On selling concerts
November 7th, 2008 | Musical life | No Response | By Pierre-ArnaudHelene Grimaud’s wolves, Kennedy’s faux hawk, Lang Lang’s facial expression, etc, the image of classical music is progressively changing. Democratization or simple marketing tool?
From Gramophone to The Sun, there’s only a short step… The free artist, making his own choices disappeared beneath marketing . To reach a new public and sell more than ever is one of our leaders’ main ideas . In our world of image, the most important is not the contents anymore but the container. In their race, the labels do not bet anymore on musician’s quality of interpretation but on his appearance, and his actor’s skills.
Anna Netrebko in a famous quizz show is, according to Deutsche Grammophon, a success: the head of international marketing points out that 70.000 discs were sold in the two months following the broadcasting. But is this really a place for Anna Netrebko?
They now sell us Grimaud’s lovely face, the lips of Renee Fleming, the plunging neckline of Angela Gheorghiu, and so on… Arièle Butaux, producer for France Musique, stated: “at equal talent, a pretty girl with blue eyes will prevail over an ugly oily-haired girl . “ and went on: “And it is sure that in XXIth century, Clara Haskil would not pursue a career!”. This proves that with higher talent, a chubby does not have any career opportunity.
In our perfect world, the box-office diktat gained the upper hand on musical thought. It’s now essential to sell discs. The time when the record label bet on an artist and let him progress fifteen or twenty years is behind us. People need stars. A young singer enters the marketplace, O.k., but he must sing all the repertoire immediately. Producers make him believe that he can do it, and finally he looses his voice.
Today, there is no time to wait. Everything is going faster and faster, but towards where? We need time to build and grow a repertoire, but nobody wants to wait anymore. “It becomes difficult to think about the meaning of a music when reigns the race for contracts and planes. But perhaps we cannot mix anymore the current life style with the internal rhythm of the serious music.” said Rostropovitch. But who wants to know the meaning of a music? Who wants to understand music? Surely not a large majority of professionals, who only see in it one simple product which can bring them glory as well as money.
The keyword now is : marketing. You have to sell. Tickets for example : so you’re frequently asked to play a program with only classical hits, and pay attention to communication : Your career depends on it. A new spirit was born, art is becoming a huge company adapted to the customer. I hope that all is not lost and that art is not a company, because should it be otherwise, art is dead.
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