Given all the consumerist and money-spending activities tied to this time of year (Black Friday, Small Business Saturday, Cyber Monday, Giving Tuesday), you might wonder what 3CM, that least active of shoppers, might have to offer for one of these occasions. Well, nothing of his own, of course (loser, he), but self did find something rather cute, and apparently unique, related to Giving Tuesday. It's this event in Philadelphia at the Kimmel Center, namely that the Philadelphia Orchestra is giving a free community concert on Giving Tuesday. What's unique about this concert, AFAICT, is that no other orchestra in the USA (or perhaps the entire world) is actually giving an orchestra concert for Giving Tuesday. More (sort of) below the flip.....
By way of very minimal back-story, you have to remember that just a few years ago, the board of the Philadelphia Orchestra voted to enter Chapter 11 bankruptcy, the most high-profile orchestra ever to enter Chapter 11. It's too complicated a story to summarize here, but just as a sampler, you can read this NYT article from Daniel J. Wakin back in May 2012. The orchestra's president, Alison Vulgamore, came out of things reasonably well, it appears. You can imagine the bad feelings at the time. Speaking very superficially, I'm not at all convinced that it was really necessary to pull the bankruptcy trigger at the time. But that's all done, and that was then.
At the time of the bankruptcy situation, the orchestra had a chief conductor, Charles Dutoit, who had been a regular guest with the orchestra back to 1980, and was music director of their summer series at the Mann Music Center in Fairmount Park for a number of years. However, Dutoit had never been appointed as full-scale music director for the orchestra, which in retrospect would have been the smart thing to do back in 2003 or so, rather than getting Christoph Eschenbach (who hadn't conducted the orchestra in several years when he was named, but that's another soap opera). After 4 years as chief conductor, during which time Dutoit pretty much kept the ensemble in solid technical shape, he handed things over to the young French-Canadian conductor Yannick Nézet-Séguin, who's almost 40 years younger than Dutoit. As it turns out, YNS grew up in Montreal, where Dutoit was music director of the Montreal Symphony Orchestra for 25 years.
Having seen YNS once live, and a few times from the Met Opera's HD-casts (Carmen - absolutely outstanding; Don Carlo - very, very good indeed), I wouldn't say that he's the greatest thing since sliced bread, as conductors go. He's obviously got a long career ahead of him (barring the end of human civilization and such), and a lot of room to grow. But in terms of short-term need, while he may not be ideal for the orchestra, I get the sense that he's good enough at this time, and he's what the orchestra can use now. In other words, maybe not quite Maestro Right, but Maestro Right Now. Plus, by all accounts, he has a very outgoing and audience-friendly personality, which is probably just what the orchestra needs now more than anything, in terms of public outreach and working the donors.
This Giving Tuesday concert is one manifestation of this outreach by the orchestra, although it's not clear whose idea it was (YNS, the VP for artistic programming, whomever). But whosever idea it was, I think it's actually a pretty damn good idea. It's kind of surprising that no orchestra yet seemed to have thought of it, although there are some financial considerations (e.g. is the orchestra being paid, or are they donating their services? Same question with the conductor) here. But presumably the orchestra management thinks that it's worth the financial expense. Their press release on this concert is here. From the Philadelphia Inquirer website, Stephan Salisbury has this quick article about this concert. BTW, for the record, the loser aspect of this diary (besides the diarist himself, of course, who's always a loser), in a borderline sense, is the one comment from 'Gregory Pincus':
"You'll get what you pay for. (They don't call me grumpy for nothing.)"
Admittedly, looking at the program, it's mostly nothing terribly profound or deep:
Tchaikovsky: The Nutcracker, “Waltz of the Flowers”
Brahms: Symphony No. 3, third movement
Alexander Glazunov: The Seasons, "Autumn” (you can listen here - not a familiar name, but you'll probably like the main tune)
Jennifer Higdon: blue cathedral (sample video here if you want to check it out)
Leroy Anderson: "Sleigh Ride"
(plus an Audience Choice item, one of three Slavonic Dances by Dvořák, obviously to be selected on the spot)
The one contemporary and slightly off-the-wall choice is the Higdon work, because she's still very much alive and working, in contrast to most composers in classical concert halls. Yet there is very much a local reason for that choice, as Higdon teachers at the Curtis Institute of Music in Philly, and is quite the "local heroine" in the classical scene there. But in a real sense, the particular music selections aren't the point. The point is that the orchestra is thinking a bit outside the box in reaching out, in an attempt to build up new audiences (hopefully, rather than just the same old regulars attending over and over). However, in a sign of practicality, the orchestra's subscription concert next weekend features the complete Brahms Symphony No. 3, which explains the choice of the 3rd movement for this concert.
The orchestra is lending a hand to other organizations with this event, per the press release:
'Concertgoers are asked to also give to the community by bringing an item to contribute to Cradles to Crayons, which will receive donations from a month-long drive coordinated by the Kimmel Center and its resident companies. The goal of this year’s drive, “Sponsor a Snow Day,” is to collect all types of new or gently-used winter gear including coats, hats, gloves and mittens, boots, pants, and new pajamas. In keeping with the snow day theme, new and gently-used indoor activities such as books, board games, and puzzles are also welcome.'
Given that this is a free concert, I would hope that it gets a very good crowd. (Who doesn't like free, after all?) The orchestra did something similar back in October 2013, but on the fly, when their Carnegie Hall concert got canned because of a stagehand's strike there. Pretty much at the last minute, the orchestra traipsed back to Philly and set up an impromptu concert with something like only 6 hours notice. Amazingly,
it worked. The upcoming Giving Tuesday concert has considerably more advance notice and planning, but will the result be the same, namely a packed or near-packed house? The one 'grumpy' comment aside, one hopes so, for the orchestra's sake. I certainly hope so.
With that, feel free to observe the usual SNLC protocol, or perhaps you have tales related to either Black Friday or Small Business Saturday to share.....