Saturday Night at the Symphony

Saturday Night at the Symphony on KDFC.  That’s what Bill and I used to listen to; and if it was good, we would dart down at the intermission and sneak in, occupying the seats of someone who left at half-time.  These days it’s ready on demand for live streaming;  besides, the seats are too close together – is it the end of a 400-year era?

Tonight’s uTube video, was Anne Sophie-Mutter – the Mendelssohn Violin Concerto in E minor, Op.64 - Kurt Masur 2014 Gewandhaus Orchester, Leipzig.  I still feel that older performers like Anne, handle these heavyweight pieces better than the young kids.  But reality is always proving me wrong.  BTW, Anne Sophie-Mutter is currently recovering from a bout with Covid-19, prognosis - Good.

I feel like I’m living in a Science-Fiction novel.  I love my new-found, HD videos on uTube, but I am already thinking that symphony orchestras will now switch to internet performances as their revenue stream.  Ensembles and performers were already fully adapted to recorded performances; they just need someone to lead the way to monetizing “ZOOM” type performances, where you buy tickets, 1-time or season’s, which entitle you to so many “seats” at the performance.  Good for the organizers that audience size is almost unlimited.

That’s great for Anne Sophie-Mutter who might now draw 100,000 followers for a single performance.  Another impact is shifting the sports focus away from the network TV carriers, to a similar scheme.  These guys will be looking for some way to mitigate the depreciation of their stadiums, convert halls, et al.  Which takes me to the next step.  When everyone is getting their entertainment from the Internet, and not live feeds; it doesn’t take a computer guru long to figure out how to replace that pesky $10m a year prima-donna with a computer toon.

And this gets me to the point of this blog post.  Why did we love, Bill & I, these rare beings?  Talented, dedicated professionals in their fields.  Musical virtuosos.   Why were we drawn to World class people?  Bill to Olympics, me to Grandmaster Chess.  And we both love tennis at the Steffi Graf level. 

I think in is inherent in all of us, every human being on this planet, to want to share those moments of victory, and the agony of defeat (to complete the ABC quote).  Even if we’ve only personally experienced a high school football game or band performance, or a school play or group gig, we share the anxiety of competition.  And the more things one learns, or even tries at, then the more sharing of that performance anxiety there is that one can enjoy.  Bill and I tried a lot of things.

The question is, “Can the ha(c/w)kers make us empathize with the “toons”?