A Sad Day......

[semloh]

Well, it's the lack of Pistons and Crestons etc that keep me from attending concerts.

It's the plethora of Stockhausens, Boulezes, etc. that keep me away. And I too would go for concerts featuring good, tonal 20th/21stC music. But it's the restricted 19thC repertoire that's the real scandal.

Yes, my feelings too.

The Minneapolis/Vanska story was noted during our morning classical programme here in Australia, and so too was the very dramatic fall in the number of orchestras in Germany (sorry I don't have the details to hand - but the figures were staggering).

I can't speak directly to the U.S. situation, but I can't believe that it's all down to poor attendances at live concerts. Isn't it also due to globalization of the music industry, the proliferation of small CD companies, and the increased prominence of what were previously domestic orchestras? Many less well-known orchestras are now just as likely as the big named orchestras to win recording contracts with the major multinational companies.  Many  U.S. orchestras seem to have suffered from an inability to compete in such a frenzied marketplace. CBS Masterworks seems to have been their main source of recording contracts, then Sony/BMG Masterworks, latterly Sony Masterworks. A search for "Sony Masterworks"  Amazon suggests that they have taken  a crossover/pop-classics philosophy, sitting alongside their archival classical recordings, rather than using the established U.S. orchestras to make new recordings. Even less are they interested in the vast,  neglected U.S. repertoire. The main outlet nowadays, I suppose, is the Naxos American series, but even there the orchestras are often not the old top-drawer U.S. ones.  A quick look via Amazon shows they've recently used the ElginSO, the RSNO, the BBCConOrch, the Ulster Orch, the RTE Orch, a couple of Canadian orchestras, and the Detroit SO.  And the U.S. orchestras can hardly be expected to compete with the burgeoning list of brilliant European and ex-Soviet bloc orchestras which now appear not only on Naxos but also on Chandos, CPO, Sterling, Brilliant Classics, etc., etc..

In short, the market is highly competitive, global, and unmoved by reputations. It is, I'm sure, only one factor among, but  it is no surprise that good U.S. orchestras are struggling.

[sdtom]

The Buffalo seems to be a shining star of late. The two Tyberg symphonies come to mind.
Tom

[semloh]

Yes, if only the others had someone like JoAnn Falletta! She was surely an inspired choice (http://www.joannfalletta.com/biography.html)