Have you ever taken part in market research? Over the last few years I've probably been collared a few times in the Market Square and outside M&S and then whisked away to some upstairs office suite to give my opinion on such things as Heineken lager can designs, mobile phone handsets and the comparative strengths of Aero vs. Wispa chocolate bars (Aero every time for me). It's an odd experience, particularly when you've done some market research yourself. Those conducting it always ask you if you work in marketing (which presumably rules you out) but somehow I've still been recruited, possibly because arts marketing doesn't count in the gloves off world of commercial marketing.
Anyway, when I'm busy choosing between colour scheme A vs. colour scheme B, I sometimes wonder how much my opinion will influence the outcome of the research - will I, in my own small way, have stopped a metallic pink mobile phone making it into the shops? And how representative are my views? An I one of a tiny minority whose opinion is distinctly left field?
I mention this because I've recently conducted some qualitative research with two groups of Nottingham Classics subscribers. Often these get called 'focus groups' but these, being more informal testers of opinion, we called 'customer circles', though, really, you could pretty much call them what you like. As ever, I'd prepared far too many questions and barely covered half of the areas that I'd planned, but both sessions were really fascinating and often very surprising. Most striking was the adventurous spirit of many regular concert-goers. Many of you, it appears, are on the look out for the unexpected, the surprising - those concerts that take you off the beaten track. And we're not necessarily talking about cutting edge contemporary pieces here, rather those pieces in the repertoire that occupy a similar sound world to more familiar works. Having asked the two groups to rate seven different programmes from concerts over the last four seasons, it was interesting that the highest rated was the Hallé concert from last January, which included Vaughan Williams' Tallis Fantasia, Tchaikovsky's Violin Concerto and Nielsen's 5th Symphony. When Peter Bolton and I were setting audience targets for that concert our prediction was for a modest size audience. In the event it was our biggest audience of the season. So, it just goes to show that it's not just the Beethoven and Rachmaninov that really pull in the crowds - slightly obscure Danish composers can do it, too!
Having said that, all the evidence so far is that Rachmaninov is certainly doing the business for our first concert of the season. The second piano concerto is, of course, one of the most famous in the repertoire but, oddly enough, hasn't been performed at the Royal Concert Hall in several seasons. Its popularity may well be due to it carrying a powerful emotional charge, and this is something that, as you may have noticed, I've pushed quite hard in the various promotional blurb I've written about this concert. It is, after all, the piece that defines David Lean's movie, Brief Encounter, and for that reason I decided, in the most recent Nottingham Classics e-bulletin to include a link to a clip from the film on YouTube. Believe it or not you can watch the entire film, in nine instalments, with Japanese subtitles, which is great if you're lost for something to do when surfing the Net and have an hour and a half to spare. And you can also amuse yourself by reading the comments underneath, which sometimes (as in Instalment Nine of Brief Encounter) turn into some kind of debate, argument, or even an online feud between viewers.
Fascinating stuff, in itself, but looking at the film again it's astonishing how much of a part Rach 2 plays in the film's emotional journey. David Lean/Noel Coward were probably enjoying some kind of joke when they get Laura's husband to ask her to turn down the radio which is blasting out the concerto in their living room. And it was noticeable in Kneehigh Theatre's brilliant sideways look at the play/film (which we enjoyed at the Theatre Royal earlier this year) that Rach 2 was, again, centre stage - quite literally, when Laura sits down at the piano and launches into the concerto's opening.
Which brings me, finally, to the point of all of this meandering stuff. How much of Rach 2's popularity is owed to the fact that it played such a starring role in Brief Encounter? Its passionate and yearning lyricism clearly lent itself perfectly to the story of two lovers tormented by their conflicting desires and family responsibilities but would its emotional force be as great if it hadn't been heard in the film? And are there other concertos that rival (or even surpass) its status as one of the supreme classical tearjerkers?
What do you think? Let me know by responding to this post or emailing me at admin@nottinghamclassics.org.uk.
Bye for now,
Neil
Wednesday 16 September 2009
Thursday 13 August 2009
The phoney war is over
We've reached that time in the year when a new season ceases to be a speck on the horizon and you can start to see the dust as the stampede approaches. I often think (forgive the metaphor) that during the middle of the summer that it's a bit like a phoney war, when you know the action is not far off but it all feels a bit too remote to worry about.
