Ravel's Greatest Hit - The Ultimate Bolero

[admin]

Ravel’s Bolero is a composition that rose from the depths of nonchalant dismissal by Ravel’s contemporaries to being one of the few truly recognizable melodies in classical music. Sadly, you rarely seem to see it on the concert bill these days. Perhaps it’s too disciplined for today’s classical conductors who struggle to maintain their freedom of self-expression while they pander to a diminishing audience of aging donors.

Discuss "Ravel's Greatest Hit - The Ultimate Bolero" here. Read the article.

 

[highfihoney]

One of my favorite peices of music,it was a staple at many a FZ concert.

 

[zhimbo]

You see, I'm the type of person who *would* listen to 10 different versions of the same piece in a row. This sounds great!

 

[TLS Guy]

Ravel’s Bolero is a composition that rose from the depths of nonchalant dismissal by Ravel’s contemporaries to being one of the few truly recognizable melodies in classical music. Sadly, you rarely seem to see it on the concert bill these days. Perhaps it’s too disciplined for today’s classical conductors who struggle to maintain their freedom of self-expression while they pander to a diminishing audience of aging donors.

One of the few! What on Earth do you mean? Classical music is full of memorable melody after memorable melody. There is a such a huge repertoir of riches in music spanning a thousand years plus. Actually because of the endless supply of beautiful music, only very few works get repeated with any frequency.

Opera in addition has memorable melodies one after the other, along with as a rule intense dramatic theater, especially of the composer is Verdi. There is nothing like a good opera CD for getting the best out of a good HT system by the way.

Here in Minnesota we are able to support two professional orchestras, and there are plenty of young listeners.

http://www.minnesotaorchestra.org/new_home/index.cfm

http://www.thespco.org/load_screen.asp?screen=purchase

MPR do a wonderful job of broadcasting both seasons. The engineering is superb, so we are all able to hear the concerts state wide.

The BBC Proms present several concerts every day from mid July to mid September. The crowd is predominantly young and the Royal Albert Hall is filled to capacity daily. When Gustavo Dudamel came last season he had everybody out of their chairs. He will succeed Esa-Pekka Solanen in LA. I bet they won't have trouble filling their concert Hall.

http://www.laphil.com/behind/dudamel.cfm

I know some American Orchestra's are struggling, but on the whole things are healthy. The management just have to make smart decisions and be imaginative in their hires.

 

[majorloser]

Am I the only one who's mind went here?

 

[Alex2507]

Am I the only one who's mind went here?

Yes ... you thread killer.

 

[MidnightSensi]

Perhaps it’s too disciplined for today’s classical conductors who struggle to maintain their freedom of self-expression while they pander to a diminishing audience of aging donors.

 

[skizzerflake]

Listening to 10 Boleros is reason to have doubt about a person's balance. The piece is relentlessly repetitive in one listening and the main reason the climax is so good is that you're so glad that it's finally over. Niggling about the details of a performance of this piece or how long it runs just defies reason. It's the musical equivalent of checking rolls of pennies to be sure that they only have 50. Sadly, having this as one of the benchmarks of 20th century classical music only goes to show you why it's on such a decline.

 

[skizzerflake]

One of the few! What on Earth do you mean? Classical music is full of memorable melody after memorable melody. There is a such a huge repertoir of riches in music spanning a thousand years plus. Actually because of the endless supply of beautiful music, only very few works get repeated with any frequency.....

I know some American Orchestra's are struggling, but on the whole things are healthy. The management just have to make smart decisions and be imaginative in their hires.

I'd be curious to know what is healthy about the state of classical music in the USA. I say this as a "reformed" concert goer, who realized that I'd heard most of what was worth hearing and that audiences seemed bound and determined to keep new music from gaining any traction. In short, I just got bored by the staid, blue-haired, candy rattling attendees who obviously started to lose it and wiggle and moan in their seats when anything was played that wasn't at least a century old.

