That’s it in a nutshell, isn’t it?

I can’t agree that one orchestra could make me love a piece enough to redeem a piece that I hate. I just don’t have that sophisticated a palate. While Carnegie Hall is celebrating its chefs, I’m still stuck on not knowing what the specials are!

It could probably be considered its mission statement to focus on the soloists and Orchestras rather than the music. For example, the music that the New York Philharmonic plays is listed and discussed in their advertising, but with the Philharmonic the emphasis is upon the conductor, because the orchestra is always the same. At Carnegie Hall you are going to see foreign orchestras and soloists to see how they approach the music.

I think that it is inaccurate to say that the music is secondary at Carnegie Hall, it is just that the approach taken to the music can differ widely from nation to nation. This is why people will try to get tickets to hear what the Vienna Symphony Orchestra sounds like.

Some years ago, after hearing many conductors perform Mahler’s 6th Symphony I went to Carnegie Hall to hear Pierre Boulez perform it with the Vienna Symphony Orchestra. My special motivation was that Mahler had been the conductor of the Vienna Symphony Orchestra and the New York Philharmonic. Thus, I wanted to see how the Viennese performed “Our Composer.” Boulez was brilliant that Sunday Afternoon. His approach to the music and his control over the orchestra was precise, and his view of the music unromantic, as opposed to Leonard Bernstein’s, approach which was full of drama and angst. I was thrilled to hear Mahler and to hear the Vienna play. I imagine that Mahler, who had a reputation for precision and extreme control (and temper as well) would have loved Boulez’s performance.

I don’t think that classical music is dead at all. It is alive and well all over the United States; what it has a problem with is profitability. Classical Music has something to appeal to everyone, but it labors under the conception that it is elitist. It isn’t, but some of the people who listen to it are.

It is possible for someone to love Carmen but hate Electra, and that is how it should be. I once went to hear a concert that included “The Execution of Stepan Razin,” a Cantata by Dmitri Shostakovich. I expected the Shostakovich of the Fifth Symphony but I heard something very unpleasant to my ears that day. What Josh would like is to be told in advance what the music is like so that he can select which pieces he wants to hear rather than be disappointed.

That is a pretty good idea, but it falls down a bit because at times one conductor and orchestra can take a piece that sounds like cruel and inhuman punishment when played by a different orchestra and make beautiful music out of it. For example, going back to Boulez, the same afternoon he conducted the Mahler he opened the concert with 5 lyric pieces by Alban Berg. I had heard that piece a half a dozen times before and the performance by Boulez was the first time that it came together for me. Boulez was a post 12 tone writer and he understood that 12 tone music was supposed to be music and not noise. It was a revelation to me. But, if I had selected to listen based upon the music only, I would have been throwing one down at the Russian Tea Room for the first piece of the concert.

Sometimes you have to take a chance!

I think that the type of person who goes to Carnegie Hall wants to experience music the way it is made elsewhere, without having to travel all over the World to hear it.