Yo Yo Ma’s biggest audience?
mainYo Yo’s free concert at Millennium Park Chicago this week of the 6 Bach suites.
Photo: CSO cellist Brant Taylor
Yo Yo Ma has been Creative Consultant to the Chicago Symphony Orchestra for the past decade.
His Thursday performance shocked one spectator into verse:
…. Face to face, Ma and the crowd
Hangin’ out at the bandshell
Folks filled the park ‘till they spilled in the street
For the thrill to hear Bach come alive..
Read on here.
Ladies and Gentlemen,
As we all know, Classical music is dead and no one comes to concerts.
Old Man in the Midwest
Looks like a Trump rally
More people here than a Trump rally and more people here than at the Inauguration…………..
Yes, Bach wrote these pieces with a huge venue like this in mind, so it is gratifying to see it finally come to pass. I hope that in keeping with historically informed practice, the recital was not amplified…
Bach used amplification when appropriate and available.
Interesting wrinkle in Yo-Yo Ma’s visit: Apparently he bailed on another concert because there was an association with the fiery activist Louis Farrakhan. https://chicago.suntimes.com/columnists/2019/6/22/18701155/priest-michael-pfleger-says-yo-yo-ma-concert-cancels-farrakhan-speech-anti-semitic-st-sabina
“Activist”???
Bigger than any of Trump’s….
No, it couldn’t possibly be his “biggest audience” because Pritzker Pavilion can only accommodate about 11000 people. In early September of 2017 Yo-Yo Ma played this same program of all six cello suites by Bach at Hollywood Bowl in Los Angeles for at least 17000 listeners – the venue was almost completely sold out. The entire audience was reportedly extremely quiet and attentive. Of course several of his televised performances were witnessed by far greater numbers of viewers.
interesting
why is he judge by the number of people participating ? instead of his great performance?