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Anniversaries - 2007/02/23 11:30
This year marks the 150th anniversary of Elgar's birth. A century has passed since Grieg died, and it's fifty years since Sibelius rested his pen.
Last year there was the incredible Mozartjahr celebrating the 250th anniversary of Wolfgang Amadeus' birth, and Shostakovich's entrance into the world in 1906 was marked in various ways too.
Do these anniversaries have too much impact in the programming, whether in concert halls or TV or radio or web? Are we experiencing overload of just a handful of composers each year? Or it is right to remember and mark these dates? Do you find it informative and interesting to explore in depth a composer's work over the course of twelve months?
What do you think? There's been a lot of debate about this recently... what are your thoughts?
Laura Taylor
RSNO Marketing and Communications Assistant
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Re:Anniversaries - 2007/02/23 14:21
I'm all for marking important milestones for composers, but I think we could be using them more as a chance to explore the work of more underrated/neglected composers. For example, are the RSNO going to be doing anything in connection with Rautavaara's 80th birthday in 2008 (a composer the RSNO has commissioned and recorded work by in the past)? I think that would be an interesting way to follow on from the BBC SSO's recent Sibelius cycle.
I'll get my flame-retardant overalls. 
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Re:Anniversaries - 2007/02/23 15:41
I think my attitude to anniversary-based programming is (too?) closely linked to whether I already like the composer involved. As I type, for instance, I am listening to the latest installment of John Eliot Gardiner's Bach Cantata cycle, a project that grew (eventually) out of an anniversary event - and jolly wonderful it is too, but I'd probably have bought the CDs anyway.
On the other hand some anniversary programming can feel like over-exposure, but I wonder whether that's because my appetite for the works involved wouldn't have filled a year's worth of concerts to start with.
For me, then, the most successful anniversary-based projects take the composer as a natural focus but broaden it out to look at, say, influences on the musician involved, the developments he contributed, how he was received, and so on, so that there's plenty of new material to discover or connections to make. I suppose that adds up to saying I usually get something out of anniversary programming, but can also weary of it a bit.
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Re:Anniversaries - 2007/02/23 15:46
I've nothing against Rautavaara (except how difficult his name is to spell!) and enjoyed the piece the RSNO did which featured the arctic birdsong (I think it was a couple of Seasons ago - it was def. in a Classic Bites programme). But I don't fancy a major series devoted to him much.
Another Shostakovich Symphony cycle would do me fine any year though, no excuse needed!
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Re:Anniversaries - 2007/02/23 18:10
I agree with DJ Murdoch - I think it does provide an opportunity for highlighting the work of underrated or little known composers; everyone knows a bit about Beethoven and Schubert, but what about someone like Respighi or James Clapperton?
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Re:Anniversaries - 2007/02/23 23:17
I just don't think it's relevant - it's just so stuck in the past, looking at the calendar to see who died and then programming round about that
Fair enough - there's a huge choice of music out there and you've got to arbitrarily pick some, but wouldn't it be more imaginative to come up with some sort of theme or other reason other than a pile of old dates??
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Re:Anniversaries - 2007/02/23 23:20
And there was way too much Mozart around last year. Way too much.
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Re:Anniversaries - 2007/02/23 23:57
I've nothing against the celebration of composers' anniversaries in general - but surely they should be used as an opportunity to remember things that are usually forgotten rather than re-emphasising all those things which we are already familiar. The increased willingness of the public to pay attention should be grasped as a chance to bring obscurer works or composers to the fore.
What really irritates me is the way the BBC has ducked the challenge this poses by broadcasting the entire output of one composer - and no-one else but that one composer - over the course of several days. Certainly, the less familiar works of the composer in question get an airing - but no-one but the perfect listener with the perfect insomnia has the time or patience to listen and learn from it all; it only works for the absolutely canonical composers (there were lots of complaints when Tschaikowsky got the treatment); it exhausts any enthusiasm you may have had for that composer in the first place; and it suggests that the classical radio stations are only there to provide background music for your car journeys. Cycles of symphonies, yes: marathons of the complete works, nonono!
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Re:Anniversaries - 2007/02/24 10:22
I agree with KTM. From the BBC we have had the Bach Christmas, the Beethoven experience and, most recently, the Tchaikovsky experience, the latter leavened with Stravinsky. All of which smacks to me of lazy programming and does neither the composer nor the listener a great service.
On the other hand, some of their composer weekends have been very worthwhile. I think of the weekends devoted to James Macmillan and Sofia Gubaidulina.
Anniversaries are worth a nod in programming but shouldn't in my view form the basis of programming. The RSNO's Shostakovich cycle did not co-incide with any particular date reference but was worth doing because Alexander Lazarev is one of the greatest living interpreters of his music. It didn't appeal to everyone, but for me it was the highlight of the last 20 years.
It will be interesting to hear Elgar again tonight from this the most exciting of conductors.
AD
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Re:Anniversaries - 2007/02/26 09:08
I've always found it confusing whether people are celebrating the birth or death of the composer.
I think there's no need to do both and would be in favour of only celebrating births. Gives the impression of looking forward to discovering a whole life's work of great music, rather than looking back.
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Re:Anniversaries - 2007/02/26 09:12
Also, I agree that the anniversaries shouldn't really be taking over the programme to a great extent. However I think it is important to acknowledge composers from the past for the great contribution they have made to the music of today.
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