Not that it should be a cause for concern, of course. I mean - the start of a new season is cause for celebration, not a reason for diving for cover. Having said that, 2009-2010 has resulted in a rapid shortening of my finger nails because it's my first season as programmer. The initial signs are very positive but when you've invested several months in putting a season together and marketing it then each weekly sales report gets greeted with a bit of apprehension.
And things are going to get busier, too. We now have a new Managing Director, Robert Sanderson, which has meant that we can now move ahead with actioning all those plans we've been harbouring for several weeks and months. The first for me is a series of short lunchtime concerts that will take place every month from the Autumn to the Spring. We haven't done something like this before so I know it's going to take a fair amount of time to establish it. And we're also looking at creating another performance space in the top level bar area of the concert hall - now there's a challenge! Add to that the new After:Hours performances (tied to four of the main Classics concerts) and some new strands of music - blues, jazz and world music - and it looks like being a busy year ahead.
And this means that my job title will change, too. From now on I'm the Music Programme Manager, which reflects the wider range of music I'll be working on. But in case that's a cause for concern, I can assure you that Nottingham Classics will still be the main focus of my work and I'll be looking at ways in which the series could develop over the coming seasons.
Mmm. I can definitely hear the hoards approaching over the horizon now (or was that the Tram?) so that's all for now. Now where did I put that Muddy Waters CD?
Not that it should be a cause for concern, of course. I mean - the start of a new season is cause for celebration, not a reason for diving for cover. Having said that, 2009-2010 has resulted in a rapid shortening of my finger nails because it's my first season as programmer. The initial signs are very positive but when you've invested several months in putting a season together and marketing it then each weekly sales report gets greeted with a bit of apprehension.
And things are going to get busier, too. We now have a new Managing Director, Robert Sanderson, which has meant that we can now move ahead with actioning all those plans we've been harbouring for several weeks and months. The first for me is a series of short lunchtime concerts that will take place every month from the Autumn to the Spring. We haven't done something like this before so I know it's going to take a fair amount of time to establish it. And we're also looking at creating another performance space in the top level bar area of the concert hall - now there's a challenge! Add to that the new After:Hours performances (tied to four of the main Classics concerts) and some new strands of music - blues, jazz and world music - and it looks like being a busy year ahead.
And this means that my job title will change, too. From now on I'm the Music Programme Manager, which reflects the wider range of music I'll be working on. But in case that's a cause for concern, I can assure you that Nottingham Classics will still be the main focus of my work and I'll be looking at ways in which the series could develop over the coming seasons.
Mmm. I can definitely hear the hoards approaching over the horizon now (or was that the Tram?) so that's all for now. Now where did I put that Muddy Waters CD?
Monday 6 April 2009
After Amsterdam, Kari the complete clarinettist and a few thoughts on next season
I've just got back from a short break in Amsterdam with my wife, Deb. The timing was less a matter of wanting to see the city in the early spring and more a case of which week could I practically take off during the busiest part of the season whilst using up my remaining holiday entitlement before the end of the financial year.
However, we couldn't have timed it much better. Most days had clear skies bathing Amsterdam in the kind of radiant light you only get at this time of year. It was our first visit to the city and it won't be our last. What a change not to be deafened by traffic. And to be looking out for the hazard posed by bikes, rather than cars. Having said that, the bikes can be pretty scary - they seem to come at you from all directions and with barely a whisper of warning. It's also a sobering thought that many of them rely on back pedalling rather than brakes to stop!
Amsterdam is well-known, of course, for being one of the great cultural destinations in Europe. The Rijksmuseum, Van Goch Museum and the Stedelijk form a kind of golden triangle in the heart of the city but it's almost reassuring to discover that Amsterdam suffers from the same kinds of planning problems and project overruns that we tend to hear about in relation to cultural builds in this country. The consequence of these as far as Amsterdam goes is that the Stedelijk extension, which should have been completed by the end of 2008, is still not finished and has overrun to such an extent that the temporary exhibition space that had been allocated to the greatest works in the collection - in the city's old central post office - has now also been demolished (as we discovered when we spent an hour forlornly looking round the harbour area). The Rijksmuseum is still only partly open, too, which means that Amsterdam is running on only 2 cylinders, galleries-speaking, at the moment.
