Going to the Pittsburgh Symphony ‘is like a colonoscopy’
OrchestrasViolinist Chris Wu has retired from the orchestra after 36 years.
In a parting interview with the Post-Gazette, he makes caustic comments about life in the orchestra, where the classical audience uptake is running around 50percent.
Unfortunately, the headlines are all we can see online:
Retiring symphony violinist compares classical music to a ‘colonoscopy,’ prescribes personal touch
Pittsburgh Post-Gazette
Chris Wu played violin in the Pittsburgh Symphony for 36 years. He has thoughts on the organization’s future.
UPDATE:
Here’s a longer section:
You don’t think classical music is approachable on its own merits?
These days, I think most people imagine sitting through a classical music concert like a colonoscopy and a root canal.
It’s something that they should do, but nobody wants to go sit still for that long for something they think they won’t enjoy. But if they took the time to actually go with people that have been to it before, they might realize their preconceptions were unfounded.
So all it takes is a personal introduction?
Death and taxes affect everyone — music also affects everyone, no matter where you are in life. At the symphony, we play music that has lasted for centuries. I think there’s a reason so many people still appreciate this music.
That said, culture is always shifting. Everyone is into TikTok now, but 15 years ago it was MySpace. So maybe we need to be open to reimagining the presentation of this music we love, not the music itself.
So what’s next for you?
I’ll be working on ways to bring music to mental health patients. We know anxiety and depression have gotten worse in this country and that pills aren’t the answer for a lot individuals’ situations. Maybe there are some holistic ways that we as musicians can be a part of the solution.
Does he mean he was asleep throughout?!
Conductors sometimes can be a pain in the ass…
With a little re-working, that could be the blurb on a billboard for the gastroenterologist who does his colonoscopies,
Yea, as good as a PSO concert
You are so off base with that article, Norm. Here’s the full quote. Do better!
You don’t think classical music is approachable on its own merits?
These days, I think most people imagine sitting through a classical music concert like a colonoscopy and a root canal.
It’s something that they should do, but nobody wants to go sit still for that long for something they think they won’t enjoy. But if they took the time to actually go with people that have been to it before, they might realize their preconceptions were unfounded.
i took somebody who had never been
to a concert it was
Mozart piano trios.
they were amazed
how good the music
was.
If you took the time to read the whole article, you would see that the expanded quote is documented with even more context than you gave. Do better!
The article is behind the paywall of a regional U.S. newspaper. A subscription to the Pittsburgh Post-Gazette is a complete waste of money for anyone outside of Pittsburgh. The headline is available, and it said what it said until it was “updated” I suggest you go tell your local newspaper to “do better”, you condescending tool.
Chris has been a dear friend for decades. A fantastic musician, colleague, and human being…one of the truly good guys.
He wasn’t talking about playing!
“ You don’t think classical music is approachable on its own merits?
These days, I think most people imagine sitting through a classical music concert like a colonoscopy and a root canal.
It’s something that they should do, but nobody wants to go sit still for that long for something they think they won’t enjoy. But if they took the time to actually go with people that have been to it before, they might realize their preconceptions were unfounded.”
Did classical music save his life?
I’m not sure if this link will work, but if you register with the Post-Gazette you can read it for free
https://www.post-gazette.com/ae/music/2024/08/08/pittsburgh-symphony-violinist-christopher-wu/stories/202408060089
From the article:
Q: You don’t think classical music is approachable on its own merits?
A: These days, I think most people imagine sitting through a classical music concert like a colonoscopy and a root canal.
It’s something that they should do, but nobody wants to go sit still for that long for something they think they won’t enjoy. But if they took the time to actually go with people that have been to it before, they might realize their preconceptions were unfounded.
“These days, I think most people imagine sitting through a classical music concert like a colonoscopy and a root canal.”
NL remember the PSA message from the 70s: “Reading is Fundamental”
– Practicing is like prepping for colonoscopy?
– Walking on stage is like walking into the exam room in a hospital gown with your ass exposed?
– Performing is like exposing your butthole to a room of strangers?
– Critics are like proctologists staring up your anus; probing and looking for the slightest sign of abnormality?
– Reading the reviews is like reading the the colonoscopy results, you pray everything went well?
(While we’re on the topic, readers who are doctors out there, I always wanted to ask mine: how and when did you first want to be a proctologist and devote the rest of your life to old men and women anuses?)
For the reluctant audience, it’s like a painful operation. “These days, I think most people imagine sitting through a classical music concert like a colonoscopy and a root canal.” The headline for this entry is misleading.
Chet, you forgot the anesthesiologist …
https://archive.ph/mAVBD
^link to archived copy of article
Some of the most miserable people I have ever met are string players in certain orchestras….
I’ve had a ‘colonoscopy’. I can tell you- I much prefer going to classical concerts!
