{"id":1258,"date":"2008-10-10T16:42:54","date_gmt":"2008-10-10T23:42:54","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.nobleviola.com\/wordpress\/?p=1258"},"modified":"2008-10-10T18:31:50","modified_gmt":"2008-10-11T01:31:50","slug":"interesting-mediocre-horrible-or-simply-practical","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.nobleviola.com\/wordpress\/2008\/10\/10\/interesting-mediocre-horrible-or-simply-practical\/","title":{"rendered":"interesting, mediocre, horrible – or simply practical?"},"content":{"rendered":"

Stephen Marc Beaudoin takes a look at this year’s OSO programming, and he doesn’t like much of what he sees.\u00c2\u00a0 Here’s a brief sample:<\/p>\n

The Oregon Symphony is playing fifteen Classical Series concerts this season. Five of the programs are terrible<\/strong>. I will hasten to add that an additional two of them are mediocre.<\/p>\n

Of the fifteen, I find but three of them to be really inspired and hey, three out of fifteen is a good place to start, Oregon Symphony. The rest I could take or leave (but won’t attend). So on the whole, I find more than half of the Symphony’s Classical Series concerts to be utterly and thoroughly uncompelling. I’m sorry, more than uncompelling: dead on arrival. (Beethoven, Brahms, Mozart and Tchaik make a number of appearances)<\/p><\/blockquote>\n

Read the complete post here<\/a>.<\/p>\n

It’s one of those posts that have me straddling the fence – I’m not so much opposed to the content as in the way it is presented.\u00c2\u00a0 I do have to say that I’m shocked that anyone would hate the Brahms Violin Concerto so much, but it is possible that Anne Midgette has made anti-Brahms sentiment the critical default mode.<\/p>\n

Part of the puzzle of putting together programs is that to get a “name” artist, you have to book several seasons ahead.\u00c2\u00a0 At that time, there is often no repertoire attached to the artist – you don’t know exactly what the artist will have on offer until maybe a year ahead of time.\u00c2\u00a0 So, while Josh Bell could play Corigliano or Bernstein, he wasn’t offering those pieces this year, so we got Mendelssohn.<\/p>\n