However, there's always the music to enjoy, and we certainly did that. The Netherlands Opera company is a key player in the city - its heavy-hitting Shostakovich's Lady MacBeth of Mtsensk got huge acclaim in 2006 - and we were lucky enough to be able to get a couple of the few remaining tickets for the Sunday matinee of Mozart's Cosi fan Tutte. I've always had a a soft spot for this decidedly un-PC comic opera from when I got the chance to be in a Glyndebourne production when I was a twelve-year old (my secondary school was just two miles away from the opera house and often provided the children for various crowd scenes and so on). Netherlands Opera's take on it was very different, though. Mozart's Naples became a sixties beach resort complete with weed-smoking busker providing the continuo on his mandolin. There were countless imaginative touches,the gangly Guglielmo's Elvis-like attempts at seduction a particular treat in an irreverent and racy production. A couple of people walked out when Ferrando's conquering of the hitherto steadfast Fiordiligi got a bit full on for their taste, but at the end it got a huge ovation with everyone on their feet.
This got me thinking. Several times in the last couple of season's we've had some breathtakingly good performances - Mark Elder's Elgar No.2, the BBC Phil's Mahler 6 for example - and a few brave souls have risen to their feet to show their appreciation. And I watch and wonder if we'll reach a tipping point and everyone else will get to their feet. But it never happens. Is it British reserve or am I overestimating the effect of these performances. I'd be interested to know your thoughts on this.
One performance that I've just seen undoubtedly earned a standing ovation. it didn't get one, though there were plenty of cheers. I'm talking about Finnish clarinettist, Kari Kriikku, performing 'Missa' by compatriot, Jukka Tiensuu, with the BBC Symphony Orchestra, at the Barbican in London. It's an odd kind of hybrid - a clarinet concerto based on the order of the Mass, and one which contains five moments where the soloist improvises the cadenzas. Like the acclaimed, award-winning Clarinet Concerto by Tiensuu's fellow Finn, Magnus Lindberg, Tiensuu's piece has immediate appeal and could, I'm sure, be enjoyed by even those audience members normally sceptical of contemporary music. Part of this is down to the soloist, Kari Kriiku. Just make a mental note of that name - Kari Kriiku - because he is a quite extraordinary performer. He doesn't just play the notes (brilliantly, of course), rather he acts them. One moment he's leaning back like Benny Goodman, firing his high notes into the firmament, the other he's probing the floor, sucking up the low notes like a straw. And sometimes he's hopping around on one leg before ducking and diving like a boxer (probably a flyweight, given Kari's slight physique). I don't think I've ever seen a more astonishing performer. The only parallel I can think of is the German reed-player, Michael Riessler, who has graced Lakeside Arts Centre on a couple of occasions and whose phenomenal breath control and ability to play chords through singing through his instrument Kari's performance reminded me of. Anyway, if we get the chance to have him here - and we can afford to have him - then I doubt I'll be saying no. So, that's Kari Kriiku - go and see him if you ever get the opportunity.
Finally, I've reached the point where I'm clearing the decks for an assault on the next season brochure. All the orchestras and repertoire are in place and I think (and hope) that it'll be as compelling as the last two. Hopefully you'll agree that it builds on Peter's wonderful work here and that you'll be spoilt for choice. There are a couple of new developments, too, and a quick word or two on these.
The BBC Philharmonic are going to be here in the Autumn with the first of what I hope will be many BBC Radio 3 Discovering Music concerts, where you get the chance to hear a major work in the repertoire and have it pulled apart, probed, interpreted and then reassembled by one of the BBC's leading presenters. We don't yet know who it'll be, but the work? Well, I don't suppose it'll do any harm to name it. Bruckner 6 - and how long is it since we've had a Bruckner symphony here? Too long, probably, but it's good to be able to rectify it with such a great orchestra as the BBC Phil.
The other big development is going to be a late night performance which, with reference to Bartok, Mahler and Mozart (take your pick), we've called NIGHTmusic. It'll be a FREE short slot after a number of main concerts in the season that will allow us to offer you some contemporary music (and not just contemporary) in an informal and welcoming format. So, if you've bemoaned the scarcity of contemporary voices in the season then here you are - new music with a new slot at the Royal Concert Hall.
That's a pretty big post. Time to go, I think - I've got a Drivetime Concert in June that's needing some attention.
Neil
PS If you're wondering why I didn't mention the Concertgebouw when rambling on about Amsterdam it's because they weren't at home when we were there. They were in London. Timing has always been a bit of a problem for me!
However, we couldn't have timed it much better. Most days had clear skies bathing Amsterdam in the kind of radiant light you only get at this time of year. It was our first visit to the city and it won't be our last. What a change not to be deafened by traffic. And to be looking out for the hazard posed by bikes, rather than cars. Having said that, the bikes can be pretty scary - they seem to come at you from all directions and with barely a whisper of warning. It's also a sobering thought that many of them rely on back pedalling rather than brakes to stop!
