I've been looking at the heavens and checking the five day forecast more than usual recently. And the reason for this unusual meteorological interest? Well, it's just that tomorrow - Sunday 31 January - we could well have our first sell-out concert in the time that I've been working on Nottingham Classics. A momentous occasion, particularly given that it's Mahler's massive 2nd Symphony, but one that could - my pessimistic side keeps telling me - be hampered by the arrival of snow. Heaven knows we ought to have had our quota this January but cast your mind back a year and you may remember the Bournemouth Symphony Orchestra concert being afflicted by a sudden, though brief, blizzard.
The effect was to dissuade quite a few people from making the trip to the Royal Concert Hall, meaning that they missed out on Andrew Litton's' fabulous interpretation of Walton's 1st Symphony. I know that quite a few of our Newark and Lincoln regulars didn't make it here which, I'm sure, was a big disappointment to them, and I can't help worrying (or at least my over-anxious alter ego does) that something might happen to rain (or rather) snow on our parade.
And all the more disappointing it would be given that this is the biggest audience that Mahler's had in Nottingham for many a year - well before I came to live here, I'd imagine. And I'd certainly not predicted such a high level of interest. To be honest I'd actually earmarked the CBSO on 4 February as our star performer and yet, very well though it's doing, it's certainly not going to overhaul the Mahler. It just goes to show that you just can't predict how your audience is going to react to a particular programme. I started to wonder whether the presence of Shostakovich in the CBSO's all-Russian programme might be the factor that prevents the CBSO from topping 2000 attenders. Until this year, Shostakovich tended to attract very similar audiences to Mahler - a sign that he's very popular in a certain constituent of attenders but a bit scary for more traditional tastes. Maybe it's the intensity of his sound-world, or at least a perception that he's a tad forceful. What do you reckon?
Whatever the reason, it seems that some of our regulars are going to miss Andris Nelsons this year - a great shame because he's certainly the most exciting conductor I've seen in many years - and he's still only 31. The CBSO must find it hard not to smile to themselves every day, knowing that they pipped several other orchestras when they signed him up.
I'll leave it up to you to decide whether he's Latvia's most exciting export this century. I need to wind this up because it's Saturday and I'd like to get out of the RCH office, where I'm catching up on a few things caused by somehow scheduling the busiest two weeks for live classical msuic here in a very long while. The most unusual of these is the Pianothon, a completely new venture, which was sparked by one of my City Council colleagues, Sharon Scaniglia, who wanted some live music as part of Light Night on 12 February. We're always keen to try something a bit out of the ordinary but this one really is a bit different, with ten pianists (of all types, not all classical, in fact) taking it in turns to play the Concert Hall's Bosendorfer from 6pm till midnight. Who knows how it'll turn out? But there are some very special talents taking part so it'll definitely be worth you dropping in to hear some of them, particularly given that it's free. You can find out more by visiting www.nottinghamclassics.org.uk/pianothon, where there's a schedule, a list fo programmes and short biogs of each performer.
That's it from me. One more task and then I'm off home - probably to check the weather forecast again.
Saturday 30 January 2010
Thursday 14 January 2010
How long has it been!
Oh dear! I've gone the way of several bloggers and have very quiet for a number of months. Plenty of reasons why, of course - largely to do with the widening of my role here at the Royal Concert Hall - but really that's not much of an excuse. So here's a New Year's Resolution - at least one post every fortnight and we'll see if I can stick to it!
So what's been happening over the last three months? The first bit of good news is that despite all the economic gloom, Nottingham Classics audiences are still going up. So far we are ahead of target on every concert, which is a reassuring position to be in during times like these. And, touch wood, this looks like continuing into 2010. Most striking is the response to Mahler's Second Symphony. In previous seasons Mahler has performed very creditably, thank you, with audiences around 1500 but from sales so far it looks like we could have a full house on 31 January. A campaign to recruit new Mahler audiences from our regular concert-goers has been enthusiastically received, so much so that we might not be able to offer quite so many standby seats on the day of the concert - a situation that I've not encountered in my time working for Nottingham Classics.
