Achim Breiling writes (in English which is always entirely understandable):

>...  Thus, I suggest that Denis and his fellow concert goers are a bit
>biased because they in fact came because of the major works and thus
>are annoyed about those nasty fillers.  I myself would rather prefer
>a different concert programming, where only works by 20th century and
>contemporary composers are played or where only 19th century works or only
>Baroque works are performed on one evening.  Then a concert goer could much
>easier decide what concert will fit with his musical tastes....

We all play host to our own mental concert halls.  Thing is, the kind
of programming I gladly attend is the "natural" kind, in the sense that
it's organic to our deeper /higher culture, and not just to a period of
fashion.  The management of the large houses, plus the artistic directors
of orchestras (who are more or less susceptible to the wishes of orchestra
representatives) have chosen to operate on a wavelength that fortunately
also happens to mine.  Both of us have done this at least partly for
commercial reasons, though their sort has to do with supply side, and thus
 differs strongly from mine, which, frail little things that it is, comes
from the demand side.  Large orchestras represent large investments, and
their programming reflects this; the concern of meine Wenigkeit is that,
considering the high price of attendance these days, I do my best to
militate for programing that'll get me my money's worth.

Mind you, Achim's kind of music, while indulged only patchily by the big
houses, does have outlets at other venues.  In Achim's very own Milan, for
instance, the very fine conservatory concerts don't neglect modern stuff..
And during the music festival season there' s plenty of that kind of fare.
But Salzburg which has pioneered the presentation of modern works by Big
Music, has poignantly chosen to keep things apart.  The modern music is
not usually played not at the two big houses, but elsewhere (some years
ago, I attended a Nono concert at the Collegiate church, a massive Counter
Reformation (!) edifice; but I also attended Ligeti's Danse Macabre at the
Grosses Festspielhaus).  On the whole, I like it better when the two genres
are kept apart, for twain they are.

And, of course, modernists can indulge their taste by buying recordings.
Judging from postings on this list, they do just that.

Denis Fodor