No, that's not my implicit subtext Ian.  If anything it's the opposite - I wonder if many of today's audiences approach live performance as if it's at best a second-hand version of their latest CD/download.  They're very different things, and ought to experienced in very different ways.

This may be veering a little off-topic, but what Reiner's just written reminds me of some further hypocrisy about ticket prices and how they're portrayed by the media.  The day after my Seasons at St Martins, Neil Young was playing in the Hammersmith Whatever-it's-called now.  My boyfriend went to see both, with another friend who was visiting from out of town.  Our friend bought the Neil Young tickets.  To pay him back, my boyfriend bought tickets for my gig for our friend, his daughter and his mother - and still owed him a drink.  Granted, I'm not exactly the classical equivalent of Neil Young ( ), but the fact remains that there were no tickets available for his gig that were any less than they paid.  Everyone (politicians, newpapers) goes on about how expensive the ROH is - do they even look at the seating charts and pricing structures before they start spouting this nonsense?  You can even get into Glyndebourne for £15 if you're persistent and lucky.

OK, back on topic now.  The way things are financially structured (ie very very precariously), I don't think anyone in the classical music industry imagines we can afford to make our recordings free and promotional.  They have to be marketed as precious things in their own right that people will want to pay for.  And we dare not increase our ticket prices - audiences are reluctant enough as it is to fork out £5-40.

Does this actually end up devaluing our live performances?  Should someone take the bold step of making recordings free/cheap and jacking up ticket prices in the hope that people will better cherish what's expensive?  (My university orchestra's concerts were free in my first year.  We struggled to get audiences.  In my second year we started charging - not much, just $2 - and our audiences noticeably increased.)

I'm not really in touch with pop/rock music these days, Reiner, but I get the impression that the Pink Floyd, ELP, Jean-Michel Jarre spectaculars that could only be put on with a subsidy from record sales are now quite rare and we've returned to groups of musicians taking the stage and able to make a pretty good wage from ticket sales, merchandising etc.  Correct me if I'm wrong but I don't think the Kylies and Madonnas with their lightshows and myriad dancers etc give their recordings away to promote their tours.  People like Dylan must be raking it in from all angles!


Well, some of us do.  The Proms are available free to anyone with a radio but thousands of us still travel long distances and pay for the experience of hearing the artists perform live.  And hundreds turn up monthly at our concert society to hear artists performing chamber music that they can almost certainly hear reproduced more 'perfectly' on their hi-fi.  We know the live experience can't be reproduced; but, to return to the main subject of the thread, it can be ruined by people behaving inconsiderately. 

Re. the off topic subject of classical recordings being made available free of charge; ignoring the overused example of the BBC Phil's Beethoven downloads, Tasmin Little has "released" her album as a free download ( called something like the Naked Violin and her website had so many hits that a porn site thought it worth hijacking the phrase and siphoning off punters from the search engines. A disclaimer is now on Ms Little's site saying she has no connection with said purveyor of porn )

 

Which one is this, marbs?  I thought it was All Saints Tooting in South London that cropped up as a recording studios and years ago they used to have proms at J L Pearson's North West London masterpiece, St Augustine's Kilburn.

St Augustine's, like great cathedrals, has a stone vault and not a wooden ceiling.  This must make a difference to the acoustic (and to the heating bills.)