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Classical music is a right-brainer

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Whichever way you look at it classical music is not in good health. Concert attendances are down, arts funding is drying up , classical venues are increasingly dark, recording release schedules get thinner and thinner, orchestras are being downsized or disbanded , and mainstream media coverage is disappearing. Yet the classical fraternity remains in denial of an irreversible cultural change that looks increasingly likely to leave the classical genre as no more than an anachronism . Why? In 1932 the German-born Swiss philosopher Jean Gebser identified that a change was taking place in Western consciousness, and that this change was impacting on science, art, literature, philosophy and other disciplines. His thesis was that human consciousness is in transition, and these transitions are abrupt but overlapping mutations, rather than smooth transitions, and these transitions involve cerebral and physical changes. Jean Geber's thesis is developed by Dr Iain McGilchrist with his theor...
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Outsourcing is the new normal

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In coverage of the current furore at the BBC  there is surprisingly little mention that the Panorama programme at the heart of the controversy was made by independent production company October Films . Although described on the company's website as "one of the most dynamic, imaginative and respected brands in the documentary sector" their show reel is entertainment oriented - Netflix Channel 5, etc. Similarly, another controversial BBC programme Gaza: How to Survive a Warzone was made by an independent production company,  Hoyo Films . Outsourcing is the new normal, not just in the broadcast sector but across the whole world of commerce : the global business process outsourcing market was valued at $261.9 billion in 2022. When I joined the BBC from university many, many years ago content was king, with the added value - in the BBC's case audience numbers - coming from content creation. A similar focus on adding value from content creation was found in t...
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It ended in tears

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Visitor logs for On An Overgrown Path show significant traffic from ChatGPT and other AI bots. This current obsession with all things AI reminds me of the Gnostic creation myth. In this the demiurge, or craftsman, employed by the "true God" to create the world, comes to believe that it is really in control, that it is the supreme deity, and enacts a coup d'état, with disastrous consequences. These musings were triggered by Ian McGilchrist's The Master and His Emissary , Gary Lachman's The Secret Teachers of the Western World , and Jordi Savall's The Forgotten Kingdom . The latter is an epic musical depiction of the Catholic Albigensian Crusade against the Gnostic beliefs of the Cathars, which resulted in the massacre of 20,000 inhabitants of Béziers in Languedoc. A powerful example of a fashionable creation myth that ended in tears.
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Bach for a Buddhist

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Classical music has many Buddhist tendencies . In his  recently published memoir  Tibetan Buddhist monk, author and "the world's happiest man" Matthieu Ricard  attributes his love of Bach's music to hearing recordings by Helmut Walcha . The photo above shows Matthieu Ricard participating in a filmed Concert-méditation which included Preludes and Fugues from J.S. Bach’s Well-tempered Clavier, and in an RTS podcast he included excerpts from recordings by Helmut Walcha of the English Suite no 2 and the French Suite no 2. Helmut Walcha (1907-1991), who lost his sight as a teenager, was a professor at the  Hochschule für Musik  in Frankfurt 1938 to 1972. His Bach inspired an older generation, just as more historically informed interpretations inspire a younger cohort today. Tastes and fashion have moved on and to contemporary ears the sound of Walcha's factory-made leather-quilled Ammer harpsichord with its piano action may sound anachronistic. But his abilit...
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Classical music is about art not algorithms

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In his book Which Lie Did I Tell? the Hollywood script writer William Goldman explained the difference between entertainment and art. Entertainment either tells you lies or tells you comforting truisms that we know already. Whereas art tells you uncomfortable things that you perhaps don't want to hear, truths that you may not be comfortable hearing. My photos were taken a few weeks ago in the Moroccan oasis town of Skoura on the northern fringe of the Sahara. Listening to those local musicians playing under the stars and the next morning listening to Norman Del Mar's recording of Rubbra's Sixth and Eighth Symphonies highlighted for me again, if it needed highlighting, how right William Goldman was. There is growing concern about  the impact of algorithms  on the media we consume. But there is very little concern about the impact of algorithms on the arts. In fact algorithm driven art is the new poster child of contemporary culture. The prime example of this is BBC Ra...
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BBC Radio 3 audience crashes by 11.4%

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Latest RAJAR figures for UK radio audiences report that the BBC Radio 3 audience dropped by a whopping 11.4% year on year. This was a loss of 233,000 listeners from Q3 2024 to Q3 2025. Average hours per listener were also down, by 4.9% to 7.7. (Elsewhere, in an attempt to boost Radio 3 and talk down the loss, R3 presenter Norman Lebrecht compares the latest quarter - Q3 2025 - with the previous quarter - Q2 2025. As any industry insider knows, this is a meaningless comparison as radio audiences vary substantially by season. Most importantly Q3 audience is always boosted by Proms listeners compared to Q2.)  This dismal performance comes as no surprise. It was inevitable that Radio 3's strategy of aping Classic FM  would result in short term gain followed by the long term pain which is starting to emerge. Classical radio - and classical music in general - needs to build a strong distinctive franchise with  a loyal audience that is prepared to be challenged . BBC Rad...
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Musicians against indifference

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On his new ECM album  After the Last Sky  oudist  Anouar Brahem  is joined by jazz multi-instrumentalist  Django Bates  and bassist  Dave Holland . Plus, in a serendipitous link to that  ultimate opposer of musician's indifference Pau Casals, long-time ECM maverick cellist  Anja Lechner  plays with Brahem for the first time, In his 1986 book After the Last Sky , Edward Said evoked Palestinian history in musical terms, as a "counterpoint (if not cacophony) of multiple, almost desperate dramas, with "no central image (exodus, holocaust, long march)... Without a center. Atonal". In a thoughtful booklet essay  Adam Shatz explains that Brahem's " After the Last Sky is in no way a didactic work of art and still less an anthemic expression of protest" and goes on to point out that "Brahem is Tunisian, not Palestinian, but he is no stranger to the tragedy of the Palestinian people". Most tellingly Shatz recounts how we are all t...
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