The Grauniad has news today that the Berlin Philharmonic is planning to stream most of its concerts live on the Internet. It'll cost you E89 to watch a season of 30-odd concerts plus the archive (probably £88 in pounds....), and is being sponsored by a bank. Thinking about being constantly on camera, Sir Simon says: ""We'll have to make sure we shave properly and powder our red noses."
I have yet to enjoy watching *anything* on my computer. It constantly stops film broadcasts to 'buffer' them, offers a lousy picture and dubious sound and requires me to sit on my office chair surrounded by my usual chaos, while Solti meows constantly for attention. So I can't say I fancy this much. I'm convinced that the only way to appreciate a thing like the Berlin Philharmonic is to hear it live, preferably in the Philharmonie, in a case of total commitment and absorption. I would rather appreciate them once in a while, but do it properly. Still, good luck to 'em. Perhaps British orchestras will go down this route too, if there are any banks left to sponsor them.
(Update: please note altered cost above - a note from a reader in Germany who has already signed up for the season webcasts tells me that the Grauniad got it wrong when they said E149. She adds that you need to run a test from the site to make sure the concerts play to your liking on your computer before you pay.)
6 comments:
Jess, this kind of thing may actually replace foreign touring for big orchestras, normally sponsored by the big Banks. A worrying trend....
Hi Brendan - yes, it is a worrying trend, but still, I can't believe that ANYTHING can take the place of live performance...only that it may have to for a while until the sponsors get back on their feet. ?!
The concerts aren't even cheap! One can get 2 excellent Brilliant Classics CDs for the price of one concert and listen to them attentively on the hi-fi - and I've never had a hi-fi set-up as pesky as this computer.
Nothing can take the place of live performance, but it's interesting that the Berliners have gone with this online route. With their huge and confident sponsors, they presumably think it's worth a punt and why not?
Without any sponsorship from a major bank, we managed to make a 30 min documentary about the CBSO and their new Music Director Andris Nelsons which also features some performance footage - of Bartok and Berlioz. Hope everyone has a chance to see it - and the player is pretty robust so you shouldn't experience any juddering unless your connection is slow. It's all free as well, by the way!
Here's the link: http://www.cbso.co.uk/?page=podcasts/videodocumentary.html
Although concerts in full are still fairly rare online (it's all down to money) in my experience people really enjoy features and interviews about concerts and series online as it can enhance their enjoyment of the live event.
At least I hope so - it's my business now!!
Happy Christmas to everyone.
http://onemoretake.blogspot.com
Tommy, I wonder if you can enlighten us, please: how much would you say it DOES cost to relay a complete concert on the web?
Blimey, that's a difficult question!
It all comes down to the rights that can be negotiated with an orchestra. If the orchestra is self-run, like the Berlin Phil or the LSO, say, then they have to work out the value of having the concert online versus the actual cost of putting a concert on - and decide to do it for nothing if they think it's a good idea. Anything that is broadcast - and this is classed as a broadcast - means an extra fee for the players. But since they're getting money for the concert anyway, it can be fair for the players to agree to not charge the additional fee. This happens a lot with orchestras that have interests outside the concert hall - for example, orchestras with record labels, who tend to take no extra fee for recording but do share in any profits.
Don't forget that the average concert will cost over £20K just to put the orchestra on the stage - that's without the conductor, music hire, venue etc - so an orchestra really has to believe in online projects to commit to them.
Costs for this kind of project would, at the very least, have to include:
- Players fees (if they don't do it for nothing)
- Conductor fee (ditto)
- Production (filming, cameramen, sound crew, director, equipment, editing etc. Filming in HD is more expensive)
- Publishing (all copyrighted music has to be paid for, in addition to the fee already paid for performing it live)
- Venue hire (some venues charge if a concert is being used for filming)
- Hosting costs (actually putting it on the web costs money!)
All of the above are negotiated, so there's no proper average figure for any of these. And I have no idea how much everything costs in Berlin!
But you can bet it's an expensive venture. I'll stick my neck out and say that the players and Rattle probably agreed to waive their fees and will take a proportion of the profit from the income generated by the broadcasts. But I could be wrong. Either way, the bank is putting a lot of money up and presumably has assessed the risk.
Personally, i think the cost for watching it is pretty fair, all things considered.
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