time,even before the much-touted arrival of Alan Gilbert.<br /> There is absolutely no lack of new music today;the popularity of the beloved masterpieces of the past hasn't prevented composer such as Glass,Adams,Corigliano,Kaaia Saariaho,Rouse,Thomas Ades,Henze,Bolcom, Carter,and many others from being widely performed.<br /> In fact, there's greater diversity of rewpertoire being performed today by our orchestras then ever before.<br /> Critics,composers and musicologists who complain that "in the past,all(or most) music was new at concerts" fail to take certain facts into consideration.<br /> In the time of Haydn,Mozart and Beethoven, the orchestra as we know it was a new thing; they didn't have the enormous accumulation of repertoire which exists today.<br /> And there were far fewer concerts than today, and only a tiny fraction of all the orchestras <br />which now exist.Robert Bergerhttp://blogiversity.orgnoreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-2201118595222755418.post-76994337393519232432010-04-07T11:45:27.409-04:002010-04-07T11:45:27.409-04:00Pretty much all Italian opera would be more enjoya...Pretty much all Italian opera would be more enjoyable with a nice Montepulciano in hand, I'd say.Marc Geelhoedhttp://www.deceptively-simple.comnoreply@blogger.com