he best musical deal I ever had was writing reviews for that quirkily excellent pub, the Broad Street Review (it was excellent; I was the quirky one). Not only did I get to air my personal prejudices in public but to be paid and comped for them. Your $300 Yuja Wang ticket thumped me, but I did manage to hear Simon Rattle do the Mahler Sixth for a $25 rush ticket last week—a center orchestra seat too. One pianist for 300 bucks and a hundred superb musicians for a twelfth the price? Well, I did hear Vladimir Horowitz perform for $8 once, but that was a while ago. Also, it was good to hear a visiting orchestra here after a couple of silent decades. And the Bavarians were as good as the Philadelphians, with the added attraction of a maestro who doesn’t make a spectacle of himself.
Uchida's concert at the Perelman was indeed wonderful and, as you wrote, such a bargain. But I noticed that almost the entire audience was made of people our age. Cultural organizations need to attract younger generations, especially to classical performances. The Orchestra is trying new formats, but the Philadelphia Chamber Music Society needs to get on board as well.
Very interesting! The enthusiasm differential puzzles me, other than that people want to feel that if they paid more, it had to have been a more memorable experience.
From reader Robert Zaller:
he best musical deal I ever had was writing reviews for that quirkily excellent pub, the Broad Street Review (it was excellent; I was the quirky one). Not only did I get to air my personal prejudices in public but to be paid and comped for them. Your $300 Yuja Wang ticket thumped me, but I did manage to hear Simon Rattle do the Mahler Sixth for a $25 rush ticket last week—a center orchestra seat too. One pianist for 300 bucks and a hundred superb musicians for a twelfth the price? Well, I did hear Vladimir Horowitz perform for $8 once, but that was a while ago. Also, it was good to hear a visiting orchestra here after a couple of silent decades. And the Bavarians were as good as the Philadelphians, with the added attraction of a maestro who doesn’t make a spectacle of himself.
From reader Concha Alborg:
Uchida's concert at the Perelman was indeed wonderful and, as you wrote, such a bargain. But I noticed that almost the entire audience was made of people our age. Cultural organizations need to attract younger generations, especially to classical performances. The Orchestra is trying new formats, but the Philadelphia Chamber Music Society needs to get on board as well.
Very interesting! The enthusiasm differential puzzles me, other than that people want to feel that if they paid more, it had to have been a more memorable experience.