Amsterdam is well-known, of course, for being one of the great cultural destinations in Europe. The Rijksmuseum, Van Goch Museum and the Stedelijk form a kind of golden triangle in the heart of the city but it's almost reassuring to discover that Amsterdam suffers from the same kinds of planning problems and project overruns that we tend to hear about in relation to cultural builds in this country. The consequence of these as far as Amsterdam goes is that the Stedelijk extension, which should have been completed by the end of 2008, is still not finished and has overrun to such an extent that the temporary exhibition space that had been allocated to the greatest works in the collection - in the city's old central post office - has now also been demolished (as we discovered when we spent an hour forlornly looking round the harbour area). The Rijksmuseum is still only partly open, too, which means that Amsterdam is running on only 2 cylinders, galleries-speaking, at the moment.
However, there's always the music to enjoy, and we certainly did that. The Netherlands Opera company is a key player in the city - its heavy-hitting Shostakovich's Lady MacBeth of Mtsensk got huge acclaim in 2006 - and we were lucky enough to be able to get a couple of the few remaining tickets for the Sunday matinee of Mozart's Cosi fan Tutte. I've always had a a soft spot for this decidedly un-PC comic opera from when I got the chance to be in a Glyndebourne production when I was a twelve-year old (my secondary school was just two miles away from the opera house and often provided the children for various crowd scenes and so on). Netherlands Opera's take on it was very different, though. Mozart's Naples became a sixties beach resort complete with weed-smoking busker providing the continuo on his mandolin. There were countless imaginative touches,the gangly Guglielmo's Elvis-like attempts at seduction a particular treat in an irreverent and racy production. A couple of people walked out when Ferrando's conquering of the hitherto steadfast Fiordiligi got a bit full on for their taste, but at the end it got a huge ovation with everyone on their feet.
This got me thinking. Several times in the last couple of season's we've had some breathtakingly good performances - Mark Elder's Elgar No.2, the BBC Phil's Mahler 6 for example - and a few brave souls have risen to their feet to show their appreciation. And I watch and wonder if we'll reach a tipping point and everyone else will get to their feet. But it never happens. Is it British reserve or am I overestimating the effect of these performances. I'd be interested to know your thoughts on this.
One performance that I've just seen undoubtedly earned a standing ovation. it didn't get one, though there were plenty of cheers. I'm talking about Finnish clarinettist, Kari Kriikku, performing 'Missa' by compatriot, Jukka Tiensuu, with the BBC Symphony Orchestra, at the Barbican in London. It's an odd kind of hybrid - a clarinet concerto based on the order of the Mass, and one which contains five moments where the soloist improvises the cadenzas. Like the acclaimed, award-winning Clarinet Concerto by Tiensuu's fellow Finn, Magnus Lindberg, Tiensuu's piece has immediate appeal and could, I'm sure, be enjoyed by even those audience members normally sceptical of contemporary music. Part of this is down to the soloist, Kari Kriiku. Just make a mental note of that name - Kari Kriiku - because he is a quite extraordinary performer. He doesn't just play the notes (brilliantly, of course), rather he acts them. One moment he's leaning back like Benny Goodman, firing his high notes into the firmament, the other he's probing the floor, sucking up the low notes like a straw. And sometimes he's hopping around on one leg before ducking and diving like a boxer (probably a flyweight, given Kari's slight physique). I don't think I've ever seen a more astonishing performer. The only parallel I can think of is the German reed-player, Michael Riessler, who has graced Lakeside Arts Centre on a couple of occasions and whose phenomenal breath control and ability to play chords through singing through his instrument Kari's performance reminded me of. Anyway, if we get the chance to have him here - and we can afford to have him - then I doubt I'll be saying no. So, that's Kari Kriiku - go and see him if you ever get the opportunity.
Finally, I've reached the point where I'm clearing the decks for an assault on the next season brochure. All the orchestras and repertoire are in place and I think (and hope) that it'll be as compelling as the last two. Hopefully you'll agree that it builds on Peter's wonderful work here and that you'll be spoilt for choice. There are a couple of new developments, too, and a quick word or two on these.
The BBC Philharmonic are going to be here in the Autumn with the first of what I hope will be many BBC Radio 3 Discovering Music concerts, where you get the chance to hear a major work in the repertoire and have it pulled apart, probed, interpreted and then reassembled by one of the BBC's leading presenters. We don't yet know who it'll be, but the work? Well, I don't suppose it'll do any harm to name it. Bruckner 6 - and how long is it since we've had a Bruckner symphony here? Too long, probably, but it's good to be able to rectify it with such a great orchestra as the BBC Phil.
