Now I've seen it all

[Hornspieler]

What is your reaction to this?

http://www.telegraph.co.uk/culture/music/music-news/9823014/Orchestras-must-shed-elitism-to-survive-says-Universal-Music-boss.html

HS

[kernelbogey]

What is your reaction to this?

http://www.telegraph.co.uk/culture/music/music-news/9823014/Orchestras-must-shed-elitism-to-survive-says-Universal-Music-boss.html

HS

I do hope that his speech was greeted in silence by the Association of British Orchestras, perhaps interrupted by a cough or two.

[Pabmusic]

Wasn't there something like this a few years back, with some orchestras being criticised for looking too serious?

[mercia]

not sure why a concert hall should be any more forbidding a building than a pop venue, after all many of them double-up as both

[MrGongGong]

I think this

Hole also mentioned the "perceived elitism" and "unwritten etiquette" that prohibit people from engaging with classical music. Regarding the complicated rules surrounding applause at classical concerts........

is spot on
because it talks about PERCEIVED elitism

which is a real problem for music
what people believe is often radically different to what is the reality

it's interesting that "elitism" is a good thing in sport and a bad one in music though

Music does have a real problem (Jazz and Folk musics also) in how it makes it possible for people to engage
BUT the solution to this is NOT to think that people need it "explaining" or "simplifying"
Xenakis isn't "difficult" neither is Wagner

not sure why a concert hall should be any more forbidding a building than a pop venue, after all many of them double-up as both

Some concert halls (The Wigmore Hall for example) do feel like you are entering someone else's religious building (Which isn't to do with the PEOPLE at the Wigmore but the architecture)

[Beef Oven]

What is your reaction to this?

http://www.telegraph.co.uk/culture/music/music-news/9823014/Orchestras-must-shed-elitism-to-survive-says-Universal-Music-boss.html

HS

More focus should be placed on the social meaning of the event and its accessability, and less on getting the music 'right' (what ever that means). I'm sure a more diverse audience will result (and more diverse orchestras), and classical music will be given a new lease of life. Perhaps the administration of orchestras could be transfered to local borough councils. This would make them more accountable to the wider community.

[MrGongGong]

More focus should be placed on the social meaning of the event and its accessability, and less on getting the music 'right' (what ever that means). I'm sure a more diverse audience will result (and more diverse orchestras), and classical music will be given a new lease of life. Perhaps the administration of orchestras could be transfered to local borough councils. This would make them more accountable to the wider community.

Starts off well ............... a consideration of semiotics is essential for any performance
but i'm wary of "accountable" as opposed to available
and local councils are good with the bins but should be kept as far away as possible from anything really important like music !

Or did I misunderstand your joke ?

[Hornspieler]

More focus should be placed on the social meaning of the event and its accessability, and less on getting the music 'right' (what ever that means). I'm sure a more diverse audience will result (and more diverse orchestras), and classical music will be given a new lease of life. Perhaps the administration of orchestras could be transfered to local borough councils. This would make them more accountable to the wider community.

God Forbid!

[rauschwerk]

Dismay, really. Post 5 is spot on. David Lister, who writes on this topic in The Independent, thinks that the faces of orchestral conductors should be displayed on a screen. This one http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=s3BRFYc9LOw would certainly get people raving, wouldn't it?

[MrGongGong]

God Forbid!

I suggest a vote in the local council to settle the following

Horn vibrato
Bowing issues
Whether it's OK to substitute a Bass trombone for a Cimbasso
Conductors pay
440 vs 442 Hz

etc

[Beef Oven]

Starts off well ............... a consideration of semiotics is essential for any performance
but i'm wary of "accountable" as opposed to available
and local councils are good with the bins but should be kept as far away as possible from anything really important like music !

Or did I misunderstand your joke ?

My local council is not good with bins, but they should be given a chance with music.

[Beef Oven]

I suggest a vote in the local council to settle the following

Horn vibrato
Bowing issues
Whether it's OK to substitute a Bass trombone for a Cimbasso
Conductors pay
440 vs 442 Hz

etc

Vibrato, bowing issues and variation of the original orchestration could be left to the orchestra. Hiring and firing is best guided by the Human Resources Directorate (compusory blind-auditions and a ban on word-of-mouth recruitment) and repertoire could be given over to an executive officer, accountable to an elected councillor. Many aspects of contemporary life have been modernised in this way and I can see no reason why classical music should be any different.

[Sir Velo]

Vibrato, bowing issues and variation of the original orchestration could be left to the orchestra. Hiring and firing is best guided by the Human Resources Directorate (compusory blind-auditions and a ban on word-of-mouth recruitment) and repertoire could be given over to an executive officer, accountable to an elected councillor. Many aspects of contemporary life have been modernised in this way and I can see no reason why classical music should be any different.

Good to see the age of satire is not dead.

[Beef Oven]

Good to see the age of satire is not dead.

Orchestras are continuously recruiting in their own image and this means they have not changed in more than 50 years. If the question of falling audience numbers and diminishing sales of recorded classical music are to be addressed, then why not modernise in the way that many local authorities advocate for other aspects of 'communal life'? What sense does the music that we love passionately on these boards, make to a young black or muslim youth living in say, Tower Hamlets?

[teamsaint]

I think that in order for various types of music to prosper, new audiences need to be "confronted" with the unfamiliar.
Part of the problem of the modern choice based entertainment world is that it is so easy to default to the safe, the understood. But in fact The apparently unfamiliar is often not as "difficult" as we imagined.
So (despite the fact that the speech is probably the usual career building platform), I think that orchestras , (and folk and Jazz musicians ) do in fact need to go out and find the audience.
So, perhaps orchestras and classical musicians might usefully try to tap into the vast summer festivals circuit, for instance.
To get peoples spending money, you need to be light on your feet these days.......