Classical Music Is in Crisis. Gustavo Dudamel Is Here to Save It.

Classical music in the United States has long been in trouble, battling for its survival. The possibility of reinventing it seemed out of reach until Gustavo Dudamel came onto the scene and took classical music by storm. Now, Dudamel is bringing his revolution to New York as the new musical director of the city's premier orchestra, the New York Philharmonic.

The State of Classical Music: An Aging Audience and a Niche Art Form

Michael Barbaro opens the episode by noting that classical music has been in a state of decline for years. He observes the "agedness" of the crowd at New York Philharmonic concerts and the general hand-wringing about shrinking audiences. Joshua Barone, classical music writer for The New York Times, agrees with this assessment, stating that classical music held the status of pop culture in America when a lot of its current audience members were children. "It's been, you know, a half-century at least since this thing really mattered in the culture," Barone says. He explains that in the 19th century, European music was widely played in homes, and it wasn't unusual for people to play Beethoven symphonies on the piano. The 20th century saw the dawn of recording and the rise of celebrity conductors like Arturo Toscanini, who founded a symphony orchestra for NBC and released countless recordings. This made classical music accessible at home for the first time. The next generation saw the emergence of Leonard Bernstein, who brought classical music to primetime television, further cementing its place in popular culture.

However, this "heyday" eventually gave way to a "low day." Barone notes that a reputation developed where classical music was seen as elitist. While he doesn't personally believe this, he acknowledges that this popular conception exists. He explains that the traditional model of ticket buyers, who would commit to a whole season of seeing an orchestra, "just doesn't exist anymore." People now buy tickets for maybe one thing, attending once a year or even once every three years. Furthermore, some people are intimidated by the perceived rules of classical music concerts: "You can't talk, you can't be on your phone, you can't clap between movements of a symphony." This has contributed to classical music becoming a niche art form. For the New York Philharmonic, this meant an audience that wasn't replenishing itself, a "drab" concert hall at Lincoln Center with poor acoustics, and conductors after Bernstein who lacked his charisma. All of this, Barone says, "just did not encourage you to love classical music."