[Dixielandjazz] Playing where the people are

[Stephen G Barbone]

Not OKOM, but wouldn't it be nice if we had more concerts like this?  
It drew 63,000 people. A great way to get music to the audience. Lots  
of kids there.
Note the audience choice of music for the encore. (last paragraph). It  
seems to make a case for playing familiar tunes.
Not unlike the many park concerts that OKOM bands do in summer except  
they got a larger crowd. <grin>
Cheers,
Steve Barbone
www.myspace.com/barbonestreetjazzband

July 17, 2008 - NY TIMES - By ANTHONY TOMMASINI
Views Back (and Forward) on an Outdoor Stage (excerpts)
When the conductor Alan Gilbert was a boy, some of his first inspiring  
experiences with classical music came from attending the New York  
Philharmonic’s concerts in the city’s parks. At the time he was  
tagging along with his parents, both violinists in the orchestra, he  
explained to the crowd that turned out for Tuesday night’s  
Philharmonic concert in Central Park.

“I love the New York Philharmonic, I love New York, I love Central  
Park, and I love the Philharmonic’s concerts in the parks,” Mr.  
Gilbert told the audience.

Then, after mentioning that his mother, Yoko Takebe, was still playing  
with the orchestra, he turned to her and said, “Hi, Mom!,” which  
brought applause from all corners of the Great Lawn, where 63,000  
people, according to official estimate, had turned out to hear some  
music and enjoy the perfect weather.

Mr. Gilbert is poised to become the Philharmonic’s music director in  
the fall of 2009. That he was so eager to conduct this summer’s final  
park concert, only his second (the first was on Monday night at  
Prospect Park in Brooklyn), seemed an encouraging indicator of his  
desire to connect with New York audiences.

The concert was terrific. For the first half the enormously popular  
young pianist Lang Lang was the soloist in Tchaikovsky’s Piano  
Concerto. Onstage was a concert grand of a rich red color. Chinese  
Red? . . . snip to

After intermission Mr. Gilbert conducted an intelligent and lively  
performance of Beethoven’s Fourth Symphony and ended the program with  
a rhapsodic account of Sibelius’s “Finlandia.”

Then came the encore, selected as in earlier concerts this summer by  
audience members who chose between two options — the “Toreador’s  
Song” (arranged for orchestra) from “Carmen” and Rossini’s “William  
Tell” Overture — by sending text messages to an announced address.  
Rossini won, and the performance was rousing. And most people stayed  
around for the postconcert fireworks display, which looked especially  
splendid on this balmy and enjoyable night.




Steve Barbone

www.barbonestreet.com
www.myspace.com/barbonestreetjazzband