tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8827040061563065922.post3989186568369843864..comments2024-03-27T23:06:03.736-05:00Comments on The Music Salon: Music the World Doesn't NeedBryan Townsendhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/09482696991279345516noreply@blogger.comBlogger2125tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8827040061563065922.post-86446412434861290792015-05-30T08:28:41.843-05:002015-05-30T08:28:41.843-05:00Rickard, thanks for the comment. Re the Haydn conc...Rickard, thanks for the comment. Re the Haydn concertos, I welcome comments from those who agree with me, but I welcome even more comments from those who disagree. You know, even though he didn't write a lot of concertos, it not seemingly being a big need in the Esterházy court, the ones he did write are quite good. The only problem is that when you put on a Mozart piano concerto or one of the Beethoven concertos, they tend to be head and shoulders above the Haydn ones. And this is emphatically not true of the Haydn symphonies!<br /><br />I think orchestras do a pretty good job, on the whole, of presenting newer works alongside the canonic repertoire. I recently heard a chamber orchestra concert that had a suite by Gustav Holst followed by the Ponce Guitar Concerto, followed by a piece by Arvo Pärt and ending with a new guitar concerto. I thought it worked very well--and the Pärt was the strongest piece on the program.Bryan Townsendhttps://www.blogger.com/profile/09482696991279345516noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8827040061563065922.post-39276653579141879562015-05-29T15:34:41.096-05:002015-05-29T15:34:41.096-05:00Well, Grun's statement is ridiculous. I doubt ...Well, Grun's statement is ridiculous. I doubt that all of the pieces were of the high modernist variant or of the too comfortable traditional variant (I mean music that tries to imitate the style of lets say Mozart or Beethoven rather than going into a different but still aesthetically pleasing territory). It might be the case that he's just an extreme snob who rejects anything new. Who knows. You're right about not listening too much to what others say and making your own judgements instead. For instance I know you mentioned that Haydn's concertos are not so important but I've listened to most of them now and I enjoy them. They maybe aren't as groundbreaking as Mozart's concertos but they are still great works in my opinion.<br /><br />Anyways, I've mentioned earlier that I think that more new works should be played in general by orchestras and other ensembles. Well, it makes sense if one or more new works is presented at the same time as works of familiar composers. So there could maybe be a big piece by Beethoven and during the same concert there could be one or more pieces by contemporary composers. Of course ideally the focus wouldn't be on the high modernist or postmodernist pieces that get so much attention nowadays despite being aesthetically unpleasing. Either way, the big works draw in the big audiences and at the same time they get exposed to new works and contemporary composers get a bigger audience for their works. I think that it's important to promote the great works but it's maybe equally important to promote a living classical culture where new works also get an important seat at the table.Rickardhttps://www.blogger.com/profile/08084578675339015204noreply@blogger.com