Attended a concert of Renée Fleming last June. For the second half of the program, she had changed into a dramatic gown of breath-taking high glamour. She was met instantly w thunderous applause. She said: “I’m at that stage of my career when the gowns get as much applause as the music.” I couldn’t agree with you more.
@TheAboriginal1
11 ай бұрын
I was at that concert as well
@sjc1204
11 ай бұрын
I truly could not care less how musicians dress, within reason. We have an order of magnitude bigger problem during live classical which is mobile device usage.
@josecarmona9168
11 ай бұрын
The only real and universal truth about concert dressing is you must wear a tie for playing THE NINTH!!!
@DavesClassicalGuide
11 ай бұрын
Exactly!
@Bob-us9di
11 ай бұрын
As a political economist (and amateur Orchestral player) I found this historically informed sociological discussion absolutely fascinating, and something that I'd never thought about. Thank you for such an excellent precis!
@DavesClassicalGuide
11 ай бұрын
Thank you for watching!
@intramonto
11 ай бұрын
I think it's rather a symptom/extension of people's behavior in general. Like with so many similar opinions, it boils down to control - people's penchant for telling others what to wear, what to do, how to act - all under the cover of some supposedly bigger idea. Of course, conveniently, the "right" way neatly aligns with their personal preferences. What a coincidence!
@caleblaw2331
11 ай бұрын
I like what Richter did, which was turning off the lights during concerts. People need to focus on the music itself and not what the musicians wear and how they look and act
@quinnsine1650
11 ай бұрын
I do enjoy seeing where each sound is coming from, however.
@quaver1239
11 ай бұрын
Someone asked Yuja, “Why do you dress like that?” Yuja: “Because I can.” Simple.
@Bachback
11 ай бұрын
A beautiful woman wearing a sexy dress. No complaints from me.
@st.lukechamberorchestra5074
11 ай бұрын
You had me until 11:24. Sorry but I don't consider a classical concert "entertainment." It's deeper than that - or I think it should be. I do believe members of an orchestra should dress uniformly, whatever it is (black & white, all black, or any color otherwise). I've got no problem with what a soloist decides to wear, but I would prefer that whatever is worn serves the music, the musicians, and the audience, and NOT be an exhibit for the soloist him/herself. Cheers and thank you. Way back in 1982 I was taking a shower at the university gymnasium before playing in our orchestra's concert that evening - cello, Brahms 2nd and I believe some Debussy. While there, someone stole my entire concert dress, down to the underwear. I had to steal someone else's gym shorts, find the music director, and we cobbled together an acceptable outfit from the Drama department's costume room. I borrowed a friend's jacket. Did not find a bow tie. Did not find shoes, but I did find some black socks and ultimately went on stage looking like a Harpo Marx stand-in. I was the last one on stage and I could hear muffled comments and snickers as I sat down. The most embarrassing part was afterward some in the audience thought I dressed like that on purpose! Anyway - thanks ( I guess) for reviving that memory!
@DavesClassicalGuide
11 ай бұрын
There is nothing deeper than entertainment. Nothing.
@quaver1239
11 ай бұрын
Love Dave’s use of the word “schlumpy.” Or “shlumpy.” My mother: “You can’t go to town looking like a schlump.” 😂
@eamon7840
11 ай бұрын
It’s Showtime. Ms Wang is great and shaking up the stuffiness is real fun to see. Hope she is having as great a time performing as we all get from watching and listening. Bring it on. Finster the cat is also great
@AlexMadorsky
11 ай бұрын
Anyone who is more worried about what their fellow audience members (or indeed the performers) are wearing than the music is foolhardy. Sure, I prefer people not wear pajamas and gym shorts to the concert venue, but ultimately that’s up to each individual and each venue should they wish to impose a dress code. The classical music world, a fading one in far too many ways, has much bigger fish to fry than what the attendees are wearing. What attire people select depends on where they live as well. In the American Upper Midwest, virtually none of the men wear suits to performances. It is what it is whether one likes it or not. I feel the same about how musicians choose to dress. It should be uniform and smart, in the words of Mark Wigglesworth, but I couldn’t care less about the specifics.
