Birmingham fills up on £1 tickets
OrchestrasThe City of Birmingham Symphony Orchestra’s Season of Joy opened last night with Beethoven’s ninth symphony to a packed house.
A correspondent writes: ‘The near-capacity audience was bolstered by an offer of tickets for a pound for those with a Birmingham postcode willing to queue for the special offer.’
The blurb about filming has been amended to this: We are happy for you to take photos and short videos at our concerts during applause breaks. We ask that you are mindful of disturbing artists and other audience members. Please dim the brightness on your phone, and do not use your flash.
Review here.
So…they filled the hall with affordable tickets for residents who wanted to attend (and with a serious program, not some dumbed down crossover), and they have a policy on filming that exactly matches what literally every other hall and orchestra does.
Got it.
Yes, quite. I was there last night and it was a complete triumph: the chorus, orchestra and Kazuki were on fire. Strauss’ Metamorphosen has never sounded so intense and lovely to me. One does wonder why this simple change of filming / photography policy could not have been effected immediately after the Bostridge debacle. It does smack of CEO recalcitrance? “I’m not going to be told what to do by you bloody lot…” A great deal of bad blood would have been saved had the whole thing been sorted straight away back then. In the meantime – superb start to the season. Bravo CBSO + Chorus + Kazuki.
It was recorded and will be broadcast on Radio 3 on Monday.
Stenning’s behaviour back then was inexplicable. What was she trying to gain by antagonising subscribers?
Very glad to see the change to the policy. I’m sure Birmingham concertgoers want to support Stenning if she is showing genuine support to the music and orchestra too.
Yes, inexplicable. Except I have come across this kind of stubbornness before many times – “I am right and you lot can go hang.” It is the nature of the beast and nowt will change it – you watch – I have said this before. Look at the absurd contradictions in emails she made about the filming policy: nothing but contempt for us CBSO supporters. She clearly thinks we are inferior beings.
Well I can only say what I was told when I inquired last June: exactly the same thing as today. So if there was a change in policy, it pre-dates the new season, and took place last year.
Let us hope so, Brummie. Though my mischievous side might yet wish that Stenning have just a brief relapse, if only because I so miss the satirical joys of “I Support Emma” (and I’d also then have the incentive to polish up my interview with ISE).
Fair and shrewd review in The Times also (sadly behind paywall). https://www.thetimes.com/culture/classical-opera/article/cbso-yamada-review-an-affecting-collection-of-farewells-qwtrzkl2h
Great to see so much positivity at the start of a new season – I hope to goodness it can continue and everyone can work together for the orchestra and its music’s sake!
TO SNEAK behind a paywall, copy article URL, go to http://archive.ph , paste in URL, hit save. You’ll *very* occasionally need to be patient—a queue no. may initially appear & your screen fill with a lurid green—but it’s always worked for me.
It was a wonderful night! Full house and a standing ovation. Amazing atmosphere.
So glad the £1 ticket scheme has helped – it’s a good news story for a city and an orchestra who’ve had a rough time.
Exactly what the doctor ordered! Great start to the season.
Oh dear. So standing ovations have spread from theatres to concert halls. If you won’t or can’t stand, you can only see the backside of the person in front you when you applaud.
I am afraid this comment is curmugeonly. I too dislike endless and needless ovations – but please agree that there are times when it is merited – and this was one. Besides – this orchestra – and many others – need all the encourgement and support they can get at the moment. It is a tad joyless to think and suggest otherwise.
Hate to break this to you but standing ovations have been taking place in classical concert venues since at least Handel’s era. That ship sailed somewhere around 1749.
The standing ovation was once reserved for a really special concert and was a wonderful thing to experience. Now it’s so routine it has become a thing without value.
Agreed. I moved from the UK to the US in 2005 and I don’t recall any performance here which lacked standing ovations.
I assumed it was a US thing, but apparently not.
What is one to do at the end of a genuinely spine-tingling performance? Perhaps an inversion is called for. An audience remaining seated might henceforth be interpreted as the ultimate ovation.
Another great initiative from the CBSO team, building on the recent ‘CBSO in the city’ week. Keep up the good work!
Great to see a full hall anywhere these days. CBSO’s website is also advertising for a Planning Director role who can hopefully help steer Stenning the right way forwards (and at £65k salary, it should be a good one)
I think Ms Stenning has proved again and again that she will not listen to reason – don’t forget that she simply would not alter the filming policy immediately after Bostridge. Heels dug in further. Time will tell. In the meantime – the orchestra suffers. She has her own agenda, I fear. But yes, Bravo CBSO last night.
Has she not listened by changing the phone policy and clearly marking the CBSO Explores series?
She took 6 months to change the phone policy. We are asking – why? It’s a dead easy decision isn’t it?
For goodness sake stop getting at Ms Stenning. There is a massive feeling of positivity and joy around the CBSO family at the moment. We know things have to change, and risks have to be taken. Some of these work, some don’t. How else do you go forward? A full house on Thusday, with a fabulous performance to boot, show the fruit of this reflection on how to go forward.
Because she is intractable and will not admit at any stage she is/was wrong, or apologise…. Many of us simply won’t accept that. (See myriads of comments…). We have a CEO in charge like that. It is worrying.
Hurray well done CBSO! It is a very positive move and has got many more people, who wouldn’t otherwise attend, engage. I fail to see how you can possibly make this a negative! As professional musicians we are fearing for our livelihoods on a daily basis and the continuation of our art form. Please only helpful posts!
