For those who dared purchase tickets to the Remembering 9/11 concert, the DSO delivered a stunning, and refreshingly modern programme, which showed how truly fortunate Detroit is to have an orchestra willing to risk an under-attended concert for the sake of introducing those who do come to the absolute cutting edge of orchestral music.
For a small, but loving audience, the DSO preformed Bechara El-Khoury's New York, Tears and Hope, and Kevin Puts' Falling Dream, two pieces inspired by the events of 9/11. Unearthly beautiful, yet strangely haunting, these pieces introduced the new ways in which modern composers are manipulating and the orchestra's sound to paint pictures of joy and sorrow. Some of these new techniques were explained by the composers themselves as Kevin Puts and Christopher Theofanidis (the composer of Rainbow Bodies) explained their pieces to the audience from the stage, and gave the audience just enough information that allowed them to assign a purpose to the music, so it was never distractingly random. Finally, principal 'cello Robert deMaine did the DSO credit with a fantastic rendition of Penderecki's Largo for 'Cello and Orchestra.
However, the sparsely populated seats in Orchestra Hall highlighted an unfortunate conflict between the artistic aspect of running a professional orchestra and the economic aspect of running a professional orchestra. Artistic taste aside, the DSO's first goal throughout a season is to turn a profit to insure the orchestra's survival. To do so, programs are chosen that are likely to draw in the largest crowds, meaning there are a significant number of old favorite composers, and only a modest amount of "new," non-traditional music mixed in. Just enough weirdness to not frighten away the concert goers who come to see their Mozart, Beethoven, Debussy, and Copland. This insures good economic safety, but the orchestra's artistic aspect is fettered as a result.
Orchestral composers are more numerous in number today than they were in the 18th and 19th centuries. Large numbers of exciting, innovative yet undiscovered works are published each year, but, much to the professional composer's dismay, most orchestras are prevented from including their works in concerts since the more well-known composers' works do not leave enough room on the programme. As a result, composers loose the orchestral equivalent of air-time, and thus the chance to make a name for themselves, orchestras do not get to explore the 'happening' world of modern music, and their audiences' musical experiences remain limited.
This seems an impossible problem to fix, yet this 8 Days in June festival is definitely a step in the right direction. Hopefully the DSO concert goers, after this brief encounter with modern music, will grow to appreciate it, and the luck that they have to hear such rarely preformed works right here in Detroit. Then perhaps they will prove host Tom Allen correct when he predicted that "This concert's tickets will be the most sought after in future 8 Days in June festivals."
