Not a totally new idea, but a good one: the Hallé Orchestra’s “Priceless Classics” concert on 6 September invites the audience at the Bridgewater Hall, Manchester, to pay only what they think the gig was worth on the night. The Hallé’s chief executive, John Summers, told the Today programme that the idea was to introduce new audiences to the “great music” that the orchestra plays, and that this format was a way of getting to the substance rather than the style of the usual concert hall conventions.
That might seem like an odd thing to say, given that the concert presents an atypical programme (10 short pieces rather than a substantial symphony or concerto) in an unconventional way: listeners will be able to “come and go as you like”, and – shock horror! – “bring your drinks in”, and each of the works on the programme will be introduced on screen. This all means putting a lot of new-fangled stylings before more traditional kinds of musical substance.
They’re all ideas that have been tried before (such as the free Proms in recent seasons, including this year, or the Orchestra of the Age of Enlightenment’s Night Shift concerts among others), and orchestras know that they work in terms of engaging a new audience and revitalising a more conventional crowd. But the Hallé’s boldness in their #pricelessclassics is in asking the audience to put their own value on the experience.
The results will be fascinating: what is is the perceived price tag of a one-off orchestral concert experience for its audience? I have a funny feeling the Hallé might be surprised with how much rather than how little people are prepared to pay: at the Proms, the best musical experiences are had by thousands every night for a fiver. The value of the concert that they, and everyone else in the hall, get from Promming is worth much more than £5 in terms of the musical, emotional and communal richness that everyone is part of in the Royal Albert Hall. You can’t really put a value on the best things in life – except, in September, the Hallé rather hope you can.
