Now I've seen it all

[Suffolkcoastal]

Yes spot on in your posting FF. Concert Halls are used for all sorts of different musical genres these days, so that would hardly put anyone off. I suppose the aim is to encourage orchestras to dress up like Rieu's bunch and sit there with their false cheesy smiles, or have the orchestra spontaneously burst in to tears at the end of Tchaikovsky's 6th, or commit mass suicide at the end of Mahler's 6th, or even have mock sword fights with their bows during Prokofiev's Romeo & Juliet. Music should be above all a listening experience and that experience is personal. Classical Music is being deliberately sidelined by the media, all the big recording companies and the Simon Cowell's of this world would love to have music variety cut down to a bare minumum so they can peddle and manipulate the general public into listening to the same rehashed tripe and all buy/download the same narrow range of recordings so they can line their every expanding pockets.
Those who love classical music need to stand up and fight back. It is acceptable to like painting from all eras or 19th century novels etc, why then is it elitist and unacceptable to enjoy classical music.
Sorry for the ramble, but this sort of thing has me thumping the table in anger.

[salymap]

Yes spot on in your posting FF. Concert Halls are used for all sorts of different musical genres these days, so that would hardly put anyone off. I suppose the aim is to encourage orchestras to dress up like Rieu's bunch and sit there with their false cheesy smiles, or have the orchestra spontaneously burst in to tears at the end of Tchaikovsky's 6th, or commit mass suicide at the end of Mahler's 6th, or even have mock sword fights with their bows during Prokofiev's Romeo & Juliet. Music should be above all a listening experience and that experience is personal. Classical Music is being deliberately sidelined by the media, all the big recording companies and the Simon Cowell's of this world would love to have music variety cut down to a bare minumum so they can peddle and manipulate the general public into listening to the same rehashed tripe and all buy/download the same narrow range of recordings so they can line their every expanding pockets.
Those who love classical music need to stand up and fight back. It is acceptable to like painting from all eras or 19th century novels etc, why then is it elitist and unacceptable to enjoy classical music.
Sorry for the ramble, but this sort of thing has me thumping the table in anger.

Well said Suffolkcoastal. The boards ar very weird today. I think I'll spend the afternoon playing CDs.

[teamsaint]

SC, love your post. I feel the way you have described about other things, from time to time, as well as music.

My personal response is to be as positive as I can in my day to day life. I discuss issues where I feel people are ready to talk, recommend music I think they might try and perhaps enjoy. Try to make something happen, however small. It is a response to seemingly overwhelming situations (such as the failure of politics to improve lives) that works for me at present.

[Serial_Apologist]

SC, love your post. I feel the way you have described about other things, from time to time, as well as music.

My personal response is to be as positive as I can in my day to day life. I discuss issues where I feel people are ready to talk, recommend music I think they might try and perhaps enjoy. Try to make something happen, however small. It is a response to seemingly overwhelming situations (such as the failure of politics to improve lives) that works for me at present.

Whereas cheering up supermarket queues is my forte. Well, mezzoforte...

[jean]

Not sure about that one. There are some quite unusual points in this performance...

I'm not really talking about that particular performance, so much as (with reference to the clip I was responding to) to the sort of charisma that brings people in to hear concerts.

(And trust me, in this case it has!)

[teamsaint]

Whereas cheering up supermarket queues is my forte. Well, mezzoforte...

well I try to do that too, but I am sure that you are in class of your own there S-A !!
When I am there, I try to spend less than a tenor.

EDIT : How do you cheer them up?! promise other customers your green shield stamps, or something?
We used to love our trips to the old green shield stamp store in East Street.....

[Serial_Apologist]

well I try to do that too, but I am sure that you are in class of your own there S-A !!
When I am there, I try to spend less than a tenor.

A counter tenor?

[teamsaint]

Touche.
Yes, thats him, the fish counter chap selling Bass.

