Symphony prep 101: Nothing to fear at classical concerts

This year will be my first year singing with The Mendelssohn Choir, and so naturally I'm fielding dozens of questions from all of my "inexperienced" friends and family.  I think from now on I'll just refer them to that article. It's truly amazing how many people I talk to say that they don't go to the symphony or opera simply because it's "above their head" or they "don't know any of the proper ettiquette." Just go and enjoy the concert!

Now, if I could only get my family to understand why I'm so excited about some of our upcomming performances. "Mahler 2? That sounds like a bad straight to DVD action movie." Oh well. At least I'm getting people to attend a concert, and with our wonderful PSO, that's as good a starting point as any.

A good article to start the fall arts season Andy. I noticed a comment on dress of the musicians, and classical music blogger Greg Sandow has an interesting take on that here: www.artsjournal.com/.../while_i_was_away_i.html

re: Myth: You must understand music to enjoy a concert; the PSO has excellent pre-concert talks if you want to learn more about what you are going to hear. Other orgs do too, I'm sure.

I'm glad to see that newer concert halls are being built to be more inviting as well (like Disney Hall in LA and the Kimmel Center in Philadelphia). The actual physical spaces that classical music happens in often seem (to me) to not be very in-line with contemporary culture. Makes sense, of course, given that many are decades old, but I think that is one big reason why it's hard for me to get my 30-something pals to go to concerts with me. Now that you've busted the myths about what's going on in there, I'm sure I'll get some to come with.

Andrew,

I enjoyed your PG article Symphony Prep 101, and I think it may do some real good in the community of potential but reluctant concert-goers.

I think your article missed one "myth" -- or, I would say, a real concern -- that keeps many people from attending more concerts: Any piece by a composer I don't recognize is very likely to be boring or unlistenable.

As I'm sure you know, a lot of potential concert-goers enjoy hearing older classical works, but don't have any appreciation for the kind of "serious" orchestral music that has dominated the musical scene since the mid-20th century.  In fact, I'm one of those people.  There are occasional modern works that I very much enjoy, and others that I'm willing to sample in the hope that enjoyment will grow, but I find a lot of it distinctly unpleasant.  Whether that reflects a lack of taste or proper education on my part, or whether the entire music establishment somehow went insane is a discussion for another time.  But whatever the cause, an aversion to modern orchestral music keeps a lot of potential concert-goers away, even in cases where they might enjoy certain modern pieces if they gave them a chance.

And I think there's a good answer to this "myth":  On the PSO web site, I see that they have started including audio snippets of the various pieces that they will feature, so that potential concert-goers can make an informed choice between (a) "I might like this piece", (b) "I'll at least give it a chance", (c) "I probably won't like this, but can sit through ten minutes of it to get to the Tchaikovsky", or (d) "I don't want to be in the same room with this, and certainly don't want to pay money to be subjected to this evil noise."   Unfortunately, the web site does not seem to provide a snippet for every piece -- if it's a premiere, they could include a snippet of something similar by the same composer -- but it's a start.

Giving people an honest preview of what's in store for them may actually keep people away from certain programs, and in rare cases might cause someone to skip a concert that, in person, they might have enjoyed.  But most of these people, if they had attended the concert, would have regretted it, and would probably not have taken the gamble the next time.  So I think that making the web site more informative in this way is a very good thing.  People should know that this resource exists, and should take advantage of it.  This may create added pressure on the orchestra to program all-conservative evenings, but that's one way to build an audience and keep the orchestra afloat.

And a great way to try out a symphony concert is by attending one out for free, particularly when there’s a beautiful, accessible program on tap: “reluctant” and eager goers alike can hear the full Symphony this Saturday, September 20, from 11AM-noon at Heinz Hall, as part of the annual RADical Days event.    Advance seats are available at the Heinz Hall Box Office, or by phoning 412-392-4900.  This concert is best for ages 8 and older.  Visit www.radworkshere for more RADical Days offerings

Great article, Andrew.

To be playful, think of this: a Pittsburgh Steelers game could be seen as more elitist than a Pittsburgh Symphony concert.

- A Steelers game is very expensive and tickets are hard to come by.

- In a way, it has its own dress code (jerseys, Terrible Towels, jeans, no ties, no colors of the opposing team, etc.) and code of conduct (such as different cheers and chants for different times: DE-FENSE! Charge!, etc.)

- It requires arcane knowledge of rules, strategy, and player positions to understand what's happening on the field.  

Don't worry; I think both the Steelers and the symphony are terribly exciting and fun.  It's just not logical to think of one as more accessible than the other.

On the other hand, I also agree with Mr. Chiprich that people like to feel classy by dressing up a little bit and behaving differently than they would at a bar or rock concert.  This has little to do with age; for every fidgety kid or bored teen there's probably also a distracted dowager with irritatingly jangly bracelets.  But at all ages, there are folks who can behave well and rise to the special occasion of going to the symphony.

(Finally, as a librarian, I must recommend any public library as a place to freely check out books, CDs, DVDs, etc. about either the Steelers or the symphony in preparation for one's event-going.)

Just as a follow up to all of this talk about dressing up and what not, I will say that one of my favorite parts of colllege was getting dressed up and walking down to the symphony with a bunch of my fellow music majors. There sort of was something a little snobish about it that I liked, being dressed up and going to the symphony while most college students were calling a cab so they could go down to some club and get blitzed drunk.