The show is promoted with this line: "Sex, drugs, and classical music illustrate what happens behind the curtains at the symphony can be just as captivating as what occurs on stage." No joke, although it's classified as a comedy.
I found this new series while poking around Amazon Prime offerings, and watched Season 1, Episode 1, the pilot, which first became available on Feb. 6. Apparently, interest is not great (yet?) because I was the 228th viewer (and I quit after 15 minutes).
Credits are fairly impressive: the "creator" and chief writer is Roman Coppola (of Moonrise Kingdom and The Darjeeling Limited), the director is Paul Weitz (of About a Boy, In Good Company). There is a large cast, led by Gael García Bernal, Malcolm McDowell, Bernadette Peters, Lola Kirke. Oh, and Joshua Bell.
To quote from the studio's description of what this is all about:
Providing an insider’s view into the underbelly of the classical music machine, we meet guest conductors and star performers commanding over $100,000 per appearance and second-chair oboists struggling to make ends meet. We will also meet players behind the scenes — rich benefactors who purchase million-dollar instruments for up-and-coming prodigies, real estate magnates building new Performing Art Centers not for love of refined art but greed for increased real estate values, and symphony managers who hold the power of hiring and the fate of many hopeful musicians in their hands.Classical musicians live where opera, Broadway, world tours, the Lincoln Center, private parties and the ballet intersect with rock star intensity, addictions, critics, financial problems, and insecurities.
The characters of our show will span age and class, from the young and innocent to the jaded and bitter. These musicians form a very small "family," with no shortage of incestuous relationships or dramatic and temperamental artists, with motivations ranging from becoming a mega star to a pure, intimate communication of this revered art form.
It's all fiction, of course.