Post by darkehmen on Feb 12, 2008 21:25:14 GMT 1
Something that always impressed me about HvK was the fact that he recognized the importance of bringing in successive generations of young people to classical music. He understood that it cannot simply be a fringe art just for professional musicians and parasitic critics, but it must touch the hearts of the general public. Without an audience, music is nothing; and if the audience only consists of other music-makers, then it is like modern poetry, which is read only by other poets, constituting an unapproachable art-form exclusively of vanity publishing.
With his many recordings of orchestral "bon-bons" (what one might call classical music's "greatest hits"), Karajan drew in generations of young listeners who later became devoted concert-goers.
This, I fear, is not being done today. Indeed, the critical establishment sneers at any attempt to create performances that the public actually enjoys. Moreover, the casual but devoted listener of classical music is now called a "Philistine" because he cannot stand atonal modern music or ragged period performance, and still enjoys -- heaven help him -- a beautiful sound.
In effect, classical music is digging its own grave. The contempt by the propagandists to what they term "museum culture" is so great that they are, in effect, blowing up the entire edifice, and consigning music to an ever-dwindling audience, consisting merely of other professional musicians, and of the wealthy class, who will attend any art function simply to be seen in "high society."
This is a long way of saying that I admire any effort, any creative method that the music community devises to build bridges to the general public, and to make classical music more accessible and comprehensible. Here's one example.
You may remember that during the intermissions of Live from Lincoln Center broadcasts, PBS used to air mini-features about composers, instruments and instrumentalists, and other classical-music subjects. One of my favourite of these featurettes was a clip called "Let There Be Leitmotifs," which was an extremely simple but informative introduction to Wagner's music, specifically explaining his leitmotif technique. For years, I had it on videotape, and used to show it to friends whenever I tried to introduce them to Wagner.
As sometimes happens, the tape was eventually accidentally erased, but I was delighted to see that someone recently uploaded the clip to YouTube. Here's the link:
www.youtube.com/watch?v=bniQNm0eNeQ&fmt=18
I'm not especially fond of either Mehta or Masur, but I still think it's a fine video, true to Wagner's heroic spirit, and free of irony. I hope you enjoy it. It would be wonderful to see more of this kind of introductory material on TV.
With his many recordings of orchestral "bon-bons" (what one might call classical music's "greatest hits"), Karajan drew in generations of young listeners who later became devoted concert-goers.
This, I fear, is not being done today. Indeed, the critical establishment sneers at any attempt to create performances that the public actually enjoys. Moreover, the casual but devoted listener of classical music is now called a "Philistine" because he cannot stand atonal modern music or ragged period performance, and still enjoys -- heaven help him -- a beautiful sound.
In effect, classical music is digging its own grave. The contempt by the propagandists to what they term "museum culture" is so great that they are, in effect, blowing up the entire edifice, and consigning music to an ever-dwindling audience, consisting merely of other professional musicians, and of the wealthy class, who will attend any art function simply to be seen in "high society."
This is a long way of saying that I admire any effort, any creative method that the music community devises to build bridges to the general public, and to make classical music more accessible and comprehensible. Here's one example.
You may remember that during the intermissions of Live from Lincoln Center broadcasts, PBS used to air mini-features about composers, instruments and instrumentalists, and other classical-music subjects. One of my favourite of these featurettes was a clip called "Let There Be Leitmotifs," which was an extremely simple but informative introduction to Wagner's music, specifically explaining his leitmotif technique. For years, I had it on videotape, and used to show it to friends whenever I tried to introduce them to Wagner.
As sometimes happens, the tape was eventually accidentally erased, but I was delighted to see that someone recently uploaded the clip to YouTube. Here's the link:
www.youtube.com/watch?v=bniQNm0eNeQ&fmt=18
I'm not especially fond of either Mehta or Masur, but I still think it's a fine video, true to Wagner's heroic spirit, and free of irony. I hope you enjoy it. It would be wonderful to see more of this kind of introductory material on TV.
