Now I've seen it all

[Flosshilde]

But how seriously should we take the views of the man who "was responsible for the success of Justin Bieber"?

[Beef Oven]

Potentially quite profitable, too. They could make a mint.

[Stanfordian]

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

I can't imagine that a few years ago Sir Mark Elder swopped his tails for a black mandarin collar shirt worn outside his trousers has added too many new members to his Halle audience. Attracting new audience members is far more complicated issue than a few minor alterations.

[amateur51]

But how seriously should we take the views of the man who "was responsible for the success of Justin Bieber"?

[JFLL]

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?

I daresay many of them might not ‘see the sense’ of Homer, Leonardo, Shakespeare, Proust, Gothic cathedrals, baroque churches, the Private Language argument, … [complete ad lib], either. Being confronted with what you’re not familiar with is, or was, part of growing up.

[Ferretfancy]

The real problem to me is one of access. I went to the QEH a couple of nights ago to hear a young performer, Freddy Kempf play an interesting programme in a full hall. It wasn't one of his best evenings, but never mind. The point was that as a 77 year old I was surrounded by people who were roughly my contemporaries, with hardly a young person in sight.
It isn't a matter of dress or other formalities, it's due to high cost coupled with with the fact that far fewer younger people are introduced to classical music in school and elsewhere. Actually, orchestras such as the LSO and LPO do a great deal to make their music more accessible, but they operate in a hugely commercialised cultural environment completely dominated by pop music.
The Guardian publish a monthly colour magazine called Guardian Music Monthly, but it does not feature classical music at all. presumably to them it doesn't count as music,
and this is all too typical of the press in general.

[EnemyoftheStoat]

I can't imagine that a few years ago Sir Mark Elder swopped his tails for a black mandarin collar shirt worn outside his trousers has added too many new members to his Halle audience. Attracting new audience members is far more complicated issue than a few minor alterations.

And when he turned up in a white version it was like being conducted by a dentist...

[EnemyoftheStoat]

... a hugely commercialised cultural environment completely dominated by pop music.
The Guardian publish a monthly colour magazine called Guardian Music Monthly, but it does not feature classical music at all. presumably to them it doesn't count as music, and this is all too typical of the press in general.

Completely agree, FF - how many times do you have to drill down through a paper's "Music" webpage to find a sub-section "Classical"? And frankly some of these are a disgrace.

[salymap]

Spot on Ferret - and if you watch at TV shows such as Eggheads or University Challenge only the older contestants can answer classical music qustions,some youngsters seem proud of their ignorance. In other words'I'm not square !'

[teamsaint]

I daresay many of them might not ‘see the sense’ of Homer, Leonardo, Shakespeare, Proust, Gothic cathedrals, baroque churches, the Private Language argument, … [complete ad lib], either. Being confronted with what you’re not familiar with is, or was, part of growing up.

I think part of the problem is that our multi media, multi channel (and economically challenged) world means that all too many of us are not confronted by things we are unfamiliar with, unless we go hunting for them.

[Dave2002]

This one would!

It surprises me that the writer thinks potential audiences would find the concert halls intimidating - most halls (in the provinces, anyway) put on concerts in a variety of genres, and it doesn't put the punters off in the least.

Not sure about that one. There are some quite unusual points in this performance around 2 mins 13 secs in - the strings do downward swoops which I've not noticed in other performances of Rachmaninov 2nd symphony. The best performance I've heard of this was by Andriss Nelsons in Riga - and I think Ashkenazy's CD version is extremely good.

For a fairly silly discussion on culture listen to today's Today program (25th July) - just before 9am - not on Listen Again yet, but it'll probably appear eventually.

I can't really comment without being very judgmental, but for me the person who thought we should all listen to all the rubbish stuff put out on programmes such as X Factor, and be "up to date" with Will.I.Am etc. was off the planet. Why is there any need to be "cool"?

What's wrong with waiting a few years, and letting everyone else waste their time on ephemera? This point was made by the other interviewee.

John Humphrys then put in a plea for Shakespeare and Beethoven ....

[JFLL]

I think part of the problem is that our multi media, multi channel (and economically challenged) world means that all too many of us are not confronted by things we are unfamiliar with, unless we go hunting for them.

Yes, I agree, but children should be confonted with them in school, which should be a sort of refuge from the 'moronic inferno', but now the usual approach seems to be to assimilate the unfamiliar to the familiar (with a stress on 'relevance'), instead of drawing young minds out towards the unfamiliar. No doubt there are some teachers, however, battling against the tide.

[teamsaint]

Yes, I agree, but children should be confonted with them in school, which should be a sort of refuge from the 'moronic inferno', but now the usual approach seems to be to assimilate the unfamiliar to the familiar (with a stress on 'relevance'), instead of drawing young minds out towards the unfamiliar. No doubt there are some teachers, however, battling against the tide.

Totally agree.

[Beef Oven]

Totally agree.

Many children are obese.

[teamsaint]

?
Clocks are big, machines are heavy.