The Biennial Concert Programming Debate
Monday's two concerts were in sharp contrast to each other in a number of ways. They were similar in that they were both led by Composer/Conductors and that the ensemble musicians had strong technical skills, but that is where the similarities stopped. I have no intention of reviewing those concerts; Marc Crompton and Chris Woodruff will give their perspectives on this web site. What I want to reflect upon is the debate that such a contrast always seems to raise at our Conference. (For those of you who were not in the audience for the two concerts, you can get a better sense of the nature of the debate by looking at the repertoire lists attached to each concert report.)
In 2003, the poster children for this debate seemed to be the Danish Concert Band and Florida State University. In that case, both programmed plenty of recently-composed works, but their "language" or "vocabulary" was totally different. They were successful concerts in their own right, but what do we come to WASBE Conferences to hear? When I attend concerts at the Midwest Clinic, I expect to hear at least one piece of new repertoire in each concert that could be performable by my community band, and quite frankly, I also expect to sit through some dreck — performed well, but still dreck. At a WASBE Conference, I know that I am going to be challenged and that the reading sessions will provide the repertoire ideas that I can take home with me. The concerts themselves are there for inspiration.
The debate is not new. How many "standards" do we program during the conference? For instance, I liked hearing Grainger's Lads of Wamphray March because it just doesn't get performed enough and I heard different things in this performance than I was familiar with on the Royal Northern College of Music recording on Chandos. I wouldn't want a whole concert of that, however.
The level of chatter at intermission at the Louisville concert was the loudest this week. That may have partially been because of the strong attendance at the concert (more people = more ambient noise), but it seemed more lively in timbre as well. There were certainly plenty of things to talk about in the first half, where the oldest work was the one that finished the half; it was composed in 1980. To me, that level of engagement seems healthy.
So what do you come to a WASBE Conference concert to hear? We'd love to hear your thoughts. In fact, we've considered setting up an online discussion and/or collecting your thoughts on an audio recorder for inclusion on a future podcast. For now, if you want to add your two (Euro) cents, speak with me or Marc Crompton and we'll follow-up if there is interest.
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