ArtsWatch

My concern is that the effort and money the Orchestra put into their regular season concerts is wasted because those concerts are seldom repeated at their summer home up here, in Saratoga.

For repertoire-driven music lovers like myself, Tanglewood has been and is the place to go, with James Levine at the helm. And they average over 7,000/concert versus 2,900/concert at SPAC.

If Dutoit really wants to take the high road, he will repeat the best programming he does from the regular season, in the summer, at SPAC. And yet, it's a message lost on deaf ears because Saratoga's management consists of political appointees and local ice-cream makers who know little or nothing about music.

The only thing really innovative about it, is that they finally let you create your own subscription (which is long overdue).

Idiocy would be continuing along the suggested lines of your critic--which is exactly what the Philadelphia Orchestra had been doing several years ago. Thank goodness for the change; it's wonderful to see a great institution wake up to the marketing realities of consumers, and respond to the specific desires of ticket buyers.

The potpourri approach to all classical concerts was a wonderful idea for the Ed Sullivan generation, who lived with limited choices: five or six television stations in a major market, one or two classical music radio stations in town and one or two large record store chains with a decent classical music department. That generation's children and grandchildren--today's ticket buyers--have a far broader range of choices for entertainment, and demand a broader range of choices from from cultural instititions as well.

Like other area of business, the consultant approach to music segmentation versus a balanced repertoire is nothing now. I agree that idiocy has happend much here ever since Christopher Eschenbach took the helm of this orchestra. There are too much politics involved here, no wonder the audience are fleeing from this place.

What matters is that the music played is worth hearing. When I first came here, Sawallisch programmed wonderfully eclectic programs that included gems like Faure's Masques et Bergamasques, which I still remember (or was it Pretre, another wonderful concert). Then administrators must have gotten in the way, because full houses weren't good enough, apparently, so we got stuck with rehashed meat-meat-meat programs of Mozart, Beethoven and Brahms, etc.
Fine programming requires an artistic touch, much like a chef needs. The functions of overtures, occasional pieces, and short works are essential to the full digestion and stimulation of all the tastes that make a memorable meal of a concert.
The German domination of American classical music is an old, old story from the 19th century, yet it still plays on and on in programs everywhere. Never mind the equally great music of Russia (gaining), France, Spain, Italy, and vital composers like Ginastera, Villa-Lobos, and the superb Americans who must be hidden away out there in their homes or in libraries. I'd like to hear more of the Americans presented by the Philadelphia Orchestra under Stokowski and Ormandy. But then, I want to hear Stokowski. I've never heard Gene Gutche's symphonies, but he was quite successful with them, and they might well be worth hearing. I don't mean the politically successful and connected composers we hear too much of already, nor the Elliott Carters and such who haven't a drop of musicality in their veins. Yes, just because someone proclaims themselves to be a composer does not mean they are musical, anymore than is a performer.
I would like to try my hand at programming some of the Orchestra's concerts, and especially the chamber music series. How about a production of Enescu's masterpiece, Oedipus? Let's hope Dutoit brings back the beauty and expression of music, and stays.
To continue, I have a rule of thumb. Whenever there is a dominant composer or two, such as Bach and Handel, I ask, who is being blocked by their shadows? So many, as it turns out. That is the fault of music education and the lack of it as well. One composer is often launched over the musical corpses of others, given limited opportunities or politics, or egos.
Who stands behind Bach? Handel. Then Telemann, then the countless others of the period. So who stands behind Kernis or Corigliano?
When I was growing up in the 70s, the Minnesota Orchestra launched, under Slatkin, a series called Rug Concerts. People could sit on the floor and hear Hovhaness's And God Created Great Whales, and other interesting, unusual music, with easily bought rush tickets. Nothing new about catering to the young or sophisticates. It makes good sense to separate them somewhat from the meat-eating "stuffy" people who want their three B's. (Beethoven, Bruckner, Brahms). The St. Paul Chamber Orchestra made an amusing series of ads featuring two such stuffy stuffed people (quilted) to lighten their image. Dennis Russell Davies juxtaposed Haydn with John Cage one season, featured Henze another. Attitudes were so much more open then.