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208.58.2.83
Not, alas, on line at their site. I'll keep looking for it. Otherwise it's off to the newsstand or the library for you!
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It doesn't really say much, besides that the Orchestra and Salonen get along quite well. It tries to imply that audiences love the modernist programming (which many other people have said of Salonen/LAPO), yet concedes that many subscribers returned their tickets to the minimalist festival and that they had to slash tickets prices in order to fill the hall, and that they didn't break even. It also says that the core repertoire in LA is Stravisnky and Bartok, but I think most orchestras play a lot of music by these composers.The most interesting comment Salonen made, was that you'd expect people who see art house films to go to the orchestra, but they don't since they see it as a 19th century art form and when it comes to music, they want something very 20th (and now 21st) century. I'm not sure if that's true -- the art house cinemas here in Philadelphia play 19th century orchestral music while people wait for the films to begin -- but I think he makes an interesting point that just because someone is into one form of art/entertainment, that does not mean it translates over into another.
Over the years I've read the New Yorker (mostly for the political commentary!), I've never been very impressed by Alex Ross's apparent knowledge of classical music. Moreover, his writing often seems surfacey, overly influenced by pop culture, and almost never insightful.In addition to the points Mr. Thornhill makes, I find Ross's smug references to "people who use their brains more" (supposedly attributed to Salonen himself in reference to certain listeners' eagerness to seek out new music, no matter what the quality, on symphony programs) to be both lame and cheap.
(BTW, as you may know from my previous posts, I like a lot of the work that Salonen has done in LA.)
I'm really at a loss to describe it. As a performance and as a story and as staged it was truly a deep experience for me.It was about the hottest ticket in town and I called the box office in the AM and they'd just had three (very good) seats open up so I grabbed one (I've never had so many people ask me if I have an extra ticket as I walked into WDCH, nor have I seen so many on line hoping for a cancellation).
I was in a bad mood during the day and the drive over sucked and I was thinking I wasn't up to 5.5 hours at the concert hall and that I would just pick it up from will call and sell it when I got there but as I walked up to the building there was an energy present that just carried me in.
It was the most attentive crowd I've experienced at WDCH (and, by far, the loudest when it came to applause/cheering... the standing O after act I lasted 5 to 8 minutes even though - or maybe because - no one came out). There was a well deserved thunderous ovation for EPS at the end... dwarfing the one from when I saw act III.
Thanks for the heads up on the article... we get the New Yorker at work. I look forward to reading it.
s
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