The Classical Chat Thread

[Opus106]

Page 14 here makes for a rather sad reading. LPO is a very famous name, I know, but is it a league below the likes of NY, Berlin and Vienna in terms of finances or is this the case even at those places?

[jlaurson]

Page 14 here makes for a rather sad reading. LPO is a very famous name, I know, but is it a league below the likes of NY, Berlin and Vienna in terms of finances or is this the case even at those places?

You can't really compare European (Continental), American, and UK Orchestras in terms of finance. European orchestras work on the cheap, compared to American ones (where Unions have wreaked greater havoc)... and UK Orchestras somewhere in-between... plus very different financing systems with endowments, pension funds, state subsidies et al. Ultimately every orchestra needs money... and there are many ways of trying to get it. This is just one way... and not the dumbest.

[Opus106]

Ultimately every orchestra needs money... and there are many ways of trying to get it. This is just one way... and not the dumbest.

It was just a teeny-weeny bit shocking that they couldn't afford a couple of stools for the players!

[jlaurson]

It was just a teeny-weeny bit shocking that they couldn't afford a couple of stools for the players!

They can... but you want to catch small contributions, as well as large ones. And not just tell the donors of 'piddling' sums that it'll be swallowed up in the big sea of anonymous money down the administrative road... but make them feel that even a small gift makes a tangible difference. In other words: It' more reflecting good marketing than it is actual poverty.  They can't well write: We need L.250,- towards the year-end bonus of our HR Director, can they? :-)

[Opus106]

They can... but you want to catch small contributions, as well as large ones. And not just tell the donors of 'piddling' sums that it'll be swallowed up in the big sea of anonymous money down the administrative road... but make them feel that even a small gift makes a tangible difference. In other words: It' more reflecting good marketing than it is actual poverty.  They can't well write: We need L.250,- towards the year-end bonus of our HR Director, can they? :-)

Ah. I appreciate the elucidation.

[jlaurson]

Ah. I appreciate the elucidation.

I didn't intend to patronize you... hope that's not how it came across.

[Opus106]

I didn't intend to patronize you... hope that's not how it came across.

Oh, not at all.

[Karl Henning]

All the while I am enjoying the concentration on Dmitri Dmitriyevich, I do feel an ascendant urge for Liszt.

[jlaurson]

Ionarts-at-Large: Ageing Maestros and a Youthful Knight-Errant
http://ionarts.blogspot.com/2013/01/ionarts-at-large-ageing-maestros-and.html

Haitink-reviewing by way of Masur-bashing:

...but there's also a point in saying that it is not fair to music; the composers being mistreated. Who would let a decorated but shaky doctor operate on patients, based on past merit?

On the bill: Brahms' First & Strauss' Don Quixote

[Brian]

Weird, a full year after the fact I somehow finally found out that Naxos' house Bach/Haydn conductor Helmut Muller-Bruhl passed away.

[jlaurson]

Ionarts-at-Large: Youthful Bruckner With James Gaffigan
http://ionarts.blogspot.com/2013/01/ionarts-at-large-youthful-bruckner-with.html

[Papy Oli]

How Alan Rusbridger learned to play Chopin's first Ballade

http://www.guardian.co.uk/music/video/2013/jan/11/alan-rusbridger-chopin-video

http://www.guardian.co.uk/books/2013/jan/12/play-it-again-chopin-ballade-no-1-alan-rusbridger

[Sergeant Rock]

How Alan Rusbridger learned to play Chopin's first Ballade

http://www.guardian.co.uk/music/video/2013/jan/11/alan-rusbridger-chopin-video

http://www.guardian.co.uk/books/2013/jan/12/play-it-again-chopin-ballade-no-1-alan-rusbridger

That was interesting. I've often thought of doing that: learning at least one piece. In fact, a few decades ago I taught myself about half the "easy" Chopin prelude before circumstances prevented finishing it. We'll eventually, probably, inherit a piano. Maybe it's still in my future.

Sarge

[North Star]

How Alan Rusbridger learned to play Chopin's first Ballade

http://www.guardian.co.uk/music/video/2013/jan/11/alan-rusbridger-chopin-video

http://www.guardian.co.uk/books/2013/jan/12/play-it-again-chopin-ballade-no-1-alan-rusbridger

Very interesting indeed!
This may be of interst, too (about 0:30 before the end): 'Ax said that he didn't think that he had ever heard a perfect performance of this piece, apart from Pollini'

[jlaurson]

Got a regular column on Forbes.com now... perhaps I'll be able to smuggle classical music into it on a more regular basis.

http://www.forbes.com/sites/laursonpieler/

http://www.forbes.com/sites/laursonpieler/2013/01/13/the-tower-that-fell/
http://www.forbes.com/sites/laursonpieler/2013/01/13/artistic-propaganda-in-ossetia/
http://www.forbes.com/sites/laursonpieler/2013/01/13/when-a-concert-isnt-just-a-concert/

[jlaurson]

Ionarts-at-Large: Mariss Jansons' Birthday Turangalîla
http://ionarts.blogspot.com/2013/01/ionarts-at-large-mariss-jansons.html



A Survey of Bruckner Cycles
http://ionarts.blogspot.com/2013/01/a-survey-of-bruckner-cycles.html

(Help with broken links or wrong information or mix-ups always much appreciated.)

[Karl Henning]

I could scarcely credit my eyes when I read this, this morning:

Few composers evoke elevated sentiments such as "wow!" and "we get the picture" as powerfully as Locatelli.

I suppose some listeners in our day "wow" easily. (And, is "we get the picture" an elevated sentiment?)

[jlaurson]

I could scarcely credit my eyes when I read this, this morning:

I suppose some listeners in our day "wow" easily. (And, is "we get the picture" an elevated sentiment?)

YIKES. Was that hacksterdom spilled in actual print?

[Karl Henning]

Pixels, but . . . prestige-ly pixels.

[Papy Oli]

A camera on a trombone