Category : A Collection of Games for DOS and Windows
Archive   : PCTYPE.ZIP
Filename : PASSAGE.16

Can the average concert goer be coaxed to broaden his
musical tastes beyond the familiar strains of Bach, Beethoven,
and Brahms?
Consider the comments of some conductors at a recent
American Symphony Conductors League meeting here. The issue of
how much unfamiliar music should work its way into the average
concert program was a key topic in seminars and informal
sessions.
"You've got to romance (the audience) - you're selling
McDonalds," insists Peter Kermani, the lively and enthusiastic
president of the Albany (N.Y.) Symphony Orchestra, a national
leader over the last six years in putting unfamiliar music on
concert programs.
"There should always be a certain amount of tension on the
rubber band, but you can't afford to break it," says William
Wilsen, music director of the Peoria (Ill.) Symphony Orchestra.
He recalls that after performing one work which he knew would
"stretch the tolerance" of his audience last season, the degree
of "outrage" was enough to make him cancel an atonal Schonberg
piece on the next program. "You have to occasionally pull back,"
he says.
"Not all conductors are fascinated by the new and exotic,
and I think conductors are best doing the things they want to
do," says Charles Ansbacher, music director of the Colorado
Springs (Colo.) Symphony Orchestra.
Many conductors have long insisted that bold programming of
contemporary music can easily trigger a barrage of criticism and
canceled subscriptions.
Yet despite a general reluctance to program the new and less
familiar, there are growing signs that some conductors at least
are willing to risk and accept the consequences. The resounding
success last month of "Horizons 83," the New York Philharmonic's
festival of music composed since 1969, is expected to encourage
even more conductors to follow suit.
Those who take the plunge say the secret lies in how well
the works are performed, how balanced each program is, and what
care is taken to nurture the audience's respect for and
appreciation of less familiar works.
During the coming subscription season in Albany, some 60
percent of the music offered by the Albany Symphony will be
contemporary or American or both. Manager Susan Bush, who admits
she occasionally gets irate letters and sometimes responds in
kind, says few if any subscribers have been lost following the
symphony board's bid for an emphasis on performing American
symphonic works.
To pave the way for a warmer reception from Albany
audiences, the year's program notes are mailed to subscribers in
advance of each series. In addition, visiting composers are
often interviewed by the local media and speak at club meetings
and schools. Noon concert previews are offered a few days in
advance of each subscription program.
Like most other conductors who have tried to introduce
audiences to the new and unfamiliar, Mr. Wilsen of Peoria insists
that it is often the performance which determines how well such
music goes over. "You just have to keep trying to find good
music and play it as well as you can," he says.
"I feel very comfortable playing 20th-century music and
older music that has never been given exposure," says Bogidar
Avramov, music director of the Beverly Hills (Calif.) Symphony
Orchestra. "Most conductors are old-fashioned - they limit
themselves to old war horses like Tchaikovsky's Fifth and Sixth."
But other music directors, like Mr. Ansbacher in Colorado
Springs, insist that successful programming must be tailored to
the individual audience and orchestra.
"We put our highest priority on presenting classical music
to the broadest possible audience," says Ansbacher, whose
orchestra has one of the highest concert attendance rates per
capita in the United States. "We've had people who withdraw
their support when they hear too much Stravinsky or Bartok. . .We
choose any serious contemporary music we do very judiciously."