Phila. Orch. as (almost) bit player

The Philadelphia Orchestra had a moment in the sun last month with a national cinemacast starring pianist Lang Lang in movie theaters across the country - though the morning after doesn't look so glorious.

When the companion DVD to Lang Lang's Liszt: My Piano Hero album comes out Nov. 22 on Sony Classical, the Philadelphia Orchestra's portion won't be on it. Mainly, the disc will feature the prerecorded solo concert he gave in London in May - the same one that preempted part of the orchestra's concert (Shostakovich's Symphony No. 10) during the cinemacast, cutting its role to that of Lang Lang's accompanist on Liszt's Piano Concerto No. 1, on the program's second half.

Let's not be surprised. Intensely visual opera is a natural for simulcasts. Los Angeles Philharmonic simulcasts have Disney Hall, excitable, explosive-haired conductor Gustav Dudamel, and Hollywood stars such as Vanessa Williams to handle hosting duties.

But Lang Lang's simulcast was the first to focus on an instrumentalist - one reason the Philadelphia Orchestra was present only in the Liszt that featured him (which the orchestra has said was fine).

Lang Lang says he's happy with the whole thing. "It's a great success," he wrote in an e-mail; the only thing he will do differently next time, he says, is the repertoire.

The presenter, NCM Fathom, a division of National CineMedia, was pleased enough with the outcome to be thinking of doing similar programming again: Senior vice president Dan Diamond is well aware of the Philadelphia Orchestra's incoming music director, Yannick Nézet-Séguin, and his youthful charisma. "We view these programs, especially the first of its type, as a pilot program to build with," Diamond said.

There's much he would do differently now. Though Lang Lang was generous with his time for Philadelphia media, the cinemacast was carried by only two area theaters, neither in Center City. (The Verizon Hall concert itself did very well.)

Nationally, the transmission was carried by 265 theaters on Oct. 22 and 240 theaters on the Oct. 24 encore. In contrast, the Metropolitan Opera simulcasts are seen at as many as nine movie theaters locally, and its national box-office grosses sometimes rate in the week's top 10 films.

Fathom declined to release attendance and box-office gross figures and will say only that it's pleased, considering that it's a new category of arts programming.

Anecdotal head counts vary wildly: Some theaters had up to 80 percent attendance (according to Lang Lang), though other reports - one from Los Angeles and another from Warrington, Bucks County - counted only a handful of attendees.

The first Los Angeles Philharmonic cinemacast, held on a Sunday evening last January, was just as poorly attended in some cities. But Lang Lang's situation was complicated by the time slot. A number of those involved wanted the cinemacast to take place live on Liszt's birthday, Saturday, Oct. 22. But, Diamond said, many theaters already had committed all their screens for the high-demand Saturday night - obviously a much more competitive slot than the Met's Saturday afternoons.

Locally, some viewers complained that the intermission feature was a momentary turnoff. Besides doing the Rocky run up the steps of the Philadelphia Museum of Art, Lang Lang and interviewer Becky Griffin (an Israeli model and broadcaster) engaged in banter more in the spirit of MTV than a fine-arts program. Though Lang Lang considers himself to be a serious, nothing-but-classical pianist, he was asked, in all seriousness, if he's a rock star.

Diamond takes such criticism in stride: "Our goal is to take the best of what the fans loved and get rid of what they didn't like first time around. The great thing about classical-music fans . . . they're very discriminating about what they like and don't like and they're very willing to voice an opinion."

Some viewers report wincing when Griffin artlessly tapped out a few bars of Beethoven's Für Elise on the keyboard and insisted that Lang Lang give her a piano lesson when both are back in New York. Will he?

With diplomatic gentility, he replied: "I think maybe I should."