Having just been away for three weeks in New Zealand the scenes of snow-engulfed cars and skating rink pavements when Deb and I returned last Sunday were an unwelcome start to the New Year but now that the jet lag has worn off the next few months look a lot more exciting. Almost immediately after the Mahler performance we welcome one of the most astonishing young conducting talents in the world when Andris Nelsons visits Nottingham for the first time with the CBSO. If you haven't seen him before then, whatever you do, don't miss the all-Russian concert on 4 February - he's a phenomenal talent and has the most extraordinary chemistry with an orchestra that I've ever seen (you can find out more about him in Richard Morrison's article for The Times - click here to read it). The very next day we'll be welcoming over 3500 Nottinghamshire schoolkids for Now Hear This, the Nottingham Classics Schools' Concert with the Hallé, now so popular that we're now running two performances the same day. And then, just a couple of weeks later we've got the Czech National Symphony Orchestra here with legendary conductor, Libor Pesek.
Whilst all of this is going on, I'll be finalising next season's programme. As ever, there are a few concert items being negotiated but much of it is now in place and I think it's looking pretty strong, though time will tell, of course. There are some new developments, too, which I can't mention just yet but which will definitely add another dimension to the series. AFTER:hours will continue, too - the success of our opening event (with ViVA performing Adams, Vivaldi and Glass to a large and lively crowd) has encouraged us to go boldly on with offering more music beyond the mainstream in an informal ambience.
Oh, and the Beeb will be back with another instalment of Radio 3's Discovering Music. Our audience for Bruckner 6 was the largest that the BBC Phil have played to in one of these concerts, so thanks to everyone for supporting it and putting us on the broadcasting map. No news yet of a transmission date for the programme but I'll let you know when I get it.
Right - I've got several hundred posters that need sending out, so that's my afternoon sorted. Watch out for the next blog in a fortnight (otherwise I'll be inflicting some kind of forfeit on myself).
So what's been happening over the last three months? The first bit of good news is that despite all the economic gloom, Nottingham Classics audiences are still going up. So far we are ahead of target on every concert, which is a reassuring position to be in during times like these. And, touch wood, this looks like continuing into 2010. Most striking is the response to Mahler's Second Symphony. In previous seasons Mahler has performed very creditably, thank you, with audiences around 1500 but from sales so far it looks like we could have a full house on 31 January. A campaign to recruit new Mahler audiences from our regular concert-goers has been enthusiastically received, so much so that we might not be able to offer quite so many standby seats on the day of the concert - a situation that I've not encountered in my time working for Nottingham Classics.
Having just been away for three weeks in New Zealand the scenes of snow-engulfed cars and skating rink pavements when Deb and I returned last Sunday were an unwelcome start to the New Year but now that the jet lag has worn off the next few months look a lot more exciting. Almost immediately after the Mahler performance we welcome one of the most astonishing young conducting talents in the world when Andris Nelsons visits Nottingham for the first time with the CBSO. If you haven't seen him before then, whatever you do, don't miss the all-Russian concert on 4 February - he's a phenomenal talent and has the most extraordinary chemistry with an orchestra that I've ever seen (you can find out more about him in Richard Morrison's article for The Times - click here to read it). The very next day we'll be welcoming over 3500 Nottinghamshire schoolkids for Now Hear This, the Nottingham Classics Schools' Concert with the Hallé, now so popular that we're now running two performances the same day. And then, just a couple of weeks later we've got the Czech National Symphony Orchestra here with legendary conductor, Libor Pesek.
Whilst all of this is going on, I'll be finalising next season's programme. As ever, there are a few concert items being negotiated but much of it is now in place and I think it's looking pretty strong, though time will tell, of course. There are some new developments, too, which I can't mention just yet but which will definitely add another dimension to the series. AFTER:hours will continue, too - the success of our opening event (with ViVA performing Adams, Vivaldi and Glass to a large and lively crowd) has encouraged us to go boldly on with offering more music beyond the mainstream in an informal ambience.
Oh, and the Beeb will be back with another instalment of Radio 3's Discovering Music. Our audience for Bruckner 6 was the largest that the BBC Phil have played to in one of these concerts, so thanks to everyone for supporting it and putting us on the broadcasting map. No news yet of a transmission date for the programme but I'll let you know when I get it.
Right - I've got several hundred posters that need sending out, so that's my afternoon sorted. Watch out for the next blog in a fortnight (otherwise I'll be inflicting some kind of forfeit on myself).
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