From New York Times

April 23rd, 2004 by Jeremy Eichler

The summer performances in Central Park by the Metropolitan Opera and the New York Philharmonic remain the classic classical freebies in town, but you hardly have to wait until summer to hear high-quality music on the cheap. For chamber music fans, or simply curious listeners, several series offer free or deeply discounted tickets to worthy performances. Two such concerts took place over the weekend: the Shanghai String Quartet performed free on Saturday night at the City University Graduate Center, and the Orion String Quartet played for a song at Town Hall on Sunday afternoon.

But before scaling the heights of civic boosterism, it should be mentioned that these notable events sometimes come with complications. At Saturday's concert, part of CUNY's Great Music for a Great City series, there was some confusion outside the auditorium because not all free tickets were equally free. About half had been reserved for a $10 donation. It took an extra 15 minutes for everyone to be seated in the right order, but to the organizers' credit, the roughly 450-seat auditorium was packed to capacity when the ensemble finally took the stage.

Founded in China but based in the United States, the Shanghai performed two Beethoven Quartets (Op. 59, No. 1, and Op. 130) as the penultimate program in a Beethoven cycle celebrating the ensemble's 20th-anniversary year. The group played with a focused, polished sound and a graceful interpretive style, though balance issues crept up when the inner voices occasionally outshone the melodic line, as in the opening cello solo of Op. 59, No. 1. Highlights came in the ethereal slow movements of each work, especially the rolling Cavatina of Op. 130, utterly sublime music tinctured with equal portions of resignation and hope.

The Orion Quartet performed more Beethoven (Op. 18, No. 1, and Op. 59, No. 2) the next day in Town Hall, giving these works distinctive readings with bracing tempos and a certain cohesive yet freewheeling quality. The Phillips brothers (Daniel and Todd), who trade off on the first and second violin parts, played with supple technique and mesmerizing hand-in-glove uniformity. Sandwiched between the Beethoven works was Bartok's challenging Quartet No. 2, filling its middle movement with an admirably raw and visceral intensity.

Sunday's performance was presented by the People's Symphony Concerts, a venerable organization that offers top artists in subscription series at prices that can work out, amazingly, to less than $4 a concert. But the system needs tweaking, as there were a significant number of empty seats on Saturday that had been sold to subscribers who did not show.

A rough survey of the crowd revealed dispiritingly few younger listeners. Certainly, subscription marketing could reach out to this audience, as many organizations are trying to do, but you suspect that the existing subscription structure may actually be part of the problem.

While it's hardly systematic research, I know plenty of people in their 20's and 30's who would love to see a concert like this at bargain prices but would never buy a year's worth of tickets, no matter how cheap they were. In some cases this is because they are relatively new to classical music or, even more likely, because planning their leisure time months in advance would sound to them, not coincidentally, more like their parents' style.

Back to Reviews