Well, the video for the YouTube Symphony Orchestra’s performance at Carnegie Hall has finally been posted! On a Friday evening, in great need of entertainment (and perhaps enlightenment), there I went, with much anticipation of good music and good spirits.

Let me preface my comments by saying that this is a noble venture to broaden the appeal of classical music to the great masses. Certainly the orchestra will reach many around the world; maybe its contents will be appealing to new listeners. But it is not for refined palates.

The YouTube Symphony Orchestra will not be replacing professional orchestras, live concerts or professional recordings any time soon. Its problems are fourfold. First, the programming is questionable. The concert started a lacklustre piece that was supposedly written by Brahms, then some very odd 20th century percussion piece played on plastic bins, and then around the world. Second, the players, while reasonably adept for amateurs, are not professionals. At best their sound was sluggish and inoffensive. They lack the crisp timing and the general quality of instruments required in a serious orchestra. Their rendition of Wagner’s ‘Ride of the Valkryies’ conjured images of fat lolling women around a TV, rather than the fierce thundering warrior-maidens of Germanic legend. However, this is not the fault of the musicians; a few more days of rehearsal would have been helpful. Third, the sound quality fell below concert-level expectations. For an ensemble of 96, they should have produced a deafening sound. Instead I found myself straining to hear the grating of the strings, then wincing when I heard the false notes.

Fourth, and most disappointing, the production quality was amateur as well, with jerky animations and miscued video clips. In one instance, YouTube viewers were left staring at the darkened image of the conductor’s head, and missed out completely on another, soundless video which the conductor was watching. Given the hype and the backing institutions, I would have thought that more emphasis and thought would have been put into the production. Sadly, the production flaws detract from this marvellous convergence of so many musicians from different places. Ultimately all that was produced was a very well promoted YouTube video with a symphony orchestra.

Update: Here is the New York Times review on the YouTube Symphony Orchestra.

I stumbled across this link to the inaugural YouTube Symphony Orchestra, which will be playing at Carnegie Hall on April 15th. Young artists from around the world auditioned by submitting a video through YouTube. A committee selected the finalists, who were announced in March. Tomorrow they start rehearsals.

In an associated article featured in Time, YouTube (and its owners at Google) initiated this project, and they’ve managed to accumulate several well-respected symphony orchestras as sponsors. Hopefully it will shine a spotlight on classical artists and classical music in general, and bring together a new generation of previously disparate artists and music lovers in the digital world.

With over 1.3 billion people China is the world’s most populous country. It is a country with a very rich musical culture dating back to the dawn of the Chinese civilization as early as 1122BC - 256BC. The Russo-European classical tradition had a major impact on Chinese music until the Cultural Revolution (1966-1976) banned intellectual pursuits including the education and performance of western classical music (though some continued to indulge their enjoyment of the music as performers and listeners at great peril). Today western classical music is en vogue in China, and becoming increasingly popular with the masses as venues clamour to book top western orchestras. This coupled with China’s world class performers such as Lang Lang, Jian Wang, and Yundi Li - make China a major power in the world of classical music.

The Berliner Philharmoniker recently embarked on a concert tour and experienced the phenomenon first hand. There is an excellent, well written article reporting on this tour by Claus Spahn at Die Ziet (in German), The English translation of the article - The long march to Beethoven is also available.

After being off the job since May (2005), musicians are back to work, once again under the direction of Kent Nagano. MSO patrons will have the opportunity to begin helping their orchestra out of debt starting October 23rd.

[ From osm.ca]