It’s unfortunate that you tarnish so much of the good on your site, with these sorts of heinous, click-baity distortions.
Personally I don’t want to listen to pedophiles, rapists and predators play music. That’s why I stopped going.
As Woody Allen once said : “ Death is like Colonoscopy: Problem is that life is like prep day”
So it is not so much going to the Pittsburgh Symphony itself that is “like” a colonoscopy, but what he assumes listening to ANY classical music is like for the uninitiated. And he may have a point. He could as easily have said it is like going to the dentist, going through an IRS audit, listening to a time-share spiel, or any number of other notoriously unpleasant things.
The difference is of course NOBODY likes those things. Many people do like classical music, and a fair number realize they like it, or at least some of it, after initial exposure.
I think what Chris meant to say is something we all observe and fear, that concert music sometimes gets stiff by our inability to quickly reshape our game in an ever-faster-changing social environment.
He uses embellished words because he is an artist and that is how expression (verbal or musical) comes naturally to him, and to all of us. I don’t think he is being literal, nor putting down the concertgoing experience. He is having a conversation, not writing a treaty or Doctorate thesis.
As a for instance, “sfz” is an emphasis, not a sign of aggression. We musicians understand that and know about “nuance” in music performance. We are capable of judging whether a person meant harm or is merely being verbally artistic.
Congratulations, Chris, on 36 brilliant years in the brilliant Pittsburgh Symphony! And thank you for being you.
Chris: Going to the symphony is not like getting a colonoscopy.
Norman: Chris says going to the symphony is like getting a colonoscopy.
A New Low here.
Always glad to read what Chet thinks.
Dear old Chris. I first met him in Santa Barbara, summer of 1982, and we were fellow students of Zvi Zeitlin from 83 to 87. I think he switched to Don Weilerstein the last two years. Lovely guy. I wrote a piece for him and Tom Wiebe in 87. I wish him the best.
Sounds like he should have retired a long time ago.
This guy is enlightened. I actually the occasional colonoscopy…
The entire exchange in that interview is bizarre. No normal person who has experienced a colonoscopy or a root canal – and I’ve had several of each – would consider either to be analogous to a classical music concert, literally or figuratively.
Not even one by the Pittsburgh Symphony Orchestra. Boring? Sure. Stuffy? Almost certainly. Stacked to the rafters with insufferable bores like the Pittsburghanians who have taken such umbrage at this post? Absolutely. Warranting a fentanyl drip to offset the discomfort of having your colon inflated like a ballon? Uh, no, sorry.
Maybe much of the anxiety and depression has something to do with everybody being into TikTok?
Classical is subject to so many misconceptions among those who don’t listen to it: it’s boring, you have to be ‘smart’ to appreciate it, it’s ‘elitist’ (some truth there, but it’s not the music itself that’s elitist), it’s ‘good for you’, like spinach. Seems most in younger generations think of music only as vocal, hence the term ‘song’ used for all tracks on music services (4 “songs” in a Beethoven symphony). When you hear the often inane interviews with musicians on mainstream media, they almost never talk about music, they discuss the lyrics, referring to those as the ‘music’. Mixing it with rock, or other attempts to popularize it mostly don’t work. Classical hasn’t died yet, so I guess we should be happy we discovered it for ourselves
This is appalling, Norman. Mr. Wu does not compare hearing the Pittsburgh Symphony to a colonoscopy. Your headline is a lie. He says many people IMAGINE that attending a classical concert is rather like that medical procedure, and then explains at some length how this perception is inaccurate.
There are two possibilities here. Either you were incapable of comprehending what he said or you intentionally distorted it to generate clicks. Hard to say which option puts you in a worse light.
Can’t you do better, Norman?
Hmm. I’m Boston based. Symphony Hall and Tanglewood are typically near or at capacity. Pittsburgh Symphony, put out a statement saying: “It’s Not Me; It’s Wu”.
What a way to misquote, Slippedisc, just to bait readers. Your headline is not at all what he said or what he meant. Why not “Retiring Pburgh Symphony Violinist Working to Bring Music to Mental Health?”
He is the best
Best wishes on your retirement, Chris! I love that you want to take music to people struggling with mental health issues.
Lynn Rilling
American orchestras just play like computers with no soul and emotion. Maybe people would enjoy concerts if they were musical, without reformatting everything
The headline writer went for dramatic exploration, not accuracy in reporting. This prejudicial headline misrepresents Chris Wu’s words and point. Years sgo I read and valued the Post Gazette. About 17 years ago I realize the owners cared nothing about truth or community and stopped my subscription and didn’t miss reading it. After coming across this article, I know the journalistic quality deteriorated more over the interceding years.
Trust you to accentuate the negative and take a quote out of context. Do you ever find anything positive to repot on?
Cheers for you Mr. Wu. Good luck in your new and worthy endeavor.