Earlier this month, I blogged about the future of classical performance, springing off an article published in the Saturday Wall Street Journal. I have returned, spurred on by another article about the topic, once again in the same paper, today's edition. Terry Teachout has written what he calls a thought experiment about the basic necessity of classical performance in what he describes as third-tier markets. The article also cuts at the intersection technology's impact on the very need for classical performance. Notice this:
Is it possible to make such a case for regional orchestras? Most, after all, offer a predictable mix of ultrafamiliar classics and soufflé-light pops programs. If I lived in a city with such an orchestra, would I attend its concerts? A century ago I would have said yes, because live performances were the only way to hear music you didn't make yourself. But downloading and the iPod have made it possible to hear great music whenever and wherever you want. Is there any point in going to hear a pretty good live performance of a chestnut like Beethoven's Seventh Symphony, Elgar's "Enigma" Variations" or the Schumann Piano Concerto, all of which figure prominently on Pasadena's five subscription programs for the 2010-11 season? For a fast-growing number of Americans, the answer is no.
I speak as a devout believer in the power and permanence of Western classical music. But if I were the head of the Podunk Foundation and had to choose between funding the Podunk Philharmonic and a nonmusical group identical in quality to Palm Beach Dramaworks or the Nelson-Atkins Museum, I'd dump the orchestra in a heartbeat. The best regional theater companies and museums provide an aesthetic experience that cannot be duplicated by any other means. Not so third-tier orchestras. Their primary historic function has been rendered obsolete by technology, in much the same way that many of the historic functions of regional newspapers have been usurped by the web. You don't have to buy a ticket to the Podunk Philharmonic to hear Beethoven's Seventh any more than you have to buy the Podunk Times to figure out what movie to see on Saturday night. [more]
I might have to second Mr. Teachout's opinion about the Elgar and Schumann, especially since I have a live Jacqueline du Pré's live version Elgar's Cello Concerto under the baton of her husband, Daniel Barenboim on my own iPod and doubt if anyone will ever surpass her interpretation. But that's just it. I have a doubt. And I believe in progress and serendipity. I have hope and faith too. I've attended enough live performances to believe that something might happen that will be absolutely transcendent.
I also have to pay attention to Mr. Glenn Gould's stated aesthetics that technology killed the need for performance. He made an emphatic and finely crafted argument and lived out the courage of his convictions.
I can't speak for the "third-tier" orchestras, but I think I believe that we're probably better off with them than without them.
