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For those who haven't yet seen it, Stephen Hough has written an article suggesting we change our way of doing concerts...

There's a summary and response here:
https://pianodao.com/2016/08/20/stephen-hough-no-more-loo-breaks/

What are your views on how to bring in larger audiences for classical concerts?

I invite people to concerts fairly often. I've literally never had anyone say they don't want to go because the concert was too long. Sometimes they say, "I'm not a classical person" or they say "that's too expensive right now," but they never say, "that concert is too long."

This summer I went to the ninth symphony with some friends, and they did remark, "that is kind of a short concert, right?" But it turned out ok.

What's contraversial? If some people wanna do shorter concerts, that's fine. Maybe don't charge quite as much, but that seems reasonable. I've seen several student recitals at universities that were under an hour, and it was fine with me. I'm not sure the co-relation between length of concerts and younger people wanting to go to them, but Hough would obviously know more than I would in that regard.

There are plenty of concerts in London that last only an hour - lunchtime concerts, especially in Wigmore Hall. Perfect for Die schöne Müllerin, Winterreise, Hammerklavier, Diabelli Variations and the like.
http://www.bbc.co.uk/programmes/b069xb46

During the evenings, many people make it an evening out, and come from some distance away in the suburbs (like me). They would feel short-changed to come all that way just to hear an hour-long concert. Like in the BBC Proms, they would rather hear a two-hour concert of two halves, maybe with Busoni's Piano Concerto in the first half, and a Mahler Symphony in the second half . Or even two concerts, one after the other with time for a sushi dinner in between, like in the Proms concert a few days ago, which had a long first concert (concluding with Das Lied von der Erde) followed by a shorter choral concert of Pärt and Bach motets .

http://www.bbc.co.uk/programmes/b07nmszt
http://www.bbc.co.uk/programmes/b07nmszy

They might not say it, but I'd bet you that it's part of why some of them don't go or would rather not go.

What I know for sure is that it's sometimes a big part of why I don't go to a concert, and also sometimes why I wish I hadn't -- and the latter isn't just because the music wasn't great; in fact it has almost nothing to do with that. It's because the concert was much longer than I expected and was prepared for.

Not to be a curmudgeon, but this topic is such a hardy perennial that it's been debated for generations.

There is no silver bullet, but experimenting with different approaches in different markets is always a good thing. Some ideas work in some places, others don't.

Locally, one would think that many audience members have carriages out in the parking lot that will turn into a pumkins at 10:00 PM, time-zone-shifted Cinderella style, that they must go running off to meet precisely on the hour, even if there are only three minutes left in the concert (which they never seem to know). 😀

Great story in Schnabel's book (based on his lectures) -- I mean, not a great story if you were Schnabel himself, and maybe not anyway either.

He was playing a recital at some castle or something, and there was this matronly lady in charge of the proceedings. (Sorry for the seemingly sexist term -- I'm actually very equal-opportunity; if it were a male, I'd say "shmuck" or "a-hole.")
Apparently she was highly concerned about the timing. She looked at his program, which I guess wasn't short, and asked Schnabel how long it was. I think he said "About 2 hours."
She says (and I imagine the tone of one of those pompous society ladies from the Three Stooges), "What a nuisance! What a nuisance!"
The program included a late Beethoven sonata. She says, "The Beethoven will not be played!"
She adds (and again, imagine a squeaky pompous tone), "We kick off at 8 o'clock sharp." (or whatever time it was)

Schnabel had a little fun with his wording after the fact, or maybe it just seems like fun on the written page. He says, "We kicked off at 8 o'clock sharp."

P.S. Making the experience even greater, after the concert he got locked in the stairwell. I think he was there overnight.

I think it's difficult for those with even a small amount of experience listening to classical music what it's like for some people with virtually no experience.

Here are two examples from my own experience that made me realize this:

1. At auditions for musicals, many high school students cannot sing a scale.
2. I once took a friend of mine to hear a great concert at Avery Fisher Hall. Beethoven's Triple Concerto and PC No.4 were on the program. My friend is very intelligent but has no experience listening to classical music. To my horror, he described the Triple concerto as "cacophony". Despite its melodiousness it just made no sense to him. To him, the Beethoven sounded the way the Boulez 2nd Sonata sounds to me.