The other big development is going to be a late night performance which, with reference to Bartok, Mahler and Mozart (take your pick), we've called NIGHTmusic. It'll be a FREE short slot after a number of main concerts in the season that will allow us to offer you some contemporary music (and not just contemporary) in an informal and welcoming format. So, if you've bemoaned the scarcity of contemporary voices in the season then here you are - new music with a new slot at the Royal Concert Hall.
That's a pretty big post. Time to go, I think - I've got a Drivetime Concert in June that's needing some attention.
Neil
PS If you're wondering why I didn't mention the Concertgebouw when rambling on about Amsterdam it's because they weren't at home when we were there. They were in London. Timing has always been a bit of a problem for me!
Thursday 5 March 2009
Back from Wales
I've just got back from Cardiff where I've been attending the Association of British Orchestras annual conference at the fabulous Millennium Centre, the home of Welsh National Opera . This was my first full conference, in fact. It's a great way to get to know the orchestral profession, thrown together with a couple of hundred delegates representing all the major orchestras in the country, a number of whom we work with pretty regularly. Apart from all the presentations it's a big opportunity to meet some potential future partners and explore some possibilities for future concerts.
And being a representative of a venue puts you in an interesting position, too. Most of the delegates at the conference are from organisations that represent musicians in one shape or form so working for a concert hall gives you a kind of special status - a couple of delegates told me that it was rare to see venue people there at all. From one of the sessions I attended it's clear that the relationship between venues and orchestras isn't always plain sailing so I'm glad that we generally get on very well with our visiting bands.
I was also in the unusual position of being sought out by a few people - mainly agents who recognised a potential hirer! These conference are, of course, business opportunities, too, so I shouldn't have been surprised. And I've been made aware of a couple of interesting artists who I'm going to go and see over the next couple of months. There's a young cellist, for instance, who might find his way into a future Nottingham Classics season and I'll be off to Cadogan Hall in May to go and hear him.
On the subject of future seasons, I'm delighted to say that I've got all the concerts in place now and have only got a couple of pieces to finalise and then it will all be in place. I'll breathe a sigh of relief because it's been quite a long haul and getting a good balance between popular core repertoire and slightly more adventurous works has been quite a challenge. However, I'm quietly confident that you'll find plenty to inspire you. There are also a few new developments which I trust you'll enjoy, including some late night concerts and a BBC Radio 3 Discovering Music concert - a first for us here in Nottingham.
I'm going to be getting my head down over the next couple of months putting the new brochure together and then, in June, all will be revealed, when the new brochure will be available at the last concert in the season. I'll also be presenting the new season in the pre-concert talk slot on 18 June so if you want to know about how the season was put together then I hope you'll join me then.
Bye for now.
Neil
And being a representative of a venue puts you in an interesting position, too. Most of the delegates at the conference are from organisations that represent musicians in one shape or form so working for a concert hall gives you a kind of special status - a couple of delegates told me that it was rare to see venue people there at all. From one of the sessions I attended it's clear that the relationship between venues and orchestras isn't always plain sailing so I'm glad that we generally get on very well with our visiting bands.
I was also in the unusual position of being sought out by a few people - mainly agents who recognised a potential hirer! These conference are, of course, business opportunities, too, so I shouldn't have been surprised. And I've been made aware of a couple of interesting artists who I'm going to go and see over the next couple of months. There's a young cellist, for instance, who might find his way into a future Nottingham Classics season and I'll be off to Cadogan Hall in May to go and hear him.
On the subject of future seasons, I'm delighted to say that I've got all the concerts in place now and have only got a couple of pieces to finalise and then it will all be in place. I'll breathe a sigh of relief because it's been quite a long haul and getting a good balance between popular core repertoire and slightly more adventurous works has been quite a challenge. However, I'm quietly confident that you'll find plenty to inspire you. There are also a few new developments which I trust you'll enjoy, including some late night concerts and a BBC Radio 3 Discovering Music concert - a first for us here in Nottingham.
I'm going to be getting my head down over the next couple of months putting the new brochure together and then, in June, all will be revealed, when the new brochure will be available at the last concert in the season. I'll also be presenting the new season in the pre-concert talk slot on 18 June so if you want to know about how the season was put together then I hope you'll join me then.
Bye for now.
Neil
Subscribe to:
Posts (Atom)
.jpg)