Second Lockout in Two Years Ends For Atlanta Symphony

The Atlanta Symphony Orchestra and Chorus is back in business, performing Beethoven's Ninth Symphony on Thursday November 13.  As reported yesterday in the New York Times, this was the second lockout in two years for this fine ensemble.  Of course, its all about money, but the concessions the musicians had to make could have been worse. It seems to be a reflection of our times and the difficulty in keeping even outstanding arts organizations alive and healthy in the face of apparent dwindling public interest in classical music.  There seems to be a continuing paradox as well. Every time someone announces the death knell for classical music, new people, often young people as well as older people, start picking up on it and becoming interested.  Bach, Mozart and Beethoven continue to draw new listeners in by the pure beauty, energy and genius of their music. Interestingly, the musical work the Atlanta symphony was going to perform Thursday night, was Ralph Vaughan Williams A Sea Symphony.  They won a Grammy Award in 2003 for their recording of the English composer's choral symphony based on texts from Leaves of Grass by American poet Walt Whitman.  They switched to Beethoven because less rehearsal time would be needed for his more-often performed  Choral Symphony. Under the circumstances, the Beethoven was a good choice.  Who can't relate to the optimism, energy and, well--sheer joy of the Ode to Joy, that concludes one of the greatest works in all of music with Friedrich Schiller's words about humanity overcoming its divisive differences? Still, the Walt Whitman text would have provided ample food for thought and the spirit as well.  The second movement of A Sea Symphony is a setting for baritone and chorus of On the Beach at Night Alone from Whitman's text that includes the lines: As I watch the bright stars shining, I think a thought of the clef of the universes and of the future. A vast similitude interlocks all, All lives and deaths, all of the past, present, future, This vast similitude spans them, and always has spann'd, And shall forever span them and compactly hold and enclose them. A mystical and personal vision of the "Harmony of the Spheres" in a 19th century form of expression from a great poet, put to music by a great composer, to move and inspire us through the power of great art.  Of course, not all classical music aspires to so lofty an aim, some  of it is just fun. In the example above, I used musical works with a text to make a point, but great music can "speak for itself," if we give it the opportunity to do so.  It is important to ensure that the great composers and their music can continue to be heard, awaiting discovery by new listeners young and old. That is why I was happy to hear that the Atlanta Symphony will be performing again soon, so that they can continue the magical alchemy of turning "dead "notes on a page into "living" sounds that make the old, new, and give us so much joy and makes us feel alive. May other struggling orchestras be as successful in continuing to go on as well, but we have to be willing to listen.  In the final analysis, it seems to me that when the battles go on about funding art outside of a corporate, for-profit only setting, we're talking about how pay for something that is ultimately priceless.  Its worth is measured in our hearts.  A conundrum, indeed.