I was reading the article and when I came to the section "Generating Enthusiasm" I was thinking: How about more new stuff? I mean, I know Beethoven made great music that's timeless but aren't living composers capable of coming up with equally memorable and timeless pieces that people can connect to? I hear some great scores in movies sometimes but if you go to a contemporary composer's concert it's mostly the insane stuff that nobody listens to (I'm in Poland so I'm thinking of Penderecki).

Beethoven is NOS (new, old stock) to a lot of people, however.

"The Seattle Symphony Untuxed" concerts are held on Fridays. From the website: "This shorter, no-intermission Untuxed concert presents a low-stress way to begin your weekend." I've never been to one but Google images show the orchestra dressed casually. I actually prefer Saturday night, dress-up, full length concerts, but the new music director of the SSO, Ludovic Merlot, is successfully appealing to a wider audience.

It may seem odd to some to read this, but I find a certain homogeneity of dress among orchestra members contributes to my hearing of the ensemble work. If violist, Mr. Black is dressed in a brown shirt and khakis, harpist Ms. Violet in flaming red top with white Bermudas, and the percussionist, Herr Brusch, in cut-offs, sandals and a torn tee, then (I think) I begin to concentrate on the individuals' clothing rather than on the orchestral sound.

They don't all have to be wearing tuxes and floor-length gowns, but some moderate uniformity of dress minimizes visual distractions.

Regards,

We got to see Stephen Hough performing the Rachmaninoff Paganini Rhapsody with the Grant Park Music Festival orchestra in Chicago at the beginning of August. Free concert in the park. There was also a vibrant Ports of Call by Ibert, and a strange thing called Britannia reminiscent of channel-surfing by MacMillan. Chicago outdoor audiences apparently feel free to talk throughout the concert. Some audience members clearly were there as an excuse to drink in the park in large groups and consequently became louder and louder as the concert progressed. It was hard to hear the quiet parts of the music. And as glad as I am to see alternative forms of concert-going, that for me needs to be the difference between background music and attending a concert... background music is meant to accompany socializing and it's OK if some of it gets lost, but at a concert I want to be able to hear every note.

BTW Hough was amazing. He was of course as scholarly, as technically brilliant and as expressive as we might expect, but also he was CREATIVE with that warhorse of a piece, I've heard it I don't know how many times (and played it myself) and I felt at many points that I was hearing it anew. AND he played as an encore the Lutoslawski Paganini Variations, with orchestra, which was a very fun surprise.

Who knows that piece? Who knows that piece??



A friend had an LP of it back in the day, and it was on the turntable sort of constantly.

I haven't heard it in 45 years, though.
(And haven't ever noticed it on a concert program.)

I've had a lot of experience listening to classical concerts and would love to have them shorter. Ok, maybe my attention span is decreasing--along with everyone else's? But it takes a lot of stamina if you're really going to listen (so the truth is, I zone out for parts). I often could leave happily after the first half of a concert, if only it weren't rude.

That is the downside when attracting larger audiences that would normally not go or no anything about attending a classical music concert/recital. Chatter, cell phones, selfies , applauses after every movement or cadenza and howls. Be careful what you wish for, I enjoy the experience the most the moment I feel that I'm the only on in the concert hall. Funny timing, listening to Sunday Night at the Hollywood Bowl and the audience let out a howl and cheer after the trumpet call during the Leonore Overture No. 3 by Beethoven.

Best way to get new listeners is to invest in grade school music programs.

Still, I think Andrew's article is on point, it's not about the length of the concert it's about respecting the audience. Always leave them wanting more - not less.

It's wild! I really enjoyed it. And how cool to involve the orchestra in an encore.

My local orchestra has taken to doing YouTube promos filmed during dress rehearsals, which (of course) are not very dressy or uniform. I wonder if this helps or hurts "outreach"?

https://youtu.be/Gg5dXGdLbZg
https://youtu.be/G8hwQJEtofw

I always found Arthur Fiedler looking like a Prussian aristocrat in tails, with Boston Pops players looking like Century 21 salesmen (colored jackets), to be amusing. There is something to be said for "concert black" across the board.