Want People To Come To The Symphony? Pick A Damn Theme

“The old overture-concerto-symphony model, with no real relationship among the pieces, gives no identity to a concert, no marketing hook. It’s just another ‘one from column A, one from column B’ mishmash. Slapping alliterative labels for single pieces on concerts — ‘Marvelous Mozart,’ ‘Bombastic Beethoven,’ ‘Ravishing Ravel’ — is pretty lame.”