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I'm starting to have just a trace of hope that Salzburg will go forward: Bregenz Festival: We're Going Ahead.
This note also fosters hope.The Austrian lakeside festival, which begins late July, has issued an ebullient statement:As things stand at present, the Bregenz Festival should go ahead as planned from July 22 to August 23 2020. As last year’s production, ‘Rigoletto,’ is returning for its second run on the lake stage, considerably less preparation is needed than for a new production. Rehearsals are due to start in mid-June.
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British orchestras are pretty much screwed, though: British Orchestras are in Critical Position.
Dire warning from the director of the Association of British Orchestras, Mark Pemberton:There’s no easy way of saying this: the Covid-19 emergency has placed the UK’s orchestras in a critical position.Unlike orchestras in continental Europe and other parts of the world, which receive significantly higher levels of public subsidy, British orchestras are heavily dependent on earned income from ticket sales, international tours and commercial activity such as recordings, at an average of 50% of turnover. And for the many ABO members that do not receive public funding, the level of earned income is that much higher. With the forced closure of entertainment venues and recording studios, that income has plunged to zero.It isn’t just in the past few weeks that this has hit the orchestras hard. Tours to Asia, a crucial revenue earner for our members, started to be cancelled back in January, and it has escalated from there, with first international touring, and then concerts in the UK, grinding to a halt. This in turn threatens the financial sustainability of our members, and the livelihoods of the musicians who work for them.The 65 member orchestras of the ABO have different employment models for their musicians, with some, such as the BBC, regional symphony and the major opera and ballet orchestras being in salaried employment, and the rest, including the London self-governing orchestras and the chamber orchestras, operating on a freelance basis.There are over 2,000 members of the UK’s orchestras, of which 50% are self-employed, plus 12,000 engagements annually of freelance extras….
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One of my particular pleasures is intellectual humor. Here is a tasty example (quoted in Taruskin's latest Cursed Questions):
There is an old East European joke, concerning the differences between science, philosophy, and Marxism. What is science? It is trying to catch a very small black cat in a very large, entirely dark room. What is philosophy? It is trying to catch a very small black cat in a very large, entirely dark room, when it is not there. What is Marxism? It is trying to catch a very small black cat in a very large, entirely dark room when it is not there, and pretending that one has caught it and knows all about it.Taruskin, Richard. Cursed Questions . University of California Press. Kindle Edition.
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I think that the realization is starting to dawn that shutting down the whole classical music live performance world for a few months could result in inconceivable damage. Some musicians will simply not return. So some orchestras, like the Calgary Philharmonic, are working out a compromise: CPO musicians to work part-time from home during COVID-19 crisis.
Two weeks after temporarily laying off staff and musicians, the Calgary Philharmonic Orchestra is offering them reduced hours. Everyone will be able to work 70 per cent of regular hours per week at home while the CPO is shut down.“Our musicians and staff have shown incredible dedication over the past two weeks, continuing to work hard and connect with audiences online even while facing layoffs,” says CPO president and CEO Paul Dornian. “We are so relieved to be able to give them a chance to earn more than they would be making on EI during this difficult time.”
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Amid the welter of bailouts, at least one voice is asking to Bail out classical music!
Classical music is just as important in Cincinnati and Kalamazoo as it is in Washington. At a time when most of the 1,224 symphony orchestras scattered across the United States were already struggling financially, the cancelation of the spring musical season is nothing short of a disaster. When it finally becomes possible to hold public concerts again, it is likely that nearly every major orchestra and opera company in this country will be struggling to reopen the doors.
If it is worth bailing out restaurants and bars and other places where people congregate together for merriment and diversion, we must not neglect those institutions in which men and women come together for something that satisfies all the deepest longings of our species.While I applaud the initiative, I doubt that going to the symphony necessarily satisfies the deepest longings of our species. I think food, drink and sex might come first.
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Ok, here is an amusing item: Mahler versus Slowthai! - what happened when our pop and classical critics traded jobs? Re the rapper:
Standard punk, but maybe there’s more I should have picked up? He was the first number: Deal Wiv It. I was surprised he had his shirt off and trousers down so quickly. It takes a bit longer for a symphony orchestra.And the pop critic on the symphony:
My initial thoughts about the Philharmonia doing Mahler’s second symphony? There was an entire city on stage. 245 people in total. And two harps! It was fascinating enough solely from the point of view of economics – how on earth does the money work? Like a bumblebee seems too big for its wings, this sort of orchestral piece should be too big to stage. The vastness of the endeavour, so many parts pulling together, conducted by Jakub Hrůša, a conductor straight out of central casting, was truly impressive. I loved that there were “surprise” brass instruments playing from the circle. The massed voices of the choir had a humbling dynamic range.Well, a whole village, at least. And the short answer is no, the money doesn't work. No performance of a Mahler symphony has ever earned enough at the box office to actually pay the musicians.
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Since we have so much time at home these days, let's have a bouquet of envois. First up, some lovely Couperin on piano. It is not only Grigory Sokolov who makes it work. This is Iddo Bar-Shaï:
In 1982 Ligeti wrote a Trio for violin, horn and piano, an "Hommage à Brahms"! This was a bit of a turning point for the post-war avant-garde in that it marked the turn, if not to traditional tonality, then to a less dissonant harmony. The performance starts just after the 5 minute mark.
