Kamen's music is just what concert presenters want because, for the most part, concert presenters know only that they don't want audiences to complain. Washington is a polite town, and Kamen got a respectable ovation. And yet, if that is indeed the standard, we should close the books on the subject of new music and retreat into the role of mere curators of the past. A scathing review of the Kamen piece appeared in these pages after its premiere, and I, in turn, received many strongly worded letters. This response from readers was the lone moment of hope during the whole sorry affair.
Passion is evidence of intelligent interest in the form.
And yet many of the letters were troubling, suggesting that you're either for or against new music. Left out of this equation is the idea that you might be for new music that is good, and against new music that is bad. Those who believe that orchestras should commission new works have lost the battle when orchestras present composers like Kamen. It was only one piece, by one man, in a city that sits at the margins of the international music world. But what Kamen did for the NSO is the same thing that Sony Classical, for instance, has done for the long and distinguished history of the music recording business.