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Dan Coren
I had long since sworn off beating the dead horse that the Philadelphia Orchestra's repertory has become in recent years. But when the Orchestra packages the carcass in inflammatory material and hand delivers it to me, I take it as my duty as a music critic to sit down at the keyboard and whale away.
The text on the cover of the little brochure I received through my mail slot asks, "When was the last time you tried something new?" The question is accompanied by the picture above.
Take some time to soak in the wealth of manipulative detail in the photo: the Santa-coming-down-the-chimney look on the little boy's face; the beautifully manicured and prosperous-looking hands that are the picture's focus; the diverse"“ but not too diverse"“ makeup of the audience.
Those folks sure look like they're having fun. Perhaps, as the caption implies, they are trying something new. However, the photo provides no evidence whatsoever that they are actually attending an orchestral concert.
I swear to you that I wrote the previous paragraph before I discovered that this picture is a slightly cropped version of what you will find on the Support and Donations page of the Orchestra's website; its caption there is "Individual Giving."
Since they asked me….
These days, I usually throw communications from the Orchestra in the recycle bin, but this time, to give credit where it's due, the picture worked and made me open the seal and look inside. But before I report on what I found, let me answer the question on the front of the brochure: "When was the last time you tried something new?"
Hmm, let's see.
"¢ I am already subscribing to the Kimmel Center's Fresh Ink series.
"¢ I had the challenging and gratifying experience of singing Charles Ives's hair-raisingly difficult Harvest Home Chorales with the University of Pennsylvania Choir.
"¢ As I've already reported here, I've reveled in the sensual pleasures of Bruce Nauman's installations at the Art Museum.
"¢ On January 27th, I attended part of the Bach Festival of Philadelphia's Cantata Series, at the Church of the Holy Trinity on Rittenhouse Square. It was a short, intimate concert, unlike any other Bach concert I've ever heard"“"“ it made me feel I'd been transported back to 18th Century Germany to experience the true didactic nature of Bach's music. (The concert was part of Holy Trinity's continuing free Wednesday lunch-hour concerts; I'll be sure to attend the next in this brown-bag series on February 24th.)
"¢ Inspired by this list of concerts in the Inquirer— a list that appeared in the same issue as Peter Dobrin's warning about the bankruptcy that may be imminent for the Orchestra— I purchased tickets for the events on March 6th and May 9th.
In short, if you're looking for novel musical experiences, Philadelphia has been and continues to be a good place to be. But not the Philadelphia Orchestra.
Inane tag line
Open the brochure and you'll find yourself reading what is by far the worst of the Orchestra's growing list of inane marketing tag lines:
The Philadelphia Orchestra.
Unexpect Yourself.
This syntax-stopper is followed, as it turns out, by nothing more than the list of its repertory for February and March.
This list mentions 21 concerts distributed over seven weeks. Of those 21, more than two-thirds are either tried and true chestnuts or minor works by familiar composers, including
"¢ Piano concertos by Liszt, Schumann and Chopin
"¢ Two symphonies and an overture by Schumann
"¢ The Sibelius Second Symphony
"¢ Rachmaninoff's Third Symphony
"¢ The Brahms Tragic Overture and Violin Concerto
"¢ Beethoven's Eroica Symphony
"¢ A violin concerto and an overture by Mozart
"¢ And, good grief, how many times do Philadelphians need to hear Stravinsky's Firebird? It seems to have become a mandatory annual event.
This allegedly "new" list contains only three works by composers born less than a century ago: Morning Prayers, composed in 1990 by the Georgian Giya Kancheli; Minea, by the extremely prolific Finnish composer Kalevi Aho; and A Woman's Life, by the American composer Richard Danielpour. None of these composers is under the age of 50. Kancheli was born in 1935, Aho in 1949, and Danielpour in 1956.
Omitted from the website
I must admit that I know virtually nothing about these three composers. Danielpour's opera Margaret Garner, which played at the Academy of Music in 2006 and was panned by BSR, was so dismal musically that I've made no effort to listen to more of his music. Samples of Aho's music are abundant on the Web; judging by the little bit I've listened to, he sounds like a vital, energetic composer heavily influenced by Shostakovich. I know nothing about Kancheli beyond his Wikipedia biography and what's in the Orchestra's on-line program notes.
Perhaps, with a little advertising, I could be coaxed into hearing some of these unknown works. In recent seasons, the Orchestra has adopted the intelligent practice of supplying audio clips on its website for, one assumes, just that purpose. But nothing is available for any of these composers; their works are clearly being used as token cannon fodder, discreetly sandwiched among the safe and familiar warhorses of the standard repertory.
John McEnroe said it
And then there are the prices. If you purchase tickets for any of these concerts on-line, the cheapest seats in the house are roughly double the price of a seat at a typical Philadelphia Chamber Music Society concert. And if you want better seats … well, my inner John McEnroe is yelling at the top of his lungs "$130 for a Mozart violin concerto? You cannot be serious!!!"
Just the other day, I posted a letter in BSR wondering why the Orchestra was doing so very badly. I'm now convinced that the first step toward recovery is a complete overhaul of its marketing department. Until now, my boycott of the Orchestra hasn't been financial; I've continued to contribute to its general fund as a matter of principle. But everything about this latest mailing makes me want to stop.
Perhaps we could all put our heads together and come up with some words that more accurately describe what the Orchestra has to offer these days. Here's what I'm thinking:
The Philadelphia Orchestra:
Music you've heard all your life at prices you can no longer afford.
