Are smartphones giving new meaning to “oversharing”? A recent Youtube video of a flashmob performance by WDR Symphony Orchestra in Cologne sparked a comment from one viewer that “it is crazy now how nobody can just watch a thing. They have to pull out their iPhones or cameras and watch it through the screen to record it.” Which raised some questions for us: are we able to just listen anymore? Is our need to document and share the experience with our friends—facilitated by the built-in recording features of today’s smartphones—making us miss out on the shared experience of the event itself? Tell us what you think in a SymphonyNOW poll.
Also this week, we highlight two new piano-related books: Colin Eatock’s deeply personal Remembering Glenn Gould, and Jonathan Biss’s passionate A Pianist Under the Influence about Robert Schumann. And a new documentary “Orchestra of Exiles” follows the formation of the Palestine Symphony—now Israel Philharmonic—from musicians fleeing Nazi persecution.
SymphonyNOW is the League’s online-only publication, updated with timely stories about orchestras every week. You’ll find SymphonyNOW on the right-hand side of the Hub homepage.
Posted October 26, 2012
