Now we are ready to start.

Presenter: Hello, everybody! Welcome to this new addition of our program ‘Music around us’. Your response showed that our program turned out to be very popular. A lot of our listeners sent us letters, e-mails and text messages.

Speaker: It sounds great! What are they writing about?

Presenter: Different things. Some of them have expressed their opinion about the questions raised in our previous edition. Others suggest topics to discuss with our guests.

Speaker: It means that you have become popular very quickly. Do you know why?

Presenter: Actually, yes. It’s only the third edition of our program and there are millions of young people listening to us. As for the question about the reasons of our popularity, it’s not easy to answer. I can only guess that the program gained such popularity because we talk about issues that interest teenagers and we do our best to invite people, who know a lot about the questions we discuss and are willing to share their ideas and opinions with us.

Speaker: Great! I can see your point. What are we talking about today?

Presenter: I recently saw a short video called ‘Stop and hear the music’. It shows a young man playing the violin at the entrance of an underground station in Washington during the morning rush hour. He is wearing jeans, a T-shirt and a baseball cap and at his feet is an open violin case with a few dollars in it. He looks like any other street musician you’ve seen. But he’s no ordinary busker. Here to tell us more is the music critic Quentin George.

Speaker: Hello, everybody! You are right, Melody. The performer is Joshua Bell, one of the world’s most famous classical musicians. He’s toured around the world, performed in the best concert halls with the world’s most famous orchestras and conductors and released many best-selling albums. He’s also played violin solos on soundtracks of Hollywood movies and he once appeared on the kid’s television program ‘Sesame Street’.

Presenter: So what was this musical virtuoso doing busking in the underground?

Speaker: It was a test organized by the Washington Post newspaper.

Presenter: What were they trying to prove?

Speaker: They wanted to know if ordinary people would recognize extraordinary talent in an unusual context. They wanted to see if commuters hurrying to work would recognize what a wonderful violinist Joshua is. Would they listen and give him money or would they just ignore him?

Presenter: As far as I remember for about three quarters of an hour Joshua played six classical works including an extremely challenging piece composed by Bach. Not only was he playing some of the most beautiful masterpieces ever written, he was playing one of the rarest and most valuable violins in the world, a Stradivarius, made in 1713 for which Joshua paid about $3.5 million. So, Quentin, what happened?

Speaker: Over a thousand people walked past but almost nobody stopped to listen. There were no crowds, no applause when Joshua finished a piece. After three and a half minutes he got his first donation when a woman paused briefly and threw a dollar in his case. In total, only twenty-seven people gave money. The acoustics were good, there was nothing wrong with the sound quality, and Joshua played beautifully. But he only earned $32.17 for the performance.

Presenter: It’s incredible, isn’t it? Only a few days earlier concert-goers at the Symphony Hall in Boston paid hundreds of dollars each to hear Joshua Bell play. But in the underground practically nobody stopped to listen to him for free. Why?

Speaker: Probably because of the context. You don’t expect to hear a brilliant musician in an underground station. And most people just don’t have time to stop to listen to music on their way to work in the morning rush hour.

Presenter: Hmmmm ….

Speaker: But there was one more thing that was very interesting.

Presenter: What’s that?

Speaker: Every small child who heard the music wanted to stop to listen. The parents had to pull them away.

Presenter: Fascinating!

You have 15 seconds to complete the task. (Pause 15 seconds.)

Now you will hear the text again. (Repeat.)

Date: 2016-04-22; view: 662