And here is the Cello Concerto No. 1 by Saint-Saëns with Gautier Capuçon, Violoncello,
Alain Altinoglu, Conductor and the Frankfurt Radio Symphony.
15 comments:
Classical music is really in extremis. I hope that the youtubeization (there I did it) of entertainment allows them to get some donations and as important maintain visibility during this crisis. There is no guarantee it won't return in the fall.
Given the availability of rapid testing kits now there is no good reason why an orchestra can't reassemble for a closed concert. Of course the malevolence of arts organizations is blighting this since now the National Symphony (the orchestra which is based in DC at the Kennedy Center) was abruptly laid off to join there Met Opera compatriots. Oh by the way the KC org did get stimulus dollars for themselves.
Didn't the Kennedy Center back off and offer some sort of compromise? Yes, here it is from the New York Times:
The National Symphony Orchestra’s musicians will be receiving pay cuts, but will not be furloughed, under a new deal hammered out between their union and the John F. Kennedy Center for the Performing Arts, where they perform.
The Kennedy Center had planned to furlough the musicians for an undetermined amount of time so as to address the financial shortfalls from the coronavirus pandemic, which has closed the performing arts center. The announcement had caused a political uproar, largely because the center had received $25 million in emergency funding as part of the recently enacted stimulus package.
But in the agreement announced Tuesday with the D.C. Federation of Musicians, the orchestra — which includes 96 musicians and two orchestra librarians — would see pay cuts amounting to 35 percent of the total payroll until early September. The union had said the furloughs violated their collective bargaining agreement.
https://www.nytimes.com/2020/04/07/arts/kennedy-center-national-symphony-orchestra-coronavirus.html
But yes, in extremis indeed. It isn't affecting me because I moved away from the need for professional remuneration in music.
I heard that the musicians were going to court but didn't see the agreement, which happened I am sure only because the KC were likely to lose in court. But the utter malevolence of these arts organizations for a classical music system in dire straits bodes ill to put it mildly.
There are two sorts of people in the arts: the artists themselves, who don't care too much for the material rewards, and the careerists and opportunists, who do. The latter usually end up in arts administration, unfortunately.
That's the way of the world in normal times. However doing this when the system that sustains your careerist opportunist buddy careers is sinking with the artists requires a special kind of evil idiocy.
I see an awful lot of vicious stupidity all over the place! But arts administrators probably secretly think that when this is over the mere artists in the trenches can be replaced with other similar ones.
sounds like classical music as an industry has a set of people similar to those who sold a line I heard of in the 1990s that bands and artists are a dime a dozen but the "real" monetary value was in the marketing and A&R people who "make things happen".
The more I read about the corporate side of arts industries the more I entertain the idea that Charles Ives was on to something suggesting that the amateurs might play an important role in keeping artistic activities alive where the professionals are looking to get paid, which is not to suggest anybody here has to actually enjoy the music of Ives as I happen to.
Embrace the power of "and!! We can view the arts administrative professionals with a sometimes critical eye AND enjoy the music of Charles Ives!
Your thought about replacement musicians is interesting. Usually that occurs in union strike circumstances which just affect one company in the industry. This would be wholesale replacement presumably several years from now. If I were to judge, only popular music (or movies) has that kind of native strength to be banished for a time and then "pop" back up. I have difficulty seeing classical music or opera or jazz for that matter coming back after a few years off in the present environment. A century ago was different.
I don't have a feel for the classical music pipeline currently. Back in the day I made my own decision to not go into it and eventually you did too. Would the summary replacement of tenured musicians by younger musicians at bare bone pay be enough for a lifetime commitment? I can see semi pro chamber music sort of limping along but are the conservatories going to be filled with people practicing 10 hours a day so they can get a contract gig at the orchestra a few weeks a year? The subsidies would have to increase dramatically in an era where people are not flush with cash.
One underlying problem for musical professionals that has been longstanding is the real as opposed to presumed status. This dates back many decades to when musicology was seeking to be counted as a truly established profession. The awarding of doctorates in musicology is not that old and the first ones were controversial. Ones in composition came even later. Classical music has a kind of dual foothold in socio-economic terms. It is well-established in the academy with music departments in nearly all universities and colleges and there are also specialized conservatories devoted solely to music (Julliard, Curtis and the Quebec conservatory system). There are also the professional performing institutions such as the Metropolitain Opera and the symphony orchestras. They are the destination for the performance majors from the academic institutions. All very well except for two issues: one is that the supply of trained performers is much greater than the annual demand. The same problem for the academic disciplines such as music historians and theorists.
Now to your observations: if a large number of performing institutions are shut down for long enough that the musicians have to be let go, then they will essentially have to be rebuilt with some old and some new personnel. Feasible, but dislocating. A lot of the performing practices and traditions will need to be reconstructed.