I was at my best with all this when we had a conductor in Baltimore who liked to perform new works (I was present at several John Adams premieres) but realized that any concert had to be mainly pre-1900, perhaps with a new piece sandwiched into the zone prior to the intermission. He had to be sure to leave them smiling with some Beethoven or Mozart. He eventually left, however, and things went back to traditionalism, a Russian guy who didn't speak English, had a translator to speak to the orchestra and hired a trainee to perform anything newer than The Nutcracker. He was popular. I don't understand how any art can survive with an attitude like this.

There's a death spiral going on here, with conservative audiences demanding old music and this seems to have left composers as mainly academics who don't write to please an audience that is gone already. I thing the genre has about 20 years left in it unless they can find new music that attracts audiences. They will have to get their hands dirty compared to Beethoven and Haydn, but they might save their jobs.

 

[TLS Guy]

I'd be curious to know what is healthy about the state of classical music in the USA. I say this as a "reformed" concert goer, who realized that I'd heard most of what was worth hearing and that audiences seemed bound and determined to keep new music from gaining any traction. In short, I just got bored by the staid, blue-haired, candy rattling attendees who obviously started to lose it and wiggle and moan in their seats when anything was played that wasn't at least a century old.

I was at my best with all this when we had a conductor in Baltimore who liked to perform new works (I was present at several John Adams premieres) but realized that any concert had to be mainly pre-1900, perhaps with a new piece sandwiched into the zone prior to the intermission. He had to be sure to leave them smiling with some Beethoven or Mozart. He eventually left, however, and things went back to traditionalism, a Russian guy who didn't speak English, had a translator to speak to the orchestra and hired a trainee to perform anything newer than The Nutcracker. He was popular. I don't understand how any art can survive with an attitude like this.

There's a death spiral going on here, with conservative audiences demanding old music and this seems to have left composers as mainly academics who don't write to please an audience that is gone already. I thing the genre has about 20 years left in it unless they can find new music that attracts audiences. They will have to get their hands dirty compared to Beethoven and Haydn, but they might save their jobs.

I have to say, that I think the BSO have a good selections on offer. Your Music director is Marion Alsop. She has given some fine concerts with a mix of new and old. We hear the BSO quite often on Performance Todayhttp://performancetoday.publicradio.org/, and sometimes on Symphony Cast.

I have to say that up here in Minnesota I would say things are very healthy.
Osmos Vanska programs as lot of new music with quite frequent premiers. He chooses wisely.

The Saint Paul Chamber Orchestra has particularly imaginative programming, and so does the Minnesota Opera. In addition Minnesota supports an astonishing number of fine choral groups, The rose Ensemble just to mention one. They and guest such as Voces 8 and the Tallis Scholars can regularly fill St Mary's Basilica even in cold mid winter.

So I don't find things are a as bad as you make out. I would suggest you start streaming MPR and especially listen to programs put out by American Public Media, get get a pulse on what is going on.

For a real feast the Proms (I know it is London UK) start July 16, with multiple concerts seven days a week for two months. You will get a highly eclectic set of programs, is you stream from the BBC the concerts as they become available.

If you follow these links I think you will be amazed at how vibrant the classical scene is here there and everywhere.

To top it off there has never been such a plethora of diverse talent as is on stage today. It is truly awe inspiring.

So I find your analysis well wide of the mark.

 

[skizzerflake]

I have to say, that I think the BSO have a good selections on offer. Your Music director is Marion Alsop. She has given some fine concerts with a mix of new and old. We hear the BSO quite often on Performance Todayhttp://performancetoday.publicradio.org/, and sometimes on Symphony Cast.

.....

I've been to a bunch of Alsop's concerts and while I like her, I was disappointed that things were not different enough. I guess she's treading that thin line between change and offending the blue hairs. This is especially true since the Opera company here, an old and august institution, died a couple years ago due to the same problem, made worse by the fact that their smaller number of productions put them at greater risk if one went bad.

Alsop has been fairly popular, but it's hard to miss the fact that the audience just keeps getting older, empty seats more numerous and ticket "deals" (like $20 rush seats for non-students) more common. I'm not happy coming to this conclusion, because I actually had hope that she could rescue the situation. Obviously, some of it is the economy, but the age distribution is most troubling. The faithful just are not going to last much longer and the next generation are going to the Ottobar.