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RE: In other words -- nobody knows?

Posted by learsfool (A) on March 15, 2011 at 19:28:33

In Reply to: In other words -- nobody knows? posted by Amphissa on March 15, 2011 at 07:57:16:

Hi Amphissa - let's assume for the sake of discussion that those numbers are correct. I still don't see why you think there are suddenly more performances going on over the last two years - based on the numbers you posted, the last few years are right near the average. And the numbers you gave cover only the last several years. I don't think there have been any more or fewer performances on average over the last decade than for the few decades previous. Bartok has always been one of the most popular composers of the modern era.

Another obvious consideration is that Bartok wrote quite a bit fewer major orchestral works than the other composers you mentioned below, and also compared to some others in the early 20th century that have been mentioned, such as Sibelius. This must be taken into account. Another consideration is that quite a large percentage of those 350 orchestras only play probably 5 or 6 concert sets in a season. So if 50 or 60 of them are playing at least one Bartok piece per season, that's quite a bit of Bartok going on all over the country on a very regular basis, and that has been going on for a very long time. Out of all other 20th century composers, only Stravinsky would probably surpass that track record.

Someone else commented on the difficulty level of Bartok's music. This is certainly true; however the technical ability of orchestral musicians has greatly increased over the last few decades, to the point where even a small regional orchestra of the type I mentioned that only does 5 or 6 sets a season can do a fine job on a work of Bartok's. The technical level of kids coming out of the top music schools today is truly astounding - much greater yet than when I came out of school about twenty years ago. Now in many people's opinion, this has come at a bit of a price on the musical side of the equation, but that's an entirely different issue. The point is, even a small regional orchestra should have more than enough technical proficiency to pull off any piece Bartok wrote. And more and more violinists are learning his Second Violin Concerto - one of my fellow students in my undergrad days was one of the winners of the concerto competition with it more than twenty years ago now, and this person does NOT now have a job in one of the full-time orchestras, though he is a major free-lancer in his area, and plays in a very good regional orchestra. There are many, many more great musicians out there than there are good jobs, unfortunately.

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