This Week in Classical Music: July 13, 2020.On Mahler and the Music Scene.Last week we celebrated Gustav Mahler’s 160th anniversary.WFMT, the premier classical music station based in Chicago, also celebrated the event: they played 10 minutes of the Finale of the Symphony no. 4, when Carl Grapentine, their former morning host who now presents “Carl’s Almanac,” short musical introductions, spoke about Mahler for a couple of minutes.Then, at the end of the day, WFMT played "Adagietto," the fourth movement of Symphony no. 5, which, after so much use and misuse turned trite and reminds one more of Luchino Visconti’s film “Death in Venice” rather than Mahler’s symphony.And this is how the same WFMT celebrated Mahler’s 150th anniversary ten years ago: they played all of his symphonies plus Das Lied von der Erde and several song cycles.They played them without interruption, from beginning to end.This was a heroic undertaking: WFMT is a commercial station and they depend on advertising.There is little opportunity to advertise when you run an hour and 40 minutes of Mahler’s Symphony no. 3 straight from the beginning to the end.And still they did it and it was wonderful.Times have changed… But what actually did change?Did music lovers decide that they prefer lighter pieces, and stations like WFMT got the message and adjusted their programming accordingly?Or have listeners found other outlets, like Pandora, Spotify or other Internet streaming services?That would put pressure on commercial radio station, which would try to boost sagging advertising revenues by playing shorter (and often lighter) pieces to squeeze in more ads.We don’t know for sure, maybe services like Nielsen could tell us.We suspect that people still like Mahler.If you go to YouTube, yet another competitor of radio stations, and search for Mahler’s Symphony no. 3, you’ll find that the video recording made in 1973 of Leonard Bernstein conducting the Vienna Philharmonic with Christa Ludwig was watched more than 1.6 million times.It’s likely that not everybody listened to the entire symphony to the end (even though the finale is sublime), but 1.6 million is an amazing number.And that’s just one recording.Cladio Abbado with the Lucerne Festival Orchestra garnered 240,000 views.Semyon Bychkov with WDR Symphony Orchestra Cologne got another 140,000 views.There are many more recordings of just this one very complex symphony.The easier Mahlerian music, such as his Symphony no. 1, got 2.6 million views (that again from Bernstein and the Vienna Philharmonic).The record holder is probably Gergiev with the so-called Orchestra for Piece, founded in 1995 by Sir Georg Solti: their recording of Mahler’s Symphony no. 5 was watched by four million viewers.So it seems there is no shortage of classical music lovers and outlets to satisfy them.The competition is fearsome and the pressure on classical music radio stations is fierce.We hope they survive, but not by turning away from Mahler.
Mahler and the Music Scene, 2020
This Week in Classical Music: July 13, 2020. On Mahler and the Music Scene. Last week we celebrated Gustav Mahler’s 160th anniversary. WFMT, the premier classical music station based in Chicago, also celebrated the event: they played 10 minutes of the Finale of the Symphony no.
4, when Carl Grapentine, their former morning host who now presents “Carl’s Almanac,” short musical introductions, spoke about Mahler for a couple of minutes. Then, at the end of the day, WFMT played "Adagietto," the fourth movement of Symphony no. 5, which, after so much use and misuse turned trite and reminds one more of Luchino Visconti’s film “Death in Venice” rather than Mahler’s symphony. And this is how the same WFMT celebrated Mahler’s 150th anniversary ten years ago: they played all of his symphonies plus Das Lied von der Erde and several song cycles. They played them without interruption, from beginning to end. This was a heroic undertaking: WFMT is a commercial station and they depend on advertising. There is little opportunity to advertise when you run an hour and 40 minutes of Mahler’s Symphony no. 3 straight from the beginning to the end. And still they did it and it was wonderful. Times have changed… But what actually did change? Did music lovers decide that they prefer lighter pieces, and stations like WFMT got the message and adjusted their programming accordingly? Or have listeners found other outlets, like Pandora, Spotify or other Internet streaming services? That would put pressure on commercial radio station, which would try to boost sagging advertising revenues by playing shorter (and often lighter) pieces to squeeze in more ads. We don’t know for sure, maybe services like Nielsen could tell us. We suspect that people still like Mahler. If you go to YouTube, yet another competitor of radio stations, and search for Mahler’s Symphony no. 3, you’ll find that the video recording made in 1973 of Leonard Bernstein conducting the Vienna Philharmonic with Christa Ludwig was watched more than 1.6 million times. It’s likely that not everybody listened to the entire symphony to the end (even though the finale is sublime), but 1.6 million is an amazing number. And that’s just one recording. Cladio Abbado with the Lucerne Festival Orchestra garnered 240,000 views. Semyon Bychkov with WDR Symphony Orchestra Cologne got another 140,000 views. There are many more recordings of just this one very complex symphony. The easier Mahlerian music, such as his Symphony no. 1, got 2.6 million views (that again from Bernstein and the Vienna Philharmonic). The record holder is probably Gergiev with the so-called Orchestra for Piece, founded in 1995 by Sir Georg Solti: their recording of Mahler’s Symphony no. 5 was watched by four million viewers. So it seems there is no shortage of classical music lovers and outlets to satisfy them. The competition is fearsome and the pressure on classical music radio stations is fierce. We hope they survive, but not by turning away from Mahler.