It’s not that people don’t like classical music. It’s that they don’t have the chance to understand and to experience it. Going to a concert can sometimes be very difficult. It can be a long journey. There’s the ticket prices. But when the music goes to the community – not the community coming to the concert – they say, ‘Wow! I didn’t know that this music was so amazing!’
“We have to go and show these people what classical music is. We say sometimes that classical music has a small audience, but it’s because people don’t have the chance to be closer to it. Of course, we also have to play in concert halls. This is our dream when you are a musician – to play in a good, comfortable hall with a wonderful acoustic. But it’s also important to bring these new audiences to concerts.
And later there’s this:
For Dudamel, the key is to approach everything as if for the first time. “You become a musician because you like music … but in time, when you have your job and you start to work every week, music becomes a routine. My job is to avoid this routine. The challenge is not so much to change the sound. The challenge is to connect and to create something special,” he says.
“Sometimes I say to orchestras, ‘Look, people are coming to concerts to listen but also to see what is happening on the stage.’ Because it’s so easy to enjoy music with a CD in your house. You can stop whenever you want. If you want to talk to somebody with your mobile or to drink a little glass of wine or a scotch.
“A concert, it’s like a ritual. But the ritual has sometimes become tired. And that is why, even for me sometimes, when I go to a concert, I think, ‘Oh my God, here we need something more!’ The musicians have to give something more. They don’t have to jump, they don’t have to scream, but they do have to communicate their feelings.”
Yes. Indeed!
And I’ll end with this:
“I was thinking just now of rehearsing the Alpine Symphony. That is a symphony with a huge orchestration, and it’s not true that less and less is more. I remember [Sir John] Barbirolli speaking about Jacqueline du Pré – a huge artist giving everything in every note – and he said, ‘If you don’t exaggerate when you are young, what will you have when you are old?’ “
But do go read the entire article!
