Boyce Lancaster talks with Maestro Albert-George Schram, former staff conductor of the Columbus Symphony Orchestra, about the fact that Ludwig van Beethoven hasn't changed: audiences have, and sometimes it's difficult to 'sell' classical composers to a live audience. [audio src="http://wosu.org/audio/classical/2006/MakingMusicinaModernWorld-Part2.mp3"]
Highlights From This Interview:
Albert-George: "I don't Beethoven has changed. I don't think Mahler has changed, or Shostakovitch has changed. I think it's the people who are listening to it have changed. That why I - being a practical person and want to stay employed - think of different genres and ways that you can get people to concerts. It's just really hard to sell Beethoven or Mahler." Boyce: "I have to say that as a listener, as a consumer, that I find myself looking at concerts and saying, 'Well, they're playing Beethoven's First...I don't think I'm going to go, because I've heard those things.' That's why I always like an orchestra while they're playing those things are also in a position to commission a work." Boyce: "...to do something by Michael Daugherty or Roberto Sierra, or someone like that, to tell me what's going on now (with the music), because, as we've discussed in the past, they're speaking to what we're going through while we're living."