We're here for you!♦
To read responses, click here and here.
The text on the cover of the little brochure I received through my mail slot asks, "When was the last time you tried something new?" The question is accompanied by the picture above.
Take some time to soak in the wealth of manipulative detail in the photo: the Santa-coming-down-the-chimney look on the little boy's face; the beautifully manicured and prosperous-looking hands that are the picture's focus; the diverse"“ but not too diverse"“ makeup of the audience.
Those folks sure look like they're having fun. Perhaps, as the caption implies, they are trying something new. However, the photo provides no evidence whatsoever that they are actually attending an orchestral concert.
I swear to you that I wrote the previous paragraph before I discovered that this picture is a slightly cropped version of what you will find on the Support and Donations page of the Orchestra's website; its caption there is "Individual Giving."
Since they asked me….
These days, I usually throw communications from the Orchestra in the recycle bin, but this time, to give credit where it's due, the picture worked and made me open the seal and look inside. But before I report on what I found, let me answer the question on the front of the brochure: "When was the last time you tried something new?"
Hmm, let's see.
"¢ I am already subscribing to the Kimmel Center's Fresh Ink series.
"¢ I had the challenging and gratifying experience of singing Charles Ives's hair-raisingly difficult Harvest Home Chorales with the University of Pennsylvania Choir.
"¢ As I've already reported here, I've reveled in the sensual pleasures of Bruce Nauman's installations at the Art Museum.
"¢ On January 27th, I attended part of the Bach Festival of Philadelphia's Cantata Series, at the Church of the Holy Trinity on Rittenhouse Square. It was a short, intimate concert, unlike any other Bach concert I've ever heard"“"“ it made me feel I'd been transported back to 18th Century Germany to experience the true didactic nature of Bach's music. (The concert was part of Holy Trinity's continuing free Wednesday lunch-hour concerts; I'll be sure to attend the next in this brown-bag series on February 24th.)
"¢ Inspired by this list of concerts in the Inquirer— a list that appeared in the same issue as Peter Dobrin's warning about the bankruptcy that may be imminent for the Orchestra— I purchased tickets for the events on March 6th and May 9th.
In short, if you're looking for novel musical experiences, Philadelphia has been and continues to be a good place to be. But not the Philadelphia Orchestra.
Inane tag line
Open the brochure and you'll find yourself reading what is by far the worst of the Orchestra's growing list of inane marketing tag lines:
The Philadelphia Orchestra.
Unexpect Yourself.
This syntax-stopper is followed, as it turns out, by nothing more than the list of its repertory for February and March.
This list mentions 21 concerts distributed over seven weeks. Of those 21, more than two-thirds are either tried and true chestnuts or minor works by familiar composers, including
"¢ Piano concertos by Liszt, Schumann and Chopin
"¢ Two symphonies and an overture by Schumann
"¢ The Sibelius Second Symphony
"¢ Rachmaninoff's Third Symphony
"¢ The Brahms Tragic Overture and Violin Concerto
"¢ Beethoven's Eroica Symphony
"¢ A violin concerto and an overture by Mozart
"¢ And, good grief, how many times do Philadelphians need to hear Stravinsky's Firebird? It seems to have become a mandatory annual event.
This allegedly "new" list contains only three works by composers born less than a century ago: Morning Prayers, composed in 1990 by the Georgian Giya Kancheli; Minea, by the extremely prolific Finnish composer Kalevi Aho; and A Woman's Life, by the American composer Richard Danielpour. None of these composers is under the age of 50. Kancheli was born in 1935, Aho in 1949, and Danielpour in 1956.
Omitted from the website
I must admit that I know virtually nothing about these three composers. Danielpour's opera Margaret Garner, which played at the Academy of Music in 2006 and was panned by BSR, was so dismal musically that I've made no effort to listen to more of his music. Samples of Aho's music are abundant on the Web; judging by the little bit I've listened to, he sounds like a vital, energetic composer heavily influenced by Shostakovich. I know nothing about Kancheli beyond his Wikipedia biography and what's in the Orchestra's on-line program notes.
Perhaps, with a little advertising, I could be coaxed into hearing some of these unknown works. In recent seasons, the Orchestra has adopted the intelligent practice of supplying audio clips on its website for, one assumes, just that purpose. But nothing is available for any of these composers; their works are clearly being used as token cannon fodder, discreetly sandwiched among the safe and familiar warhorses of the standard repertory.
John McEnroe said it
And then there are the prices. If you purchase tickets for any of these concerts on-line, the cheapest seats in the house are roughly double the price of a seat at a typical Philadelphia Chamber Music Society concert. And if you want better seats … well, my inner John McEnroe is yelling at the top of his lungs "$130 for a Mozart violin concerto? You cannot be serious!!!"
Just the other day, I posted a letter in BSR wondering why the Orchestra was doing so very badly. I'm now convinced that the first step toward recovery is a complete overhaul of its marketing department. Until now, my boycott of the Orchestra hasn't been financial; I've continued to contribute to its general fund as a matter of principle. But everything about this latest mailing makes me want to stop.
Perhaps we could all put our heads together and come up with some words that more accurately describe what the Orchestra has to offer these days. Here's what I'm thinking:
The Philadelphia Orchestra:
Music you've heard all your life at prices you can no longer afford.
We're here for you!♦
To read responses, click here and here.
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