No art form clings to its ritualistic habits with the same degree of devotion as the classical music industry. The enforced reverence of concert halls and the repressed levels of accepted audience appreciation embody the main contributors to the plastic culture that pervades the contemporary concert experience.
Alex Raineri performing his theatrical rendition of the Dance of the Seven Veils. Photo supplied
Classical music in its stubbornness drags terribly behind societal trends. A depressing percentage of programming consists of music written by composers who are very white, very male, very straight and extremely dead. But there is another sinister layer at work – an obsession with ensuring that no one leaves the concert hall offended or unhappy.
Both the works presented and the performances of them seem to be maniacally obsessed with creating the most ‘beautiful’ product; but are we all chasing the exact same type of ‘beautiful’? The attempt to customise the emotional experience of a classical music concert into a one-size-fits-all mould doesn’t work. It’s fake, uninteresting and divorced from the crux of what we should be trying to do as artists. The truthful...
Well said Alex! The art world in all is beholden to those who hold the purse strings, often they also dictate the success or otherwise of art production and also the mode of expression of approval, and thus to the direction of art in all it’s forms. What a difficult situation, given that it is rather good for our creative community to be funded in a supportive and sustainable way. I do love the way performances are now much more free in their delivery – out in the bush, in private homes, in interesting and varied venues that are not the big concert halls. Music is also much much more inclusive than when I was in Sydney in the 70s, where the division between ‘Classical’ and ‘other’ was almost unbridgeable and the damning, critical looks could be really harsh. At the same time there was an element of change, of knocking down the barriers between genres, of anarchy and new parameters that allowed movement towards exciting and new expressions, even in the way the ‘oldies’ were presented. Old music, new context. You are an amazing performer and contributing so much to our listening richness….keep up your thinking outside the norm, your challenging of the ‘acceptable’, your superb performances of the ‘old’ and your exciting presentations of the ‘now’. Dashing good looks I would say to you! – what a hide for someone to comment on your physique! They should have gone to spec savers……
How true that classical music is still dragging its feet into the twentieth century let alone the twenty-first, as I make my way to a seat at Hamer Hall for an evening with the MSO I wonder why the orchestra males are dressed for a colonial dinner at Government House while the woman musicians although dressed in black usually have a choice, and then the music, no adventure there, although since Sir Andrew’s retirement we don’t have to listen to a Eurocentric repertoire, here’s hoping our new MD will bring some new music to ears.