Deborah Borda offers ‘unexpected solutions’
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Tomorrow evening at 6pm CET (12 Noon EST/9 AM PST) Deborah Borda, President and CEO of the New York Philharmonic will present “Unexpected Solutions — A Consideration of Positive Outcomes and Potential Growth Arising from the Pandemic”.
In “Kirill Gerstein invites” hosted by Kronberg Academy, Deborah asks “When does a crisis lead to opportunity for change? If orchestras are indeed a microcosm of the performing arts and, indeed, society, let’s explore what took place in the life of a single institution — one of the oldest and most iconic in the United States. The New York Philharmonic played without pause through the Spanish Flu epidemic, the American Civil War and two World Wars, but in the face of Covid it ground to a full halt. What has been the pathway through this crisis, and what were major points of inflection and decision?
This is a period of profound questioning for all arts institutions as the unimaginable became reality. It has led to what we might truly term an existential crisis, questioning who we are at this point in time — who do we believe we should be? What might change look like? Were there lessons we learned from this unexpected “bomb,” and will anything really change? What unexpected solutions might we discover?”
Register here.
It all boils down to the central question: why do we have classical music at all and where is it for, in the context of the modern world? What is its relevance?
For instance, if the art form is adapted to the needs of the modern world (a requirement often heard today), the first thing that has to be defined is what these needs are. More visuals? More pop and film music? More glamour? And less difference with the world outside the concert hall? More stuff around the concert so that it can better compete with football matches, the cinema, video games, wide screen home TV netflix series? More dining and entertainment in the foyers? More nudity, glitter and more gossip? More fashion model style soloist brands? More orchestral staff to check diversity? More queer and feminist restructuring of the programming policy? More sound art to bridge the gap with the experience of the traffic peak hour? Bigger and newer halls that look like stranded spaceships so that audiences are reassured that listening to that old deaf white patriarchal dominating bastard Beethoven who was a member of a feudal colonializing society and took money from decadent lazy aristocrats can be morally and aesthetically safe? I just mention a couple of things that immediately spring to mind.
Your examples seem to assume that adapting means dumbing down and is negative, which is not necessarily the case. For example, adapting to the modern world by adopting historically informed performance practices based on academic research is quite the opposite (whether you approve of it, or not).
HIP is, it seems to me, not ‘adapting to the modern world’ but – in spite of the modern world – an attempt to get closer to what probably is an authentic practice of the past. Although a product of modern times, it is as much a reaction to them, an attempt to get ‘out of the box’ of our own time and to revive the past. Where it becomes a product of modernity, it just goes wrong, for instance in the idea that baroque music was fast, hard, with stressed beats, shortcut phrases, etc. HIP is a wonderful enrichment of music life…. has revived much of the beauty of past eras.
If you spent 1/10th of the time you do writing in this blog perhaps you may be able to transcend your limitations and rise to become a mediocre composer.
Keep the faith!
It’s what I say on a daily basis! Other people relax in a simple way without bothering others, or play chess with themselves. It’s not easy here, with all those angry people on the phone and at the gate.
Sally
More Muti!
Entertainment will follow, on and off the stage.
Well lets analyse this shall we.
1.Opening Paragraph
“ It all boils down to the central question: why do we have classical music at all and where is it for, in the context of the modern world? What is its relevance? “
We do not ‘have” classical music. it is created by by people in response to situations. That situation could be a commission,or perhaps a response to a situation. Music is also performed and that do changes and adapts according to societal mores and needs.
If you ever attended a Roger Norrington concert then this changing performance style is usually outlined by Sir Roger.
So the opening paragraph is both confused an inaccurate. It needs work to make a more cogent argument.
2. “if the art form is adapted”
Music is not adapted it evolves. It is also purloined by people to serve their own purpose,usually nefarious. Wagner as a symbol of Aryan purity to name but one example.
3. “ More visuals? More pop and film music? More glamour? ”
Go to Teatro San Carlo in Napoli. Wonderful acoustics and of course filled with boxes and mirrors where you could conduct affairs,seduce,gossip,preen and of course be seen. Music and classical performances have always been filled with all the things you suggest are terrible.
