The smallest audience

We played the last concert of the season at the Loretto Chapel (at Loretto Academy) this evening. The acoustics there are gorgeous and the concerts are always well-planned and well-performed. The setting is truly more akin to a European Cathedral than a modern recital hall. Tonight's concert included music by Handel, Vivaldi, Beethoven, Puccini, Mascagni, Grainger, and a few others - yes, it was rather eclectic. Charles Gray, violinist-violist and professor of music at St Olaf College, was our guest artist. The Bruce Nehring Consort sponsors this series of concerts every year and they are a highlight of the concert season here. Unfortunately, they are appreciated by just a few. There must have been about ninety persons in the audience. The Chapel can accomodate quite a few more. Nonetheless, that is not the smallest audience I have ever witnessed. I attended a concert in Mexico City once where only four people showed up, including myself. There were four of us and about fourteen ushers so there were about 1,800 empty seats. Nonetheless, the violinist played the entire program, which included Cesar Franck's violin sonata. To this day, I have never figured out how it was that only four people bought tickets.

Simon Rattle

If you go to the Berlin Philharmonic’s website, you can take advantage of this great deal, assuming you like the Berlin Philharmonic. The Philharmonic will make more than 30 concerts from its coming season available as webcasts in its Digital Concert Hall, beginning August 28. Simon Rattle, the orchestra's chief conductor, will lead twelve of the concerts. Guest conductors will conduct the rest – the usual names: Claudio Abbado, Daniel Barenboim, Zubin Mehta, etc. Guest artists include pianists Daniel Barenboim, Mitsuko Uchida, and András Schiff; violinists Janine Jansen and Frank Peter Zimmermann; and cellist Alisa Weilerstein. Fees for the webcasts are 149 Euros (about $214 or about $6.50 per concert) for the full series, 39 Euros (about $56) for a 30-day subscription (any current concerts plus as many concerts from the archives as you want), and 10 Euros (about $14) for any one concert. The exchange rate fluctuates daily so the cost in dollars is variable. Explore this at Digital Concert Hall – type it into the internet browser and it will take you there. There is only one Digital Concert Hall – for now.