Critical can also be helpful (see my comment above on the filming policy).
Whatever the merits of getting more people into the hall and hearing a (by all accounts) rousing performance, it sounds like a financial loss-leader to me – the orchestra can’t do this very often I would not have thought. A decent initiative though, so I applaud them for that.
They sold a few hundred pairs of tickets at £1, targetting first-time concertgoers, spread across the entire season of 50+ concerts. The hall seats around 2,200 people and there have been hundreds of seats empty for most concerts since Simon Rattle left Birmingham over 25 years ago. It’s a no brainer to fill some of the empty seats while de-risking attending for the first time through initiatives of this sort. Bravo CBSO. Less smart has been the price increase for low priced seats for regulars who can’t afford more.
Did they open the Grand Tier for this ? It was already very well sold prior to this offer.
They did open the Grand Tier, which was also almost full to capacity. And yes, it was a well-selling concert even before the £1 ticket offer was made. I’ve paid a lot more per concert for my seats, but I don’t for one minute begrudge the special offer: my impression is that a lot of people who have never been to a CBSO concert before bought tickets, and I applaud the initiative.
Yes, and yes. But it was so heart-warming to see it full. That was partly the programming, partly the “start of season”, partly Kazuki (Bham audiences love him) and of course the great orchestra itself. If you care to look at the booking for the woke “CBSO Explores” stuff – they are selling appallingly. Easy lessons there, CEO! Those lessons will be ignored, though… I do wonder what the musicians think.
Yes I was in the grand tier Great to see the hall full
People on the whole seemed very sensible regarding phones
Excellent start to the season
The Strauss especially was wonderful
I last heard it live when the VPO and Rattle did it at Symph Hall
To be honest I think the CBSO strings last night were even better
Bravo
This £1 special offer was only for 2 tickets across the whole season, not just for this concert.
The “amended blurb” has been in use since June, which tends to suggest that some of the people getting most indignant on here aren’t actually going to many concerts.
This is simply untrue, Richard. Why do you keep posting this misleading information?
July:
“We are very happy for you to take photographs and short video clips at our concerts. We ask that you are mindful of disturbing artists and other audience members and suggest that you take pictures and videos during applause breaks.”
September:
“We are happy for you to take photos and short videos at our concerts during applause breaks. We ask that you are mindful of disturbing artists and other audience members.”
A small difference, but a big one. This could have avoided a lot of drama had it been done earlier in the year.
Source: https://cbso.co.uk/programmes
No it hasn’t. I attend regularly and this is a new policy. See Fact Check below. Spot on.
You can stay in tour citadel or can adapt…i happen to be conservative, but i feel survival of classical music is at risk because there was a breach in the transmission process between generations and between different social classes …beauty and art can and should put large amount of people together when only football does nowadays. Very basic thinking… but you have to try something to reach out people who won t come otherwise…
Completely agree. And I for one am not in a “citadel”. Let’s hope it all works. We shall doubtless see – and let’s discuss then…
I’m going to be another curmudgeon. The hall certainly should have been full in these circumstances. It was reported here that the BBC announced an average 96 percent ticket sale for Royal Albert Hall evening concerts in the Proms. That’s the RAH, not Symphony Hall.
I’m glad for the CBSO but we need an adult discussion about the future which, by any measure, looks seriously uncertain.
Where will the next generation of concert goers come from without special offers?
For years we’ve been told that the latest brilliant idea will attract new audiences, but I don’t see any evidence, just assertions.
Unless a very serious attempt is made on a national level from childhood onwards to nurture and develop an audience, we have a serious problem. Labour seems to have an opinion on everything – does it have an opinion on this?
Repeat the £1 offer by all means, but don’t pretend that it’s addressing the deeper problem.
Having played over the last couple of years at Symphony Hall, Festival Hall, The Anvil, The Barbican, Saffron Hall, RAH, the Glass House, Nottingham Royal Concert Hall and others I would venture to say that classical music probably has a bigger live audience now than ever before in the UK.
I’ve seen all the above venues sold out – many of them repeatedly.
I agree that there are venues that need to focus on audience regeneration, and the £1 ticket offer is very sensible.
My point is simply to counter the doom and gloom – go and see these places, the live audiences and see how increasingly young and diverse it is. For an art form stuck with an elitist tag, or classed as ‘dying’, we’re really not doing that badly.
“go and see these places, the live audiences and see how increasingly young and diverse it is”
I’ve been going to concerts for decades but the audiences look pretty much the same to me (perhaps a little older if anything, difficult to say). The only real difference seems to be a higher proportion of E Asian background.
I like your optimism and there are dangers in exaggerating the scale of the problem, if there is one. However, it seems to be becoming increasingly difficult to find young people outside musical circles who wish to devote a couple of hours to serious listening – either at home or in the concert hall. Consumption of background music is another matter.
The BBC commissioned report “Research into the Classical Music Ecosystem” makes interesting reading.
Not all doom and gloom but I was struck by:
2018/19:
Attendance 16-24: 2%
Attendance 65+: 58%
White British: 84%
Black or Black British: 0%
Asian or Asian British: 2%
OK for now, maybe, but what of the future?
Completely agree. The problem lies in schools – kids just are not being played great music and not having violins/trumpets/whatever put in their hands. This is partly because there is also a whole generation of teachers who know little about great music.