[EnemyoftheStoat]

Yes spot on in your posting FF. Concert Halls are used for all sorts of different musical genres these days, so that would hardly put anyone off. I suppose the aim is to encourage orchestras to dress up like Rieu's bunch and sit there with their false cheesy smiles, or have the orchestra spontaneously burst in to tears at the end of Tchaikovsky's 6th, or commit mass suicide at the end of Mahler's 6th, or even have mock sword fights with their bows during Prokofiev's Romeo & Juliet. Music should be above all a listening experience and that experience is personal. Classical Music is being deliberately sidelined by the media, all the big recording companies and the Simon Cowell's of this world would love to have music variety cut down to a bare minumum so they can peddle and manipulate the general public into listening to the same rehashed tripe and all buy/download the same narrow range of recordings so they can line their every expanding pockets.
Those who love classical music need to stand up and fight back. It is acceptable to like painting from all eras or 19th century novels etc, why then is it elitist and unacceptable to enjoy classical music.
Sorry for the ramble, but this sort of thing has me thumping the table in anger.

This thing really does need a Like button. Or maybe just a thumbs-up button

[Serial_Apologist]

EDIT : How do you cheer them up?! promise other customers your green shield stamps, or something?
We used to love our trips to the old green shield stamp store in East Street.....

Adaptability.

When asked for your loyalty card, say having one's against your religion. Nationwide, it's an interesting cultural exercise to note local/regional differences in how queuers, not just checkout staff, respond to that.

School vouchers - say, "no thanks, I'm too old", then ask the next queuer if he/she would like them - especially if that person looks considerably older than yourself.

Say the woman next in line has flowers in her basket, wish her many happy returns. When asked what makes you think it's her birthday, say something like, "Oh, I always assume when it's their birthday women to buy their own flowers".

That kind of stuff...

Edit: there was a sign which read "Wellbeing" over an aisle in one supermarket I used to visit regularly. "I never knew you could buy wellbeing in a supermarket" I told the checkout woman, with a very straight face. Mine, that is.

[teamsaint]

Adaptability.

When asked for your loyalty card, say having one's against your religion. Nationwide, it's an interesting cultural exercise to note local/regional differences in how queuers, not just checkout staff, respond to that.

School vouchers - say, "no thanks, I'm too old", then ask the next queuer if he/she would like them - especially if that person looks considerably older than yourself.

Say the woman next in line has flowers in her basket, wish her many happy returns. When asked what makes you think it's her birthday, say something like, "Oh, I always assume when it's their birthday women to buy their own flowers".

That kind of stuff...

might work in sophisticated London, but out here in the sticks it would be wasted !!

[Serial_Apologist]

might work in sophisticated London, but out here in the sticks it would be wasted !!

It was in Bristol - "next!" In Essex they laugh at anything . In south London I'm asked - "Ho yes? And hawhatt churrch would dat be then?"

[Byas'd Opinion]

I remember hearing an interview on Radio Three a few years back with an academic from one of the London colleges who'd managed to persuade (well, bribe) some of her students to go along to an orchestral concert with her. She said that many of the students were taken aback by the way the orchestra failed to acknowledge the existence of the audience in any way - it struck them as incredibly rude.

So maybe there is a case for some slight changes to the way classical music is presented? Just something simple like the conductor saying "Good evening ladies and gentlemen. Tonight's first piece is the overture to the Magic Flute by Mozart"? You obviously couldn't do a full "and J. Arthur Rank on gong" introduction of every member of the orchestra, but why not introduce the soloist?

However, that doesn't address the problem of how you get people through the door in the first place.

[Dave2002]

I'm not really talking about that particular performance, so much as (with reference to the clip I was responding to) to the sort of charisma that brings people in to hear concerts.

(And trust me, in this case it has!)

I was just surprised - I didn't think that Petrenko looked as though he'd really have that charisma, though I would agree that Hindemith probably didn't - at least so that it would attract anyone not already interested in classical music. I was perhaps expecting something like this - http://theclassicalreview.com/cds-dv...onic-on-naxos/ or like this - http://www.signumrecords.com/catalog...12693b48440063 - but I have to admit it's gender specific.

[JFLL]

... many of the students were taken aback by the way the orchestra failed to acknowledge the existence of the audience in any way - it struck them as incredibly rude. ... So maybe there is a case for some slight changes to the way classical music is presented? J

Perhaps the orchestra and conductor should clap the audience, like the old Soviet bigwigs used to?

Of course, the audience used not, until a few years ago, to clap the orchestra -- until they had played something, anyway -- so maybe they thought the audience rude.