@MDK2_Radio
11 ай бұрын
Old guard classical music fans do the future of the music a disservice by demanding adherence to their ways. Times change, and if you continue to apply 50's mores to modern expectations, all you do is make younger audiences wonder where the fun is if they're expect to treat a concert like a funeral. Some of it is gatekeeping as well, and none of it is welcoming.
@jameschen2168
11 ай бұрын
Right, so many people don’t even get into classical music because of the projected “elitism”. I once gave an interview to a classical music magazine and said that I love classical music because it is so much fun. That wasn’t what the journalist was expecting, she probably wanted to hear something about depth, enlightenment, revelation, transcendent experience or anything more pretentious. I could see the distaste for my answer “fun” on her face. It’s really kind of sad.
@rg3388
11 ай бұрын
If it were about the music, then disrespect would be occurring when musicians rehearse it wearing shorts and t-shirts.
@ewmbr1164
11 ай бұрын
In the Bayreuth pit they do. Kna is said to have quipped once that if it were up to him they could play wearing swimwear.😂
@vdtv
11 ай бұрын
Even if a musician sitting more comfortably is a better player because of it? Sounds rather ludicrous, tbh.
@steveschwartz8944
11 ай бұрын
I also don't understand how someone can tell whether I respect them by what I wear.
@steveschwartz8944
11 ай бұрын
@@pawelpap9 So if I wore a suit and tie, that would mean I respected the person I was talking to?
@jameschen2168
11 ай бұрын
@@steveschwartz8944 It really depends on the situation. If you show up like this for playing football, certainly not 😂. Seriously, if a concert artist worries about the stuff the audience wears, he/she is more into his social standing and less into music.
@LyleFrancisDelp
11 ай бұрын
Some people are just so stuffy! I wonder what they would think of Khatia Buniatishvili. Would they judge her on her playing? Would they even listen? Or would they be only focused on her acoutriments? She is an amazing player who doesn't care about anything else.
@LyleFrancisDelp
11 ай бұрын
@@jazzstandardman Because she has been described on KZitem as “the breast pianist I’ve ever seen”….and insult to her talent and musicianship….and a direct parallel to the point Dave was making in his commentary.
@peterlundin7953
11 ай бұрын
Great speak Mr Dave!
@TheUtke
6 ай бұрын
For me, the uniform(ity) of the orchestra is there to take away attention from individuals, who might want to show off fancy shirts or jackets. Now, there’s an issue with the women, who can choose to show more or less leg, shoulder or arm, and that, I know from experience, has caused some debate within the various orchestras I’ve played with. HOWEVER, as a timpanist/percussionist, there just are some works, where the tails is just impractical, when you really need to move around, so occasionally we will ask permission to not wear a coat/frack/tail or whatever.
@renaudgautier3975
11 ай бұрын
This topic leads far beyond concert dress (performer or audience) in general or Ms. Wang's choice in particular. It is part (not necessarily large) of needed consideration of changes in society related to - but not restricted to - what was, what is, and what is likely to come.
@mikeminden1090
11 ай бұрын
Obviously, the audience period-dress stricture must be applied to digital streaming. It's not worth a fig if ya ain't got that wig. But seriously, music that needs a dress code to prop up its value is no more worthy of it than a god who needs a government to prop up his.
@magnusstromberg0427
11 ай бұрын
Great talk! Musicians should have (almost) full freedom to express themselves. And they should use that freedom even more than they do. A concerthall is not a courtroom. Lawyers usually dress up for their clients by the way. Not because they love to wear a suit.
@howardgilman5698
11 ай бұрын
You did mention that you enjoy the recordings better than attending concerts. I do also because with recordings there's no distraction from visual elements that don't add to music appreciation. I'd be annoyed if a performer chose nudity as attire when performing. That would be the ultimate distraction. Skimpy wardrobe would just be a lesser extreme.
