Next week, Ludovic Morlot is conducting Messiaen's Turangalîla Symphony as part of the 2012-2013 Masterworks season. Performances are on Thursday, January 31st and Saturday, February 2nd.
Morlot encourages people to attend these concerts and "Listen Boldly" (the tagline of this season), and the first indication that one may have to put some work in in order to enjoy the concert comes from the concert page itself on the Seattle Symphony website. It reads:
"In the first half of the concert, you'll learn about the musical themes and overall context of Messiaen's Turangalîla Symphony, paired with remarks by Ludovic Morlot and Jean-Yves Thibaudet, a performance by Cynthia Miller and live musical examples featuring the Seattle Symphony."
So they have to precede the performance with an entire lecture and tutorial on why the piece is great and why we should enjoy it? I'll let that speak for itself.
Nevertheless, I thought it would be interesting to compare how this concert is doing up against the concerts featuring Brahms' 4th Symphony that are coming up the following week.
(Note: The third tier is not yet available for purchase for any of these concerts).
The January 31st Messiaen performance has sold 1,679 tickets.
The February 2nd Messiaen performance has sold 1,745 tickets.
The February 7th Brahms performance has sold 1,668 tickets.
The February 9th Brahms performance has sold 1,783 tickets.
However, there is also a Sunday afternoon Brahms performance which has sold 1,729 tickets.
This puts our totals at 3,424 for Messiaen and 5,180 for Brahms. So Brahms sells at about 150% the rate that Messiaen does.
The story doesn't end there though. There is something very interesting in the seating patterns for these concerts that reveals something telling about who is attending them.
Breaking down our statistics further, here are the numbers of seats per each section in the hall that are still available for the five concerts in question:
January 31st Messiaen:
Second Tier: 96 available
Founders Tier: 115 available
Orchestra: 201 available
February 2nd Messiaen:
Second Tier: 95 available
Founders Tier: 126 available
Orchestra: 125 available
February 7th Brahms:
Second Tier: 30 available
Founders Tier: 44 available
Orchestra: 349 available
February 9th Brahms:
Second Tier: 14 available
Founders Tier: 48 available
Orchestra: 246 available
February 10th Brahms:
Second Tier: 15 available
Founders Tier: 51 available
Orchestra: 296 available
The Messiaen performances have a far greater number of seats available in the tiers than the Brahms performances do. And likewise, the Brahms performances have many more seats still available on the floor compared to the Messiaen.
This means that a significant number of people who subscribe in the Founders Tier have exchanged out of the Messiaen concerts, and that a significant percentage of the patronage for the Messiaen comes from people who are buying less expensive seats on the floor of the auditorium. For all the Brahms performances, the Founders Tier boxes are essentially full. The situation is completely different for the Messiaen.
And who is subscribing in the Founders Tier? Who makes up the bulk of these people that have opted not to attend the Messiaen concerts? Donors. People who have influence over programming.
I will sleep peacefully tonight.
Messiaen's Turangalîla is one of the masterpieces of the 20th century. It's about time that Seattle Symphony finally performed this, and it was a well-received, spectacularly successful performance. The short introduction in the first half was charming and effective; not pedantic or condescending as you seemed to think it'd be.
ReplyDeleteCan I ask what you think is so wrong with programming pieces like Turangalîla? And why you also opted not to attend the Messiaen concert?
I didn't say it would be pedantic or condescending. I was simply saying that the fact that the enjoyment of the work depends partially on a lecture explaining what is great about it, means that it is not stand-alone beautiful music. The more one has to say about something before presenting it, the less the thing in question is able to speak for itself.
DeleteThere's nothing "wrong" with programming like that. However, the majority of subscribers/concert goers prefer music that is more beautiful in the traditional sense. They don't sell as many tickets when they program Messiaen. I was merely expressing my gratitude that many of the big donors and the majority of concert-goers share my sentiments about what kind of music is worth listening to, as it will mean that programs such as this one will not be found often throughout the symphony season.