I covered Wednesday and Thursday’s concerts in last week’s Park Lane Group series: my reviews are up now on Musical Pointers.
My comment in the second review –
The PLG Young Artists series is a venerable institution and a crucial initiative in the development of young performing talent in this country. However, I’m beginning to wonder how much, musically, it has to offer to impartial observers without a connection to the Group itself or any of the performers.
– possibly needs a little clarification. PLG concerts don’t draw big crowds: the bulk of their audiences are made up of people directly associated with the event, or friends and families of the performers. Yet they get big press billing every year because everyone else in the audience is a critic and there’s not much else to write about at this time of year. It’s a curious and slightly hermetic phenomenon. Which is not to say I’d rather the series didn’t exist – far from it – but its oddity can’t pass unremarked.
The Rambler 