Tuesday (3/2) on the Washington Post blog Classical Beat, Anne Midgette writes, “Robert Levin’s improvisations with the Baltimore Symphony Orchestra last week have stuck in my mind: in a way, his approach represents a shaking up of conventional classical-music wisdom as much as some of the so-called ‘alt-classical’ artists I’ve cited here before. … The same day I heard Levin, Michael Tilson Thomas (who is bringing the San Francisco Symphony to DC on March 24th) told me about some of his plans for the new Frank Gehry-designed hall of the New World Symphony, which is opening in early 2011. One idea is to hold a range of short concerts in several different performance spaces over the course of an evening, allowing each audience member to plan his own program, whether he opts to attend only one or two events or binge on music all night: more like a gallery opening than a traditional concert. To me, this is an idea with a lot of potential, not least because I can see it attracting the existing audience while drawing in newcomers interested in trying it out; it breaks down some of the barriers that a concert hall can represent to a first-time ticket-buyer.”
Posted March 2, 2010
