The Pittsburgh Symphony seeks to remedy its aging aurdience and marketing problems with an expansion of programming targeting ‘modern’ listeners. FUSE@PSO (And that’s the last time we’ll call the Pittsburgh Symphony the PSO.) is a wonderful reincarnation of Heinz Hall for the modern audience.
Mashup has often been a harsh term after the ‘Grey Album’ legal problems when Danger Mouse fused JayZ’s Black album with the Beatles’ White Album. (BitTorrent link for the Pirates) Moreover, Pittsburgh doesn’t have a Bootie night like LA, NYC, and Paris. So, locally, this is ground breaking stuff.
Conductor Steve Hackman updates the Pittsburgh Symphony with a mashup of Brahms vs Radiohead. The OK Computer adaptation interrupts your habits of listening and gives you a new experience. Even behind scenes, we found ourselves suppressing the urge to find a vacant seat. We listened as if it was the first album we picked up at a 90’s mall that we weren’t ashamed to tell others about.
Hackman was unrelenting when it came to media outreach. This is our first Pittsburgh Symphony article after all. His networking tenacity helped bring over 2,300 attendees. Attendees unfamiliar with the Symphony whose concerns could be boiled down to, “What the fuck do you wear to the symphony?”. The answer: Come as You Are.
In the end, we’re still rather confused as to why it was for a single performance. For the quality of the material, a repeat viewing is a must. Regardless, in the fall we recommend you check out his encourage Beethoven VS Coldplay.