In Reply to: RE: Avery Fisher Hall posted by Thornhill on May 31, 2012 at 18:51:38:
The great recordings the Boston Symphony made between the end of WWII and when they lost their last long-term record contract (in the early 1980s, IIRC) were made possible by the financial success of The Boston Pops in concert and on record. Movie music and show tunes and lightweight concert fare made it possible to program and record Schonberg's Gurrelieder.
Perhaps the last word belongs to Marge Simpson: "The Springfield Symphony is playing Gustav Mahler in abject squalor!" There was more than a little truth in that episode. Viz the travails of Philadelphia, a concert hall at times is not much more than an occasion for highbrow civic bragging rights. I doubt the Philadelphia Orchestra would have had to file Bankruptcy if they hadn't been seduced into building a new hall, when there was more-than-ample handwriting on the wall that all their basic metric were in trouble.
Ciao,
JM
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Follow Ups
- What you describe is the rationale of The Boston Pops - John Marks 07:31:28 06/01/12 (4)
- Not quite on Philadelphia - Thornhill 10:40:03 06/01/12 (3)
- RE: Not quite on Philadelphia - Todd Krieger 22:14:37 06/01/12 (2)
- "Horses for Courses." - John Marks 13:14:47 06/02/12 (0)
- RE: Not quite on Philadelphia - Thornhill 08:34:11 06/02/12 (0)