What you see this year is programming that is trying to tread a delicate balance between being stimulating for the cognoscenti and at the same time having no small amount of populist appeal (i.e., butts in seats).<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Stephen Marc Beaudoin takes a look at this year’s OSO programming, and he doesn’t like much of what he sees.\u00c2\u00a0 Here’s a brief sample: The Oregon Symphony is playing fifteen Classical Series concerts this season. Five of the programs are terrible. I will hasten to add that an additional two of them are mediocre. Of […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":303,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_jetpack_newsletter_access":"","_jetpack_dont_email_post_to_subs":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_tier_id":0,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paywalled_content":false,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":"","jetpack_publicize_message":"","jetpack_publicize_feature_enabled":true,"jetpack_social_post_already_shared":false,"jetpack_social_options":{"image_generator_settings":{"template":"highway","default_image_id":0,"font":"","enabled":false},"version":2},"jetpack_post_was_ever_published":false},"categories":[148,225,115,1045,2],"tags":[3668,323,887],"class_list":["post-1258","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-appreciations","category-bloggers","category-music","category-programming-music","category-the-orchestra-world","tag-oregon-symphony","tag-programming","tag-stephen-marc-beaudoin"],"jetpack_publicize_connections":[],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"","jetpack_shortlink":"https:\/\/wp.me\/pa8kC-ki","jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"jetpack_likes_enabled":true,"jetpack-related-posts":[{"id":511,"url":"https:\/\/www.nobleviola.com\/wordpress\/2007\/11\/02\/more-ink-on-the-oso\/","url_meta":{"origin":1258,"position":0},"title":"more ink on the OSO","author":"Charles Noble","date":"November 2, 2007","format":false,"excerpt":"Stephen Marc Beaudoin just wrote a piece for Crosscut which is entitled \"Can Anyone Fix the Oregon Symphony?\".\u00c2\u00a0 Squarely in his sights is the newly-formed collaboration with Pink Martini front man Thomas Lauderdale.\u00c2\u00a0 Clearly, Beaudoin does not know of Lauderdale's training as a classical pianist, for he seems to find\u2026","rel":"","context":"In "music"","block_context":{"text":"music","link":"https:\/\/www.nobleviola.com\/wordpress\/category\/music\/"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"","width":0,"height":0},"classes":[]},{"id":518,"url":"https:\/\/www.nobleviola.com\/wordpress\/2007\/11\/06\/oregonian-critic-on-oso-woes\/","url_meta":{"origin":1258,"position":1},"title":"oregonian critic on OSO woes","author":"Charles Noble","date":"November 6, 2007","format":false,"excerpt":"Oregonian classical music critic David Stabler just wrote an entry on his blog which talks about the recent Crosscut article and his take on the state of the orchestra. He comes out swinging on the merits of the piece: Stephen Beaudoin is right about one thing in his doomy Crosscut\u2026","rel":"","context":"In "appreciation"","block_context":{"text":"appreciation","link":"https:\/\/www.nobleviola.com\/wordpress\/category\/music\/appreciations\/"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"","width":0,"height":0},"classes":[]},{"id":516,"url":"https:\/\/www.nobleviola.com\/wordpress\/2007\/11\/06\/oso-president-responds-to-crosscut-article\/","url_meta":{"origin":1258,"position":2},"title":"OSO president responds to Crosscut article","author":"Charles Noble","date":"November 6, 2007","format":false,"excerpt":"[This was forwarded to me by OSO president Elaine Calder - a truncated version will be published at Crosscut.com.] Response to: \u00e2\u20ac\u0153Can Anybody fix the Oregon Symphony?\u00e2\u20ac\u009d Stephen Marc Beaudoin Crosscut Seattle Friday, November 2nd, 2007 Of course it will take more than an endorsement from Thomas Lauderdale to fix\u2026","rel":"","context":"In "appreciation"","block_context":{"text":"appreciation","link":"https:\/\/www.nobleviola.com\/wordpress\/category\/music\/appreciations\/"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"","width":0,"height":0},"classes":[]},{"id":3851,"url":"https:\/\/www.nobleviola.com\/wordpress\/2010\/01\/19\/songs-for-haiti-benefit-thursday\/","url_meta":{"origin":1258,"position":3},"title":"songs for haiti benefit thursday","author":"Charles Noble","date":"January 19, 2010","format":false,"excerpt":"This is the first local, large-scale benefit for victims of the Hatian earthquake that I know of, organized by local dynamo\/musician\/blogger\/organizer Stephen Marc Beaudoin. \u00a0It's called Songs for Haiti, and it features a who's who of local Portland's classical and non-classical musicians. \u00a0And it benefits Mercy Corps, which is notable\u2026","rel":"","context":"In "fundraising"","block_context":{"text":"fundraising","link":"https:\/\/www.nobleviola.com\/wordpress\/category\/fundraising\/"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"","width":0,"height":0},"classes":[]},{"id":776,"url":"https:\/\/www.nobleviola.com\/wordpress\/2008\/02\/15\/3-thoughts-3-links\/","url_meta":{"origin":1258,"position":4},"title":"3 thoughts, 3 links","author":"Charles Noble","date":"February 15, 2008","format":false,"excerpt":"A few thoughts, then a few links - good enough for a Friday, I think. First, three thoughts: 1. Bizet's Symphony in C - love to listen to it - it's a gem of the repertoire (and features a drop-dead gorgeous oboe solo by principal oboist Marty Hebert) - but\u2026","rel":"","context":"In "appreciation"","block_context":{"text":"appreciation","link":"https:\/\/www.nobleviola.com\/wordpress\/category\/music\/appreciations\/"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"","width":0,"height":0},"classes":[]},{"id":979,"url":"https:\/\/www.nobleviola.com\/wordpress\/2008\/05\/19\/crosscut-article-full-interview\/","url_meta":{"origin":1258,"position":5},"title":"crosscut article: full interview","author":"Charles Noble","date":"May 19, 2008","format":false,"excerpt":"As you may know, I was recently profiled as part of a Crosscut article about Portland arts advocates. It was ably written by Portland music writer and musician Stephen Marc Beaudoin. It was an honor to be included, and I was happy with the article as it was published. I\u2026","rel":"","context":"In "bloggers"","block_context":{"text":"bloggers","link":"https:\/\/www.nobleviola.com\/wordpress\/category\/bloggers\/"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"","width":0,"height":0},"classes":[]}],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.nobleviola.com\/wordpress\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1258","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.nobleviola.com\/wordpress\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.nobleviola.com\/wordpress\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.nobleviola.com\/wordpress\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/303"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.nobleviola.com\/wordpress\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=1258"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.nobleviola.com\/wordpress\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1258\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.nobleviola.com\/wordpress\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=1258"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.nobleviola.com\/wordpress\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=1258"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.nobleviola.com\/wordpress\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=1258"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}