82,891
edits
Hindsight: Difference between revisions
no edit summary
Amwelladmin (talk | contribs) No edit summary |
Amwelladmin (talk | contribs) No edit summary |
||
| Line 2: | Line 2: | ||
'''Middle manager''': [''interrupting'']: Simply put, we were not [[proactive|proactively]] looking for it. We were not using [[data]] properly to evaluate risk. To add value as an [[Inhouse lawyer|in-house legal]] function we need to use [[Innovation|innovative]] tools to crunch data, proactively spot emerging risks and escalate them to business.”}} | '''Middle manager''': [''interrupting'']: Simply put, we were not [[proactive|proactively]] looking for it. We were not using [[data]] properly to evaluate risk. To add value as an [[Inhouse lawyer|in-house legal]] function we need to use [[Innovation|innovative]] tools to crunch data, proactively spot emerging risks and escalate them to business.”}} | ||
===A cold night in Vienna, 1808=== | |||
On a freezing night December 1808, about 1,500 people attended an ''akademie'' concert at the ''Theater an der Wien'' in suburban Vienna. The programme was to be four hours long, during which a young composer from out of town<ref>Bonn, in northwestern Germany — a long way from the cultural capital of the Austrian Empire.</ref> would be debuting a number of works. The run-up to the concert did not bode well: many of the musicians in theatre’s house orchestra had “conflicting commitments” with a better-paying gig across town at the ''Burgtheater'', and even the solo soprano dropped out at the last minute, to be replaced by an unknown teenager— [[I have to hop]] is no modern excuse it seems — and the composer — an irascible fellow, it seems —kept changing the scores up to the last minute. So poor were relations with his musicians that they refused his baton, and another conductor was drafted in to lead the orchestra on the day of the concert. | |||
The concert itself was a disaster. The orchestra was rubbish — “lacking in all respects”, according to one reviewer — the poor | The concert itself was a disaster. The under-rehearsed orchestra was rubbish — “lacking in all respects”, according to one reviewer — the poor young soprano suffered stage fright, the hall was freezing and the show badly overran. During one work, the orchestra fell apart completely and had to restart the piece altogether. | ||
So why is there even any record of this concert — most of | So why is there even any record of this concert — most of [[Supercheese]]’s concerts were like that, and there’s no record of any of ''them'' — and how has it found its way onto a [[Jolly Contrarian]] article about hindsight? You will not be surprised to hear there is a punchline. | ||
Of the scathing reviews that followed, one at least — in the ''Allgemeine musikalische Zeitung'' — was prescient enough to say the following: “To judge all these pieces after only one hearing, especially considering [...] that so many were performed in a row, and most are so grand and long, is impossible.” | Of the scathing reviews that followed, one at least — in the ''Allgemeine musikalische Zeitung'' — was prescient enough to say the following: “To judge all these pieces after only one hearing, especially considering [...] that so many were performed in a row, and most are so grand and long, is impossible.” | ||
To the punchline then: In this concert, said young foreign composer was, of course, Ludwig Van Beethoven, and in that one concert he premiered his ''Symphony No. 6'' (“Pastoral”), his Piano Concerto No. 4, the aforementioned ''Choral Fantasia''. If that wasn’t enough — and surely the ''Pastoral'', by itself, would have been enough of an event to make the record for humankind’s highest achievement — after the interval, the orchestra performed the premiere of the most revolutionary piece of music, bar ''none'' ever written: the theme to ''Saturday Night Fever'',<ref>I am sorry. I couldn’t resist.</ref> then known as Symphony No. 5.<ref>Anyone interested in Beethoven’s symphonies — that is, in Jimi Hendrix’s words, “everybody here with hearts — ''any'' kind of hearts — and ears” — should check out Professor Robert Greenberg’s [https://robertgreenbergmusic.com/download/beethoven-symphonies/ lectures about Beethoven].</ref> | To the punchline then: In this concert, said young foreign composer was, of course, Ludwig Van Beethoven, and in that one concert he premiered his ''Symphony No. 6'' (“Pastoral”), his Piano Concerto No. 4, the aforementioned ''Choral Fantasia''. If that wasn’t enough — and surely the ''Pastoral'', by itself, would have been enough of an event to make the record for humankind’s highest achievement — after the interval, the orchestra performed the premiere of the most revolutionary piece of music, bar ''none'' ever written: the theme to ''Saturday Night Fever'',<ref>I am sorry. I couldn’t resist.</ref> then known as Symphony No. 5.<ref>Anyone interested in Beethoven’s symphonies — that is, in Jimi Hendrix’s words, “everybody here with hearts — ''any'' kind of hearts — and ears” — should check out Professor Robert Greenberg’s [https://robertgreenbergmusic.com/download/beethoven-symphonies/ lectures about Beethoven].</ref> | ||
===A busy week on Reddit=== | |||
{{sa}} | |||
{{ref}} | |||