4. Queer Music? Oops out goes Tchaikovsky then.
On the plus side your post sums up the decay and degeneration of the old brigade in music.
That’s why we always need renewal.
Vive La Revolution
I’m dictated here. 1) With classical music he meant the entire concert practice including the works, it seems. O, and you should read more carefully I hear. 2) Crazy to lay Wagner on the table, does not make any argument. And it’s about the critical voices who want adapting. Again, it’s a reading problem, I hear. 3) Italians are crazy anyway and not to be taken seriously. 4) You should be locked-up for years. Well, talking about conservatism!
Sally
“Well lets analyse this shall we.”
Well, let’s analyse some of this, shall we?
1. DP. We do not ‘have” classical music. it is created by by people in response to situations. That situation could be a commission,or perhaps a response to a situation. Music is also performed and that do changes and adapts according to societal mores and needs.
If you ever attended a Roger Norrington concert then this changing performance style is usually outlined by Sir Roger.
So the opening paragraph is both confused an inaccurate. It needs work to make a more cogent argument.”
It needs work to make a more cogent argument!
2. DP ” Music is not adapted it evolves.” The two things are not mutually exclusive.
DP “3. Go to Teatro San Carlo … boxes and mirrors where you could conduct affairs … Music and classical performances have always been filled with all the things you suggest are terrible.”
a) Teatro di San Carlo … boxes with mirrors (difficult to conduct an affair in a mirror).
b) The way audiences behaved in the opera house would not have been acceptable at orchestral concerts or recitals. Concerts were held in rooms or halls where there were no boxes.
c) Did “film music”, “orchestral staff to check diversity”, or “sound art” exist in Mozart’s day?
d) Music and classical performances are not coterminous.
Borstlap. “queer and feminist restructuring of the programming policy”
DP. “4. Queer Music? Oops out goes Tchaikovsky then.”
Work on your reading and comprehension skills, pay more attention to your writing (punctuation especially), and then maybe, just maybe, you will be qualified to talk about cogent argumentation.
Vive la révolution! À la lanterne!
Pertty good writ,sir….good shot at the awful resentment blabber let off by the flatulent heads that,oh,need say more?
Y’er kidding me!
If she had answers to any of these questions, she’d be the head of the CDC and the WHO.
If classical music is the place to go to look for these answers, then I’m going to the CDC for my next concert.
Anthony Faucci ought to be the next president of the Philharmonic.
Your examples are terrible. All one can infer from them is Borda is not corrupt enough. Try some others…
Yeah, I’ve got an unexpected solution for ya right here.
“If orchestras are indeed a microcosm of the performing arts and, indeed, society…”
Orchestras are a microcosm of society, really?
It’s a bit a shortcut. The orchestra is a symbol of society in the sense that it represents a diverse community (all those different isntruments!) in intense collaboration in the service of civilization. But the function of the conductor makes this a bit questionable, since there is no democratic discussion about every turn of a musical phrase.
Yes.
The conductor, who is gesticulating a beat behind, is Biden.
The concertmistress, whom every player is watching for the real beat, is Harris.
The oboist, who gives the A to the orchestra, is AOC.
The off stage trumpets are the Republicans.
Probably the only arts administrator whose wisdom I would listen to, before or after the pandemic.
Oh, Tired, you disappoint me, with all your experience.
The chances that the orchestras will change in any fundamental way are practically zero. Does anyone think the the AFM will agree to any fundamental changes once audiences return. Dollars to donuts we will go back to what we had before, a relatively small tier of top level, fairly well funded orchestras with declining revenues and increasing expenses, with lower tiered orchestras looking at basically the same issues but more pronounced in terms of diminishing resources.
Without the AFM, musicians would be playing concerts as an avocation, if at all.
I want to know why the Philadelphia Orchestra immediately adapted with many site specific concerts which were then streamed. And a weekly concert from pre covid on Sirius. Rtc, etc. The NY Phil? A pickup truck.
I’m listening…Borda’s a very articulate and thoughtful person. Lucky Phil.
And think, if Beverly Sills hadn’t been bamboozled and strong armed by Ronald Wilford, Borda would be in control of a healthy Metropolitan Opera. She continues to run healthy and successful operations and has performed admirably during the pandemic.