One of the saddest stories of 2007 was the jailing of early music conductor Robert King for almost four years for sexually abusing minors between 1982 and 1995. For many, including his agents, Robert King is now history. Type his name as a search on the Harrison Parrott website and this is the response - 'Sorry, we couldn't find a match for your search words. Please try again.'
But trying again elsewhere produces the same result. Go to the website of the eponymous ensemble that the acclaimed conductor founded and you will find history rewritten. Founder Robert King's name is deleted totally from the history of the King's Consort', although they are still happy to profit from online sales of his CDs. Thank heavens for Hyperion, who are one of the few organisations happy to maintain their links with this important musician.
Different treatment for a role model that got it wrong is reported in today's Guardian. In a story that starts 'When your performance is measured by how fast you can drive on the track, sticking to speed limits in your private life can be a bit of a nuisance' the paper reports that Formula 1 driver Lewis Hamilton was fined €600 and had his license suspended for a month for driving at 122mph in an 80mph speed limit in northern France.
Lewis Hamilton has received wide media coverage as a role model for young Black people, but that is not important apparently. Speaking about the motoring offence a spokesperson for Hamilton's employer Team McLaren said "We were made aware that Lewis was stopped for speeding in France whilst driving in a private capacity. We understand he has received a mandatory fine and suspension from driving in France for one month."
I am not contesting the pain and damage caused by sexual abuse, and I have have actively championed black role models here. But could Team McLaren, and others, please remember, as Christmas approaches, that a thousand people are killed every year in Britain alone by speeding drivers, and that also means a dreadful amount of pain and damage to innocent families?
Passing sentence on Robert King, Judge Hezlett Colgan told King: "Your victims were in their early or mid-teens at the time." So are many of the victims of speeding drivers. Perhaps role model Lewis Hamilton should be made aware that sticking to speed limits really isn't such a nuisance, even in a private capacity? By the same token, in this season of goodwill, the classical music community could reflect for a moment on the contribution made by Robert King.
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8 comments:
An email has come in which says:
I just looked at the King's Consort website and was also shocked to see that he's been deleted from it. That isn't truthful.
Whatever the rights and wrongs of the Robert King case the King's Consort website is an extrordinary example of revisionism.
Here is the Hyperion wensite -
In the world of film music King was a music consultant for Ridley Scott's epic The Kingdom of Heaven and his harpsichord playing can be heard in the hit film Shrek 2; other recent Hollywood projects include work for The Chronicles of Narnia, Pirates of the Caribbean, Flushed Away and, assisting award-winning composer Hans Zimmer, The Da Vinci Code.
http://www.hyperion-records.co.uk/artist_page.asp?name=rking
Here is the King's Consort website -
In the world of Hollywood TKC's choir feature in the sound tracks of Ridley Scott's epic The Kingdom of Heaven, and in The Chronicles of Narnia, Pirates of the Caribbean, Flushed Away and The Da Vinci Code.
http://www.tkcworld.com/about-short.html
Pliable: You are such a weird character, writing a post defending somebody who has sex with under-18s while also advocating for a less abusive, car-free culture.
What's even weirder is that I agree with you on both points, in fact even a bit more radically. We need to get out of car culture completely for a while if the human species is going to survive, and the fact that more people don't recognize this simple truth continues to astonish me. And on the topic of adults/adolescents having sex, in most cases I'd call it abuse, clear and simple, but in a few other cases not. Britten was not an abuser, and from the sound of it neither was Mr. King. But we don't live in an officially subtle world.
Thx Mike, although I'm not sure you've quite got my nuances.
The point of the post is NOT to defend sexual abuse. As I clearly say 'I am not contesting the pain and damage caused by sexual abuse.
It is to highlight society's radically different attitude towards criminal abuse that took place more that ten years ago and criminal driving that happened last weekend.
It is also to highlight that nobody in the classical music community comes out of the Robert King case very well, least of all those who today run the King's Consort.
We also need to be careful about bringing Britten into this. His biographers agree his interest in young people was Platonic. A jury in a very fair legal system found Robert King guilty of abuse. There is a big difference.
But nuances aside we agree on the two key points. That our attitude towards the car culture is unacceptable, and that there are disquieting elements in the Robert King story. And that was the point of the post.
I too am unsettled by the King's Consort's sudden amnesia. And I find "car culture," so pervasive here in the States, alarming and dangerous.
But I'm not sure there's any comparison between pederasty and speeding, as criminal offenses go. The "different treatment" probably has to do with the fact that Lewis Hamilton (I'm, er, not a fan) drove too fast in an 80mph zone, and Robert King (I greatly admire his recordings) molested teenage boys.
The "different treatment" probably has to do with the fact that Lewis Hamilton (I'm, er, not a fan) drove too fast in an 80mph zone, and Robert King (I greatly admire his recordings) molested teenage boys.
Precisely my point. Coupled with the fact that 3500 people, many young, will die on Britain's roads this year. Of those deaths around 1000 will be due to excessive speed.
Isn't that enough pain to justify a comparison?
It is true that highway accidents do cause many more deaths than child molestation. While statistics show that highway accidents have a high mortality / morbidity rate, deaths from molestation are exceedingly rare. Slow down--save a life!
No, I'm not certain that it is. If Lewis Hamilton had committed vehicular homicide, I certainly might agree with you! But in his particular case, no actual pain has been inflicted on anybody.
By a stretch of the imagination, Hamilton may have endangered the lives of hypothetical others—despite having built his entire career on the ability to control an automobile at three-digit speeds without killing anybody—but Robert King has inflicted real harm on a number of not-so-hypothetical boys.
There is a vast and, I should have hoped, clear difference in the severity of the two crimes. Speeding is serious. Sexual abuse is far, far, far more serious.
As for Benjamin Britten, it's funny—I've just finished reading Britten's Children, which makes a convincing case that he did not molest children. He was, however, an avid car enthusiast, and enjoyed taking children on high-speed rides through the country. So, by your logic, maybe he was as bad as a child molester?
I think I'll nominate Michael's comment above as my last word on this one.
Drive safely over Christmas everyone. Or even better, don't drive at all.
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