Rick Mabry wrote:

>Videos of classical performances can be extremely inspiring, even if it
>is not ballet or opera.  (In my case, *especially* if it is not.) Do we
>go to a live symphony only to hear it?  Or do we also want to see it?
>Surely both.

We go to a live symphony because it is an Event, and because live
music is  the most authentic way to listen to music.


>I think seeing the faces of performers can be inspiring to young listeners,
>who might be moved by the passion they see.  It would help many of them
>connect to classical music for the first time, I suspect.

I could not disagree more.  Most performers in orchestras do not
look especially passionate.  The correlation between passionate and
expressing passion in art is, I suspect, negligible.  In my experience
artists as a group pretty much look like anybody else.  It is
pretentious and counterproductive to offer up evidence that classical
music is self referential- see how sensitive the players are!!

Dance relates music to real movement, real stories.  It just might
be an entry point for some young people.

Bernard Chasan