Answering the question:
If the world of opera and ballet is a sundial and the modern world is AI, then what is contemporary classical music today?
Tatiana Gerasimenok: A sundial on steroids.
Contemporary classical music today is a quiet harbor for those left behind by modern civilization. It lacks both scale and competition: all true geniuses have moved on to design the future in cutting-edge technology.
Today’s academic intellectual is like a craftsman spending years carving the perfect spoke for a carriage wheel intended for a supersonic jet: his labor is colossal, but the result is utterly useless. Like a stray dog, he feeds on handouts from states and foundations — tossed his way out of pity for a dying species and out of respect for a bygone greatness.
Instead of being the intellectual vanguard of humanity and building a new world as Bach and Beethoven did in their day, this "stray dog" stranded in the past simply picks the bones of their grandeur, scavenging the very resources meant to preserve their memory.