@Bachback
11 ай бұрын
Next Question: Should audience members dress up when they attend a classical music concert or should anything go? Scott Varland
@DavesClassicalGuide
11 ай бұрын
Already answered.
@bbailey7818
11 ай бұрын
In Opera News (R.I.P.) some years ago, I read about a woman who dressed to the nines for the opera and a man who donned a tux for Met performances. Not in the House, mind you--but for the Saturday radio broadcasts in their own homes. That's either certifiable or passionate commitment. Or both.
@ernestrobles1510
11 ай бұрын
@@bbailey7818That reminds me of once reading that BBC radio announcers decades ago used to wear black tie when broadcasting after 6 pm
@Bachback
11 ай бұрын
Hoping for several opinions.@@DavesClassicalGuide
@vdtv
11 ай бұрын
Should there be a should? As far as I'm concerned, only in this rule: people should be silent at concerts. That includes the one who insists on being first to applaud, or shout "bravo/a" at the top of their voice before the last note has rung out.
@renaudgautier3975
11 ай бұрын
So how about the concert attire of the WDR Ensemble - live with Brahms Sextet in G (which I watched, thanks to Dave Hurwitz - and quite enjoyed) at the concert hall in Cologne? Everyone seemed perfectly happy - players and audience.!
@abzulooks6012
11 ай бұрын
Interesting your comment that clothing for performers is (let's face it just like everyone else) a statement of wealth/prestige/class/taste. I was following a piano competition recently and most of the women competitors wore dresses and heels. OK fair enough, that's pretty conventional. One of the women wore a suit throughout (except for one concert where she wore a dress). Thing is, as a bloke, I don't know that much about dresses, but I know a little bit about suits, and I found myself thinking "damn, that's a really good suit." How does it work for the performers? I imagine you want to wear something that works for your personality, that you like, and that helps get you in the mood for the performance.
@DavesClassicalGuide
11 ай бұрын
And that's comfortable.
@fredcasden
11 ай бұрын
Do you have any thoughts about 'appropriate' garb for the audience????
@DavesClassicalGuide
11 ай бұрын
They should wear clothes.
@majo.810
11 ай бұрын
@@DavesClassicalGuide oh, so that was my mistake last time..
@renaudgautier3975
11 ай бұрын
And then there was The Naked Cellist (Charlotte Moorman). That's even the title of her biography. Ms. Moorman's concert attire went as far as video screens, propellers, ice, bare breasts - even bare everything. But by the time she adopted those practices, she was well into 'avant-garde' performances, so perhaps she should not be included in this discussion - obviously more 'mainstream'.
@DavesClassicalGuide
11 ай бұрын
Obviously.
@waltzfordebbie9959
11 ай бұрын
A certain amount of pretention in classical music is unavoidable. As you posit there is a big gap between glamour and sloppiness. Perhaps some performers are sloppy because they are so consumed with their art and it's forgivable if they are geniuses.
@steveeliscu1254
11 ай бұрын
All I ask is that performers of classical music not wear anything that would be distracting from the music. I attended a concert that featured Wang. I couldn"t stop watching her bare back - with the muscles rippling - and thinking about how sexy she is. Very distracting.
@jameschen2168
11 ай бұрын
Why is it difficult to take in a beautiful picture and listen to the music at the same time? I, for example, love to browse books with fine arts pictures (Grimshaw, Waterhouse, …) while listening to classical music. One doesn’t distract me from the other. Or how about ballet?
@DavesClassicalGuide
11 ай бұрын
With all due respect, that's your problem.
@hendriphile
11 ай бұрын
“I couldn’t stop watching her…” Larry: “I can’t see! I can’t see!” Moe: “Why not? Larry[with a fey expression]: “‘coz I got my eyes closed!” Moe: [does the eye poke]
@garydavis9361
11 ай бұрын
A skimpy outfit seems a little gimmicky to me, but the artist still has to perform. A weak performance and she will come across as style over substance.
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