The Gathering Note

Seattle Times music critic Melinda Bargreen penned her last story over the weekend, a farewell and a reflection of Seattle’s changing music and cultural environment.   At a time where the classical music industry is undergoing significant change both in how audiences hear live music (changes in venue, programing and format) and how music is distributed (MP3’s, iTunes, etc.), the number of active critics continues to dwindle.  The future might rest with the Internet but nothing can replace the tactile bliss of newspapers.  Newspapers may continue to provide classical music coverage with a stable of reviewers but what will be missing is the institutional memory of performances past and present.  Bargreen sums up decades of interviews with performers and uncovers a truth about music criticism.

Opera stars like Dame Joan Sutherland and Birgit Nilsson joked about their size and stamina, telling funny anecdotes about their earlier years (Sutherland was particularly hilarious on the subject of a youthful stint as a Rhinemaiden in the “Ring”). The extraordinarily gifted Yo-Yo Ma always used terms like “incredibly fortunate” and “blessed to have such wonderful colleagues.” And Murray Perahia always wanted to talk about how great Bach was, never about how fabulously Perahia played the “Goldberg” Variations.

Looking into the future, I have great hopes for the future of classical music, despite the prognostications of several gloom-predictors. Classical-music downloads are surprisingly strong; so is concert attendance. And whenever Seattle Opera opens a sales period for its “Ring” (coming up in 2009, by the way), the surges of inquiries always crash the phone system, and all 36,000-plus tickets are gone within 24 hours. And whenever anything big happens — tragedy (Sept. 11), triumph (the fall of the Berlin Wall) — we instinctively turn to great music to commemorate it. Conversely, the classical genre is also making its way into clubs, taverns and all sorts of unusual venues.

Music, like art is always evolving, and criticism is always vested in the cause of good music.