July 27, 2005

MSO’s managing director, Trevor Green, says MSO Pops is a way of growing the
Photo: Gary Medlicott

With its face to the future, the Melbourne Symphony Orchestra is going pop, reports Robin Usher.

Classical music in the 21st century is no place for musical snobs. The need to find new audiences under the pressure of changing musical tastes means orchestras are always seeking to expand their repertoire to appeal to as many people as possible.

While the Melbourne Symphony will celebrate its centenary next year, its managing director, Trevor Green, faces the challenge of ensuring it will still be performing over the next 100 years.

“Our traditional concerts constitute our core business and generate around $5 million a year,” he says. “They’re not changing, but we have to find ways to grow the business.”

He’s introducing a new class of concerts next year, MSO Pops, a series of four programs performed on Saturday nights and Sunday afternoons.

“The whole point about the MSO is that we should be able to offer something for everyone,” Green says. “So we need to continue to diversify our output.”

He’s expecting some criticism, but insists the new series will be an extra to the orchestra’s existing performing calendar.

He compares the traditional concerts with reading the novels of Fyodor Dostoevsky – too difficult for beginners. By contrast, the first Pops program in March features the music of George Gershwin, including Rhapsody in Blue, Summertime and An American in Paris.

“The idea is to create a subbrand of the MSO. If that points audiences to our other concerts, well and good, but the main aim is to build up a new market.”

Green’s flair for new ventures has already attracted an extra 50,000 people to the orchestra this year, for an increased revenue of about $500,000. The new business has come from such ventures as supporting jazz singer Harry Connick jnr and kd lang, as well as this month’s Classical Spectacular offering in Melbourne and Sydney.

The orchestra also performed the music to Bugs Bunny cartoons in a show produced in partnership with the Arts Centre.

“Shows like these are great publicity for the orchestra,” Green says. “People become aware that we’re around, and enough are coming to see these shows to make a real difference to our (financial) bottom line this year.”

The MSO is big business. Its annual turnover of $20 million is expected to grow to $21 million next year. It has an international reputation after tours to Europe, China and St Petersburg.

But he says audiences for traditional concerts aren’t growing. “Subscribers are getting older, even though our renewal rate is above 90 per cent, which is fantastic by overseas standards,” he says.

Numbers are increasing by about 150 a year, but total subscribers remain below 20,000. This consistency would be the envy of orchestras in the US and Britain.

English conductor Mark Wigglesworth noted when he was here in May that classical music is in poor health around the world. When he was in Pittsburgh earlier this year, audiences at the three performances ranged from a quarter to half-full, making attendances at Hamer Hall’s three concert series seem remarkably healthy.

“In London, we only give one concert, which, of course, will always be full,” he says. “Pittsburgh would sell out, too, if there was only one concert.”

The MSO pioneered the diversification into pop music when it formed a partnership with Elton John in 1986 to support his performances. This has continued, backing such acts as Kiss and Meat Loaf.

The Classical Spectacular concerts, with light shows and fireworks, were introduced in Britain by Raymond Gubbay in the ’80s and are now diversifying into popular operas. They were first performed by the MSO in partnership with the promoter Michael Edgely in 2000.

But this month’s concerts in Melbourne and Sydney were organised by Green and attracted a total of 25,000 people to the combined forces of the MSO, the Melbourne Chorale and Bands of the Royal Australian Air Force.

“It was new to Sydney, but we took $1 million in Melbourne for two concerts in one day. We have to pay the bills, but that’s still a good return for us.”

Green’s decision to introduce the Pops concerts next year, which will include film music, Peter and the Wolf and Christmas favourites, was partly inspired by childhood memories in England, when he first attended a symphony concert in the 1950s.

He attended a performance conducted by Sir Thomas Beecham – the legendary conductor who died in 1961, renowned for his Lollipops concerts.

“I was so excited that I’ve never forgotten the experience. I had no idea whether the music was Italian, French or Chinese, but I was amazed by the incredible sound,” he says. “No system of reproduction, whether CD or DVD, can kill off live music, because there’s nothing that can equal it.”

The introduction of a Pops series would seem to infringe on the territory of the unsubsidised Australian Pops Orchestra, which usually performs three or four concerts of lighter classics a year.

But Green says he believes the orchestra’s manager, Kel McMillan, was planning to retire before the latter suddenly changed his mind. “But I don’t think there’s any conflict,” he says.

McMillan agrees, saying there was no clash because of different repertoires and the continuing loyalty of the two audiences, pointing out the Best of British concert on August 6 was typical of the APO’s offerings.

“The MSO program is slightly more classical than what we do,” he says. “We wouldn’t consider doing Peter and the Wolf for our audience. It’s frightening that everyone seems to be getting older, but there’s room for everyone.”