In Thursday’s (7/18) New York Times, Anthony Tommasini writes that “there is something special about hearing an orchestra or a chorus, even an intimate string quartet, play outdoors, perhaps because it is so incongruous. … I have always found it heartening to be among thousands of people enjoying these concerts: families with children, picnickers with elaborate meals, young people lying on blankets listening…. [At] the Summergarden series at the Museum of Modern Art … [music] must compete with nearby traffic noise and the loud chirping of the birds.” Weather has been the central factor in several news stories about outdoor orchestra programs, including a New York Philharmonic concert in the Bronx when the city was duirng a heat wave: the orchestra performed only Tchaikovsky’s Fifth Symphony, skipping the planned Dvorák Cello Concerto. The New Haven Symphony Orchestra has moved its July 20 “Dueling Divas” concert from the New Haven Green to the Shubert Theater due to weather concerns, and the Huntington Symphony Orchestra in West Virginia has also moved its July 20 concert indoors because of high humidity, heat, and forecasted rain. Earlier this summer, the West Virginia Symphony Orchestra’s July 3 outdoor program in Charleston was moved indoors due to inclement weather, and the Grant Park Music Festival in Chicago was forced to postpone its season-opening concert because of a thunderstorm.
Posted July 19, 2013
