Lindsey Orcutt wrote:

>I don't think it's *quite* accurate to state that orchestras don't pull in
>audiences.

I'm sorry to say that in Boston this is becoming true.  The BSO draws,
though I don't know why, given Ozawa and what he's done to it.  But only
the real big name visiting orchestras do, or did.  The Concertgebouw only
half-filled the place.  The draws of other orchestras, not all of them
chopped liver, are sometimes embarrassingly small.  This is getting scary.
The fact is, the wholesale cutting of music programs in the schools, to
which you refer later, has taken a prodigious toll on audiences.  We can
hope only that something in the human soul is reacting.  It could be
happening.  We'll see.

>To that end, and to continue a different part of this thread, I'm *happy*
>to hear that some big name classical stars are pulling in exorbitant
>amounts of money.  I think it's a good thing -- why? Because it makes me
>frustrated and irritated to hear about NBA and baseball and football stars
>pulling in money to run around jumping on or throwing balls.

It's *sort* of a good thing for the reasons you mention, and only in the
short run.  But in the long run, in the big picture, in my view anyway,
exorbitant salaries are not a good thing, just as rising housing prices are
not a good thing, hard as that may be to believe.  The gap between rich and
poor inevitably grows larger when exorbitant salaries appear.  It's been
happening here for years, and is not starting up in Europe, from what I've
heard.  It'll be the same old story.  Classical music gets so expensive
that no one can afford to go.  Hey, you have to be a corporate executive
to go to game as it is.  Almost, anyway, but stick around.

Roger Hecht