Holly Mulcahy has a wonderful article up at The Partial Observer about the rash of program/artist substitutions prompted by the funding crisis at US orchestras. Here at the Oregon Symphony, there haven’t been any mid-course corrections, as such, but guest artists have had their contracts renegotiated at lower rates, and some pieces were not programmed in the first place as they require the hiring of too many extra musicians, which drastically increases the price tag. You’ll note that we end this season with Mahler’s First Symphony, and might have wondered why we haven’t done Nos. 3 or 6 or 2 in quite some time – it basically comes down to money. Hence Holly’s article title: Sorry, We’re Fresh Out of Mahler.
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2 replies on “programming in crisis”
I would prefer those other Mahler symphonies, but I certainly understand the economic pressures these days. Despite all the economic problems, I believe that the symphony has done a very good job in programming interesting works this year. Sooner or later the economy will improve, and so will the orchestra ‘s financial picture. Then we will be able to hear something like Mahler 6. It will be worth the wait.
It’s worth noting that 2010-2011 is a sort of Mahler perfect storm – the sesquecentennial of his birth, followed by the centennial of his death. I’ll be interested to see what kind of Mahler programming happens then .