Rochester Philharmonic Orchestra
Courtesy of Rochester Philharmonic
The Rochester Philharmonic Orchestra and the Eastman-Rochester Chorus perform at Spring for Music on May 7.
Music Director Manfred Honeck leads the Pittsburgh Symphony Orchestra in his reconsideration of Mozart’s Requiem at Carnegie Hall on May 10.
Seattle Symphony
Sussie Ahlburg
Todd Brunozzi
Music Director Ludovic Morlot leads the Seattle Symphony at Spring for Music on May 6.
has been represented. Nothing was chosen from the 17th century—this was, after all, before orchestras arrived at their modern identity—though two brass selections from Gabrieli’s 1597 Symphonie Sacrae resounded on the program that the Montreal Symphony Orchestra and Music Director Kent Nagano presented in 2011, “The Evolution of the Symphony,” along with works by Webern, Stravinsky, and Beethoven. Have things really changed in recent orchestra programming? In their mix of works, Spring for Music programs resemble more than a few programs from the first half of the 20th century. Although concerts of that period tended to reflect the same supremacy of “classics” over innovative fare that we know today, audacious conductors back then imposed their adventurous wills as often as possible. To wit: At the very last concert of his life, with the New York Philharmonic at Carnegie Hall on February 21, 1911, Gustav Mahler presided over an Italian-themed program of music by three living composers and one recently deceased, americanorchestras.org
Pittsburgh Symphony Orchestra
along with Mendelssohn’s Fourth Symphony (“Italian”). In March 1923, Leopold Stokowski led the Philadelphia Orchestra in now-obscure works by three Americans (two of them living) before turning to Sibelius’s Swan of Tuonela and Strauss’s Till Eulenspiegel—standard fare today, but newish works at the time. In some ways, the programming at Spring for Music isn’t far removed from the visionary approach Serge Koussevitzky took during his long tenure with the Boston Symphony Orchestra, with which he premiered dozens of works, some now regular concert presences. One of his programs late in 1945 comprised three symphonies, in this order: Prokofiev’s “Classical” and Fifth (the latter in its American premiere; the composer had conducted the world premiere the previous January); and Sibelius’s Second, an “old” work, from 1902. These kinds of programs demonstrate an urge to embrace highly varied combinations of works, acknowledge the vibrancy of the music of the time and recent decades, and not rely on oft-played
masterpieces—just what Spring for Music has espoused. Whenever the bottom line allows, conductors and orchestra players today show the same eagerness to explore a panoply of music, though they know they must perform a balancing act to maintain audiences and build new ones. The range of music during Spring for Music has been vast, placing diverse pieces in intriguing contexts and suggesting that orchestras might be far more daring if box office weren’t so crucial for survival. The festival has turned this risky business upside down by concentrating solely on creative programming—and by charging $25 per ticket. Raising $5 million for the four-year event made it possible for S4M to rent Carnegie, take care of production and marketing costs, and guarantee orchestras at least $50,000 against the box office. (The orchestras must pay the musicians and fund transportation and hotels.) Attendance has been modest, rising from 54 percent capacity in 2011 to 68 percent in 2013. Those figures are based on Carnegie’s capacity of
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