[A thoughtful piece by a local critic I'm usually not too fond of. The Plaza Art Fair mentioned in the piece is a Kansas City art fair that caters to Hallmark-type art. - S. Morrison] Music and dance notes: Classical at the crossroads By PAUL HORSLEY The Kansas City Star Published: Sunday, Dec 23, 2001 The corporatization of classical music has forced a schism between those who think music should be accessible to everyone and those who believe it's OK to be challenging. Populism is a cherished tradition in American life, but when art is involved we have to tread gingerly; if the classical music industry isn't careful, our search for the next Beethoven might yield someone whose music sounds like James Horner's movie scores. Does concert music have to give up complexity to be accessible and, thus, fundable? It's an old question. Palestrina, the Renaissance church composer, was part of a movement to "simplify" music that had become too dense and complicated for the average Roman Catholic -- or more precisely stated, for the Vatican powers-that-be who functioned at that time as a sort of a corporate funding source. Political and social strife, too, have a way of making art complicated for a time -- after which an "era of good feelings" smoothes things out again. In the wake of Sept. 11, we might be on the verge of a new period of angst in art, and it's just what we need right now. New music in the last 20 years has grown flabby. When the 1980s brought its "greed is good" prosperity, classical music that had received large governmental subsidies pre-Reagan suddenly became "feel good" music. Why? Some believe it was because composers now had to pander to wealthy patrons and foundations, neither of whom were especially discerning. So we got the "New Romanticism," which brought us a whole slew of works written on the notion that "it's OK to be schmaltzy again." This trend has gone way too far and has got to stop. History has shown us that if a piece of music is too "easy on the ear" the first time through -- think of Dittersdorf, Raff and other forgotten crowd-pleasers -- chances are it has limited lasting value. The pieces from previous centuries that we still want to hear are the ones by Beethoven and Stravinsky that contemporary audiences struggled with -- and against. The classical performance world needs a bit of muscle and sinew. Predictable renderings of Tchaikovsky concertos will not catapult this art form into the 21st century. A classical performance, if it just wafts over you like a Celine Dion song, is probably not challenging you at the level that serious music should. When Arcadi Volodos played Schubert's big G-major Piano Sonata two years ago on the Harriman series, it was a titanic struggle. I hated it, but I'll never forget the impression it left -- of Schubert's music being reinterpreted for a hopelessly decadent modern era. Now that's meaning. Call this yearning for "difficulty" a form of snobbism if you will -- I call it optimism. We who believe in art's ability to cut against the grain will continue to hold out the hope that such art can and should still exist. We are the ultimate optimists. Recently I attended the world premiere of a new work by Michael Daugherty, the composer best known for injecting pop-music influences into his music. He wrote a highly inventive symphony based on the Superman characters, for example, and he also has to his credit a host of pieces on Elvis, Jackie O. and the like. But this piece, "Philadelphia Stories," was so shallow and insignificant that it made me aware that the Era of Accessibility was drawing to a close. Not only did this three-movement tone poem sound like something out of Hollywood, it didn't even strike me as being a very good movie score. Sure it was accessible. But when the performance was over, some 2,000 audience members -- whose reaction to the piece can only be described as politely detached -- walked out the door onto Philadelphia's busy streets and promptly forgot all about it. The Philadelphia Orchestra had paid some $30,000 for this trifle -- which was beautifully played by this magnificent orchestra. But the piece lacked anything that challenged us. We don't go to hear a major orchestra to be entertained, as if it were some sort of sandlot softball game. We pay 45 bucks a ticket to hear something that seethes and simmers, that grabs us by the collar and pulls us out of our seats. Maybe even makes us angry. If such music is being composed today, it's keeping a low profile. For the most part, American music has given in to the Lowell Liebermanns and the Aaron Kernises, the Plaza Art Fair composers of the classical world. So much for the era of the Berios and the Boulezes, half-deranged artists who made enemies so ferocious they were willing to telephone in bomb threats to defend them. (This actually happened to a Swiss music critic who had written disparagingly of a work by Boulez; the composer was, however, cleared of involvement.) Am I suggesting that music should inspire violence? Well, no. But I am suggesting that music should stir you up enough that you might want to blow something up -- or at least throw a rotten tomato or two. And 20 years from now, who knows? You might just find that you like the piece after all. Scott Morrison, Prairie Village, KS [log in to unmask]