COVER STORY
Orchestras
Kurt Andersen and the writer and composer Greg Sandow find what's right and wrong with the symphony orchestra in America, and consider what orchestras needs to do to survive.

Daniel Barenboim
Earlier this year, conductor Daniel Barenboim surprised Chicago when he announced that he would step down as conductor of the Chicago Symphony in 2006. Barenboim said he could no longer deal with all the non-conducting duties he’d been given– like fundraising. And he said while lots of people complain about the audience disappearing, we should really be reforming the education system and restoring classical music to our culture generally. Special thanks to WBEZ Chicago Public Radio.
Go to Daniel Barenboim’s official website
Go to a Chicago Symphony Orchestra website in celebration of Daniel Barenboim

Michael Tilson Thomas
Michael Tilson Thomas leads the San Francisco Symphony, which has been acclaimed for innovative concerts and programming. Tilson Thomas often conducts children’s concerts with the orchestra – and has developed an unusual approach to engaging his young audience.
Go to The San Francisco Symphony’s website on Michael Tilson Thomas
Go to the Amazon.com website of Leonard Bernstein conducting “Mahler: The Complete Symphonies”

Beethoven's Fifth
When Portland artist damali ayo turned on the radio recently, she was so blown away she had the sudden desire to play air cello. What piece of music could be so powerful? A new version of Beethoven’s 5th Symphony, performed by the Vienna Philharmonic and conducted by Simon Rattle. Produced by Jonathan Mitchell and damali ayo.
Go to damali ayo’s website
Go to the EMI website for the Simon Rattle CD collection, “Beethoven Symphonies”

Detroit Symphony Orchestra
Recently several orchestras have built themselves glorious new performance halls, like Frank Gehry’s Disney Hall in L.A. and Rafael Viñoly’s Kimmel center in Philadelphia. But even a super-duper new hall doesn’t guarantee that an orchestra will break even. Last season the Detroit Symphony inaugurated its brand-new performing arts complex called the Max M. Fisher Music Center. But, as Tamar Charney reports from Michigan Public Radio, the new space has not been a panacea for the Symphony’s financial woes.
Go to the Detroit Symphony website

Listen to the discussion about the Detroit Symphony

100 musicians, 1 Philharmonic
It is a cliché to say that an orchestra is an example of the “whole being greater than the sum of its parts.” And it would be only a cliché, if it weren’t so true. Each of 100 or so instruments plays a part that may sound obscure or just dull on its own. But all those parts come thrillingly to life when heard together in performance. Sara Fishko asked the New York Philharmonic to demonstrate some of their musical synergy.
Symphony No. 10 by Dmitri Shostakovich, The New York Philharmonic recorded by Lawrence Rock
Go to the New York Philharmonic website
Go to a Shostakovich website on the 10th Symphony

SPECIAL GUEST
Greg Sandow
Greg Sandow is a widely published critic and educator. He is the classical music writer for the Wall Street Journal and a frequent contributor to Symphony and NewMusicBox, and formerly served as music editor of Entertainment Weekly. A consultant to the Pittsburgh Symphony, he is helping to make its concerts more accessible to audiences. Sandow is also a composer, currently at work on an opera based on "As You Like It." He teaches a course at the Juilliard School on the future of classical music called "Breaking Barriers: Classical Music in an Age of Pop."
Go to Greg Sandow’s website

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