Year-end news: Concertgebouw has lost one-third of its patrons
NewsThe Amsterdam concerthall building had 550,000 visitors this year, its highest since before Covid.
But the numbers, while rising, are nowhere near the 2019 level of 750,000 visitors.
In addition, there are soaring costs.
Press release:
General director of the Concertgebouw Simon Reinink is pleased with the number of visitors for 2022: ‘Due to the lockdown at the beginning of the year and the subsequent slow start of ticket sales, visitor numbers at the beginning of the year were considerably disappointing. We are therefore very pleased that visitor numbers have picked up in the course of 2022. ‘ But there are also major concerns about 2023: ‘Despite the recovering ticket sales, we are confronted with a huge increase in costs, mainly due to energy costs. Because The Concertgebouw is responsible for 95% of its own income, that makes us extra vulnerable.’
Unique visitors? Does this include people who do the tour and doesn’t attend a performance?
If one counts unique concertgoers you’d be lucky to have more than 10-20K.
Its time to defund these expensive institutions that only old farts frequent and do something more valuable with the real estate.
The dutch are good at that – turning old churches into dance clubs.
I suggest a nice restaurant or prime space for a tech incubator.
The concertgebouw orchestra can play in a nice Garage for the 10 people who care…
Presume you’re saying this tongue in cheek. Culture should be able to embrace not just the young (dance halls, clubs) but old farts too. And if you’re a classical music lover, the Concertgebouw is an iconic building and a great orchestra which I (as a Londoner) would not want to lose.
That’s right. And they can put all the paintings in the Rijksmuseum up for sale and reconfigure the building for tech start-ups and the accompanying Starbucks.
Further since Amsterdam is chronically short of housing, they can use the parks for giant housing projects.
We waste so much money on cultural institutions and public parks!!
Maybe you should read more carefully, 95% is own income. Besides that, the restaurants in Amsterdam are profiting a lot from the Concertgebouw.
The concert hall with its tremendous acoustics add a lot of economic value to the city and The Netherlands. But above all, the experience from listening a concert in the Concertgebouw is like heaven. You should try it once!
Irony or attention seeking? Difficult to tell on this site.
The former, I hope.
Obviously ironic despair in this comment… understandable. New generations are raised with environment and woke
or feminist issues as only horizon, taste for beauty, complexity is not on the agenda……winter is coming hard….
Dance clubs??? You seem to not be that young eighter.
‘But the numbers, while rising, are nowhere near the 2019 level of 750,000 visitors’. Well of course they aren’t because so many concerts were cancelled at the beginning of the year, and then inevitably there was a slow pick up after the end of the lockdown. I’ve been to several concerts of the Netherlands Philharmonic Orchestra under Lorenzo Viotti this year, and the turn out has been very large, seemingly full, or as near as. I’d say these figures are very impressive, and fingers crossed they continue to pick up over the course of the next year.
I’m pretty sure that it’s all Riccardo Muti’s fault.
Peter Gelb’s.
The other Riccardo, the good one to see tokay, will come back in March for few concerts.
Headlines like these are not fake news, but they make us all dumber. The Dutch government didn’t ged rid of all their covid ideas until September and there was a full lockdown at the beginning of the year. That considered, I find these numbers quite impressive.
maybe patrons and other are sick of awaking nonsense, being lectured on PC US-style garbage and corona fiascos that was dictated on the customers. Folks are voting with their wallets. Good.
“Despite the recovering ticket sales, we are confronted with a huge increase in costs, mainly due to energy costs.”
One small glimpse of the completely intended and designed fall-out of “green” policies. First you lose your music, and soon you’ll be eating bugs.
Not to worry, in the golden age of classical music, halls were unheated and lit by candles.
Good thing about classical music is that it’s all acoustics instruments, not one thing to plug into the wall.
Audience members should sit bundled in their finest furs and use their cell phones as flash lights to get to the restrooms.
Um, you do know that there is a war going on in Ukraine, don’t you? Might have a little to do with it.
Compared to how some of the robots of 2022 play, bugs sound appetizing.
If soaring energy costs are the main component of fiscal strain, then perhaps the orchestra and hall could solicit support in the form of a subsidy from Royal Dutch Shell.
People need to be reminded that the Concertgebouworkest and the venue are two independent entities, each with its own visitor/subscriber base. The orchestra’s concerts are always well-attended. I heard one of Klaus Mäkelä’s performances last week with the orchestra: two new works in the first half and Stravinsky’s complete Firebird in the second. The hall was packed, and I was delighted to see so many young people in attendance.
The calendar of the Concertgebouw is full of concerts of jazz or pop… Noramally for the RCO concerts it’s always 100%. There are also some concerts by other dutch orchestras with a lot of specators.
If they think the answer is their MD to be I predict they will be disappointed. I just tried listening to a performance of the Dvorak 9th he led with them and after 6 head shakes, with hair flying in all directions, and assorted facial contortions in the first 4 minutes I gave up. In every performance I’ve watched his approach is the same 0.5 p to ffff every 30-45 seconds. In this “performance” the first time the trombones entered you would have thought Dante’s Inferno was the inspiration. In fairness the suit probably cost 3000 euro and hair styling 150 euro but opting for contacts rather than glasses failed to affect the necessary sobriety.
The answer to what? The article is about average attendance at the Concertgebouw venue. The orchestra’s concerts there are always well attended, no matter who the conductor.
They had a skilled and dynamic conductor: Daniele Gatti. Then came the sexual allegations crisis – no more Gatti. Then the Concertgebouw floundered around with various different conductors, with little overall guidance. Then the pandemic hit, followed by the recent uptick in energy and transportation costs. Since Covid and various flu bugs are still around, tourism is still far less than it once was. Is it any wonder?