Seeing Music Performed

[MrGongGong]

No matter what genre the music is, there is nothing quite like a 'live' performance.

There are "genres" which don't have any 'live' performance at all.

[ahinton]

There are "genres" which don't have any 'live' performance at all.

Well, I know that, you know that and I don't doubt that BBM does as well, but I think that we were discussing those that do!

[greenilex]

I remember at the Dubrovnik Festival in the sixties watching open-mouthed as the orchestra crumpled paper and threw it inside the grand piano, or performed dangerous antics with violin bows and so forth. You really had to be there.

[Richard Barrett]

When I first heard Henze's 7th symphony, on the recording conducted by Simon Rattle, I thought that this composer's characteristically dense orchestral textures had tipped over into impenetrable murkiness. When I subsequently heard a live performance, the breadth of the soundscape (around ten times as wide as the distance between my speakers at home) and the possibility to see what was going on in order to reinforce/confirm/enhance the auditory input, made the music a totally different experience: it was still dense but the murkiness was gone. This is the kind of experience composers actually write the music for - that might seem an obvious point but it leads me to think that with much orchestral music if you haven't heard a piece in live performance you haven't really heard it at all. So I would differ with the contributors to this thread who have said that the "audio-visual" experience is more important in music for smaller ensembles.

[ahinton]

When I first heard Henze's 7th symphony, on the recording conducted by Simon Rattle, I thought that this composer's characteristically dense orchestral textures had tipped over into impenetrable murkiness. When I subsequently heard a live performance, the breadth of the soundscape (around ten times as wide as the distance between my speakers at home) and the possibility to see what was going on in order to reinforce/confirm/enhance the auditory input, made the music a totally different experience: it was still dense but the murkiness was gone. This is the kind of experience composers actually write the music for - that might seem an obvious point but it leads me to think that with much orchestral music if you haven't heard a piece in live performance you haven't really heard it at all. So I would differ with the contributors to this thread who have said that the "audio-visual" experience is more important in music for smaller ensembles.

Agreed 100% - and what a fine work it is, too!

[doversoul1]

Spare a thought for those to whom, for various reasons, attending live performance is not an option.

[MrGongGong]

Well, I know that, you know that and I don't doubt that BBM does as well, but I think that we were discussing those that do!

I'm not sure that he does as he did say "No matter what genre the music is"

I suspect René might have something to add

[ferneyhoughgeliebte]

Spare a thought for those to whom, for various reasons, attending live performance is not an option.

Indeed.

[greenilex]

But sometimes live music can come to those people wherever they are?

[Richard Barrett]

Spare a thought for those to whom, for various reasons, attending live performance is not an option.

Yes, it's not an option for me as often as I'd like either, and the vast majority of the music I hear is in recorded form. But the fact remains that most music is and has been made with the situation of live performance in mind.

[ferneyhoughgeliebte]

But sometimes live music can come to those people wherever they are?

But they leave such a mess in the bathroom - and can you find where they've moved the teabags to ... ?

[doversoul1]

... But the fact remains that most music is and has been made with the situation of live performance in mind.

That is why I very much appreciate and enjoy Early Music Late. All the same, I have long stopped thinking that the way I listen to music is only second best.

greenilex
That very much depends on where you are, and also, what if, for example, your eyesight is no longer good enough to drive at night?

[Richard Barrett]

I have long stopped thinking that the way I listen to music is only second best.

I certainly wouldn't want to put it in those terms. Personally I've put a lot of time and effort (for little or no reward!) into recording things as well as possible and making them available - not as a substitute for live performance, but as contributions to another kind of medium with its own unique potential. But there is something that can be got out of a live concert that can't be accessed any other way. Otherwise there'd be little point in doing it!

[BBMmk2]

Well, I know that, you know that and I don't doubt that BBM does as well, but I think that we were discussing those that do!

Indeed! :)

[ardcarp]

Anyone remember the Hoffnung concerts and later the Fritz Spiegel events?
I think it was in Liverpool that I saw FS's string quartet arrangement of Beatles songs. Done dead pan, but all the better for seeing it. Hilarious then, though probably humour has moved on.