Major orchestras are struggling because they belong to past, not the present. They are huge, bloated organizations, the halls are far too large, the "stars" are too expensive, the repertoire is too stagnant and too full of massive blockbusters that require all sorts of extra players, and the players' contracts place too many restrictions on what can be done. I don't think clever marketing tricks can save them, as they are currently constituted, although probably a few will manage to survive (mostly outside of the USA).

I don't think classical music is dead, but I think its future is scaled a lot differently than what we've become used to.

With a cough, only the people near you give you the evil eye. A ring tone and the whole audience wants you dead. The lesser of two evils is clear to me.

Not necessarily, of course.

Some people try to be 'considerate' and unwrap the candy r-e-a-l.....s-l-o-w.

And some people who are even more 'considerate' do it r--e--a--l, r--e--a--l, ..........s--l--o--w.

It's the same reason I prefer watching movies at home - there's always someone who never learned how to eat popcorn properly and must exhibit their gross lack of etiquette in public.
There's always someone who must bring their children along to an R-Rated movie, displaying their bad parenting and the guarantee that the children will be bored out of their minds and start acting up, because there's no Harry Potter or Shrek on the screen.

I remember a recent concert in a town I don't normally frequent, and they were using speakers and microphones for the orchestra. It wouldn't have been bad if the speakers hadn't been crackling and unable to reproduce certain frequencies essential to certain instruments.
Another reason I like to skip movies, as well - watching a good movie in surround sound is great, if the music doesn't make the speakers whine, crackle and buzz.

As one active member might say....




;-)

Isn't it a little presumptuous to assume you will be asked back for an encore before the performance even starts?

That's like announcing, "during the standing ovation after I perform, please put down your programs, so the applause is louder."

Ha- true. I wonder what would have happened if nobody had clapped?
Maybe they ensured the ovation by giving out free money before the concert to select individuals...

I suppose, in the end, Lang Lang probably always gets a request for an ovation? He seems to be relatively popular, of late.

Of early also.

I've always wondered that. Last year a pianist played a recital at school and I knew what the encore was going to be. However his actual recital was about 2 hours long and everyone in the audience was tired by the end, especially since there weren't a whole lot of pianists in the audience, so I thought they wouldn't clap long enough for the encore. But they did. I always wonder how the pianist would have felt if they didn't though, lol.

You be ready not to play any encores.

this is soooo kool. i liek to use my iphone to text lang lang and make him think up these classical songs to play on the piano. you know, this is liek a tecknologie imersion you know. like mixing the past with the future, like........audience participation. I liek see on the knews that tecknologie is liek more helpful than ever and liek this can certain make the classical musik more like intereting and fun for the not lieking classical music you know? liek lang lang iz makng it more hip you know? so liek this move by the strings people and the lang lang. it is tight. i want him to play the Chopin etude cuz i love the song.

- sent from my iphone

We ask that like all members like please turn off their iphones during forum participation, so that like the entire audience is like able to enjoy the show. So like what words go with that tight etude song? Does like LL sing it? So like what's his number so that like I can text him and tell him that like "hey dude, you suck, but like obviously you have a great agent/PR team... so like hook me up."

lol

Surely you aren't assuming all Iphone or text message users talk like that in text messages?

of course not, I only used language in that way to satire the situation; if I had used the way the average iphone or text message user texts, my post would not have been an attempt at humor lol .

Careful - some Iphone users get pretty uppity at perceived slights towards their toy. They will literally create an app just to automatically generate nasty comments about you.
IF the app is approved by Apple - which it usually is. As long as there are no scantily clad women, it should go through.