The real problem is that the training and discipline required by the profession is too demanding in terms of the actual material rewards, at least in North America. I think it is different in Europe. It is likelier easier to qualify as a lawyer or accountant or, god help us, as a diversity, inclusion and equity bureaucrat. The latter so-called "professions" do not require that you spend a decade in highly demanding training.
People respond to incentives and the incentives in classical music are weak.
Thanks for your comments. I think you are right. Europe has a tradition of public subsidies for the arts and more acceptance by the public to maintain it at least for the next decade. I do see declining amounts there though. As for the Americas sadly I think you are right here too that the classical scene will mostly evaporate in such circumstances. As we have discussed the funding agencies such as they are are already sidling towards pop culture. They will simply relabel certain styles to pretend it's not pop.
I suspect that the roots of classical music do not go very deep in North America. Around the middle of the last century the "middle-brow" movement to educate the general public was looking strong and had a real foothold in the mass media with classical music critics in the major newspapers and magazines and classical musicians appearing regularly on radio and television. All that has changed. Essentially classical music lost the battle in the mass media to pop music and culture.
But the classical institutions are quite strong. The quality of musicians being turned out by them is stronger than ever. It is just that the public support is weak and likely growing weaker.
Not sure what the solution is...
My two thoughts, in terms of my own experience and convictions as an amateur musician and hobbyist composer (so grains of salt and all that)
1) I don't see a problem with a reconnection between pop and classical since, contra a few ideologues, the boundaries between "high" and "low" in musical cultures have not always been so firm as they became in Western educational contexts in the last two centuries, which is a point that I recall Leo Brouwer making. The problem may be that we get pop and classical acts trying to pivot when their position in their own market gets shaky. I'm thinking of pop crossover attempts within classical music and the often ineffective attempts to get into classical by the likes of Paul McCartney. I heard that Elvis Costello did okay but Billy Joel's last release was a classical release nobody talks about.
2) To throw a bone to the polemics of Doug Shadle, in America most bids at contributing to the symphonic traditions got snubbed or ignored by the journalistic and academic establishments of the 19th and early 20th century. I don't, however, think that a 21st century response should be to "cancel" the 19th century. We guitarists would have to cancel the guitar if we tried doing that, because the modern guitar was scarcely born even by the 19th century and the six-stringed instrument was still relatively new compared to the early five-course guitar. Symphonies seem more at home in the movies and even video games than in concert life if the comparison points are country or pop or rap.
What changed in terms of middlebrow cultural aspirations, which I know you've read since we both read Taruskin's newest recently, in the U.S. was that the arts-as-improvement regime was filtered through a lot of Cold War considerations and aspirational ideals. I don't think it "has" to be that way. I wasn't born in a well-to-do family and am not well-heeled. As classical has been defined more and more in terms of caste or class (a la Bourdieau, etc) it can be easily forgotten that there have been composers popular enough to get a reputation across the Atlantic divide in their lifetimes (Haydn comes to mind) where even Americans in the 1790s had an idea who Haydn was.
THe nature of professionalism in technocratic societies may have exacerbated and amplified some problems in the professional spheres that may not hit those of us who do things as hobbyists who love writing music as hard.
I made a prior comment in the same vein as the Hatchet about popular and classical music. Actually it was a complaint that some pop musicians were attempting and to a certain extent succeeding in producing some quite sophisticated albums. It would not have been a major step to put the music on a more secure structural plan and varied harmonic progressions. Yet no trained composer did such a thing for almost 60 years now. I agree with Bryan that the current level of musicianship is very high so they have not been the roadblock to this.
In reflecting on both sets of comments here I am reluctantly feeling that the continuity has been broken in the classical tradition in the public. My current extended family is highly educated yet none listen to classical music, few played an instrument in school and very few are even interested in jazz. This was not true of the older generation. Even when they did not regularly listen or attend concerts, they were nevertheless quite astute in their judgments of at least the basic repertoire in terms of performance.
So my guess is that the Hatchet is right that someone will have to move popular music upward to create a new classical tradition that is still acceptable to a public that is satisfied with the different pop music genres available today. The orchestra may have to be adjusted as well but the Hatchet makes a good point that it still lives in Hollywood scores for the most part. I don't see a new style succeeding that has no recurrent rhythm even if asymmetric. Indian classical music has drums as an invariable accompaniment to both vocal and instrumental performance so this is not unprecedented.
My observations are complicated or skewed by the fact that I live in a different country now than the one I grew up in. My recollections of growing up in small town West Coast Canada in the 60s and 70s are that a significant number of people listened to, or at least had vague knowledge of the existence of classical music and a general respect for it. There was also a significant minority that wrote poetry or some other form of literature. People also tended to read people like Leonard Cohen and e. e. cummings. In my immediate social group, about half of my friends played an instrument, most non-classical. There was a general awareness of and respect for important cultural figures. If you mentioned "Waiting for Godot" there would be a vague awareness that it was a play and some might even know it was written by Samuel Beckett. What I find now is that this general cultural awareness no longer exists among younger people. There is no particular respect for classical music and hardly even any awareness it exists. Among young people, few have any cultural aspirations or write any form of literature. It is my impression that cultural ideals have been largely replaced by either political ideals or, for the majority, simply material ideals.
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