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December 20, 2007
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What Santa should bring With holiday concerts largely behind us (one exception: the Palace Festival Orchestra is doing a New Year’s Eve concert on Monday, Dec. 31 in Manchester), there’s now time for one last check of the classical music Christmas list. It’s not a matter of who’s been naughty and who’s been nice. Rather, what could Santa bring to help enliven the local music scene in the coming year? Here’s a quick run-down of what the jolly red elf might drop down the classical chimney to make 2008 a happier year for local concert-goers. • Better audience manners: I’ve been attending concerts for some time now, and audience behavior is clearly getting worse. Three things drive me crazy: people who continually talk during the music, the little blue lights that some people use to check out the program, and people using cell phones to send and receive text messages during a concert. This last activity was in evidence at an otherwise excellent concert of the New Hampshire Philharmonic at the Palace Theatre last October. The Philharmonic makes an effort to invite students to its performances, which is great. But two high school girls sitting right next to me spent the first two movements of Shostakovich’s Symphony No. 9 sending and receiving text messages on their cell phones! It wasn’t letting up, so I was forced to turn and ask them to stop it because it made it hard for me to concentrate on the music. They were nice enough to stop, but the encounter left me kind of frazzled, and in the end it was hard to enjoy the performance. Look, classical music shouldn’t be a stuffy experience. But there are basic standards of behavior that show respect for your fellow audience members, the musicians, and the music itself. If people were a bit more considerate, the local music scene might show a little extra polish. So Santa, please bring us some manners. • More local new music: This is self-serving because I do some composing. But even so, there’s nothing like local new music to give purpose and excitement to a performing group. I know from experience: when a group brings a new piece to life with some connection to the community, it’s often a hugely compelling and rewarding experience. Yes, the new piece might not measure up to, say, Beethoven’s 7th Symphony. But Beethoven isn’t going to be on hand to collaborate with the musicians. In the case of new music, however, the composer can be there and actually be a part of the process of giving life to music. To be fair, local groups do a healthy amount of this already. Last year’s “Ripple Effect” project by the Nashua Symphony and the recent workshop performance of the locally written “Oscar Wilde” (with a libretto by Congressman Paul Hodes) by Granite State Opera are just too examples. But it would help if Santa could ramp things up a bit. • More community vision: Local orchestras aren’t artistic museum pieces. At their best, they’re significant economic development assets that help an area attract and hold the best and brightest, which is crucial for long-term economic prosperity. It would be great if Santa could help local business leaders understand that a strong and vibrant symphony is a basic quality-of-life ingredient—one that helps ensure we’ll get our share of the high-value knowledge economy jobs of the future. So Santa, bring understanding that orchestras make music, but they also make money! • Wanted: Local classical CDs. For a future column, I’d like to get my hands CDs of performances by local classical musicians or ensembles. Know of any? Send word to jrapsis@hippopress.com.
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12/6/2007 Music on a small scale
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