2013/04/16
on accessibility
This BSO concert featured some pieces by Miaskovsky and Knussen (Knussen was also the conductor). I must admit that I did not fully comprehend it (fell asleep midway through Miaskovsky), and so went back to review, mainly this and this — the last two on the program were probably audience appeasement and brought lesser difficulty.
I’ll go out on a limb and say those “difficult” pieces weren’t accessible for a lot of people, judging from the live reaction. In a pre-recorded discussion, Knussen said something about this: that they weren’t aimed for accessibility, something which he disdains, but they were also not deliberately obfuscating. This is already a better sentiment than expressed in Copland’s article on “modern music” (which this concert was), but I still take great issue with this, on the grounds of the purpose of art and especially, art performance.
(Read the article)
