Great Britten

Interesting to read today's Guardian leader invoking Benjamin Britten (and George Crabbe) in its assesment of the departing Tony Blair ~ 'Christianity underpinned so much about his prime ministership, from his 1997 identification of the act of voting Labour with spiritual redemption - "one cross on the ballot paper, one nation was reborn" - to his attempts to persuade the public of absolute truths. The effect could be brilliant. But it produced a strange sort of defiance, especially after Iraq and in the response to terrorism, a leader who came to believe, like Peter Grimes, that he could see the shoals to which the rest of Britain was blind.'

I wonder which operatic character the Guardian will use in their assesment of George W. Bush? And talking of political failings, now read the story of Peter Grimes' first conductor.
Photo is the 1995 Royal Opera House production of Peter Grimes. Any copyrighted material on these pages is included as "fair use", for the purpose of study, review or critical analysis only, and will be removed at the request of copyright owner(s). Report broken links, missing images and other errors to - overgrownpath at hotmail dot co dot uk

Music is in the soul of Russia

Stephen Moss tells it like it is in his Guardian music blog, and links to On An Overgrown Path:

It is of course distressing news that the great Russian cellist and conductor Mstislav Rostropovich is seriously ill in a Moscow hospital. Long may this remarkable performer and life-force live. I once shared a lift with him on the morning after a concert he had conducted in Milan, and his extraordinary energy was apparent even then - at 7.30am, following a party that had gone on into the early hours. A bear hug from "Slava" leaves you winded: his commitment and passion, for life and for music, are legendary; listen to him perform the Bach cello suites or conduct Tchaikovsky's ballets, and you will soon realise why he has been a towering presence in music-making for half a century.

How many other ailing classical musicians would make the news in the way that Slava has? And an even more pertinent question: if Slava were British, would our head of state or prime minister have made a special trip to hospital to wish him well, as Russian president Vladimir Putin is said to have done recently? Somehow, I can't imagine the Queen or Blair rushing to be at the bedside of Charles Mackerras or Colin Davis or Janet Baker if, perish the thought, they were seriously ill in hospital.

In Britain, the link between culture and politics is less umbilical than in Russia. The part serious art plays in national life and the taste of our leaders is also rather more restricted. Perhaps if Lester Piggott had a life-threatening condition, our racing-mad Queen would gallop to his aid; and Blair would, presumably, want to be there if, say, Noel Gallagher was stricken with something terrible. But Harrison Birtwistle, Alexander Goehr, Peter Maxwell Davies? Even the Master of the Queen's Music would, I suspect, only get a card.

Putin is said to be fond of the popular classics - Tchaikovsky and Schubert have been mentioned - and also claims to have read a good deal of Russian literature. This may just be spin. But I like to believe it is true - that the steely-eyed but sweet-faced former KGB colonel really does have a penchant for great music and a soft spot for Slava, who is also a political hero in Russia for standing alongside Boris Yeltsin in the face of a communist coup in 1991. And that this represents something profoundly Russian - the sense that music is in the soul of this great nation. That what is now thought of as a country of oligopolists and mafiosi, poverty, hunger and exploitation, is still, at heart, the land of Tchaikovsky, Rachmaninov, Prokofiev, Shostakovich, Horowitz, David Oistrakh, Maxim Vengerov ... and on and on. Russia has given more to music-making in the past 120 years than any other country.

The close link between politics and art has a downside, as Shostakovich discovered when Stalin began to take an over-critical view of his work in the 1930s. But I almost prefer that to the indifference of our own leaders, who wouldn't know a Tintoretto from a traffic cone. Thatcher, Major, Blair - do they have an ounce of artistic interest between them? No wonder the Millennium Dome's celebration of culture on New Year's Eve 1999 was such a fiasco: it was organised by a political class for whom great art has no value. Whose budget is to be slashed so the Olympics can get its billions? Why, the Arts Council of course.

Soviet communism proved to be a disaster, but boy did it take the arts seriously - Jade Goody and Cat Deeley would not have been major figures in Smolensk circa 1938. And I don't suppose President Putin is perfect, but he certainly knows a great musician when he sees one - and somehow finds the time in what must be a busy day running his chaotic country to tell a sick man what he has meant to Russia.

Meanwhile back On An Overgrown Path let's remember that Dmitri Shostakovich dedicated both his cello concertos to Mstislav Rostropovich. Listen, and see, Rostropovich talking about Shostakovich and the composition of Cello Concerto No 1 via these BBC Radio 3 online resources.
Rostropovich on playing to Shostakovich
Rostropovich on the Cello Concerto no. 1

And now read more about the musical tastes of our politicians
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Leonard Bernstein - the hoarse whisperer

There are currently lots of exciting things happening on the English contemporary music scene, although you wouldn't think so from the lugubrious article in today's New York Times. It just goes to show that, despite George W Bush and Tony Blairs 'special relationship', there is still a yawning gap between England and America. It is all summed up in this priceless anectdote from John Drummond's very English autobiography:

I met Bernstein occasionally over the years, especially after I became friendly with the management of the New York Philharmonic. I would go to their concerts in New York, and several times my visits coincided with Bernstein's appearances. One evening he conducted a whole programme of music by living composers, all of whom were present: Roger Sessions, Ned Rorem and William Schuman. Halfway through Rorem's piece - a song cycle - Bernstein started coughing and left the platform. We sat in embarrrassed silence while his hacking could be heard off-stage. Afterwards I went round to see him and found a huge group in the Green Room, most of whom were in tears of emotional commiseration. Bernstein wept his way slowly through the crowd, kissing, sobbing and acknowledging the cries of 'You're the greatest', led by the unlikely pairing of Billy Rose, the band leader, and Isaac Stern. It was America at its most flesh-crawling.

Now read about my own encounter with a naked Lennie.
John Drummond's Tainted by Experience is published by Faber, ISBN 0571200540. Any copyrighted material on these pages is included as "fair use", for the purpose of study, review or critical analysis only, and will be removed at the request of copyright owner(s). Report broken links, missing images and other errors to - overgrownpath at hotmail dot co dot uk

How political leaders indulge their ambitions

Political leaders are invariably ambitious, and that ambition comes at a cost. In the early 16th century Albrecht of Brandenburg pulled off a series of political coups that left him as the head of the church in the German empire. But his ambition came at quite a cost, he was in debt to Pope Leo X and the great medieval banking house of Fuggers to the tune of 29,000 gulden.

But the wily Albrecht had a solution. He authorised the sale of papal ‘indulgences’ in the form of certificates guaranteeing the remission of sins in the regions under his control. The practice of using indulgences to offset sins was well established. Leading theologians, such as Thomas Aquinas, supported it with the explanation that the church in Rome had the equivalent of as a spiritual bank account that was substantially in credit, and this spiritual credit could be offered to mortal sinners. Initially indulgences were earned by spiritual endeavours such as taking part in a crusade, or visiting relics or shrines. But by the 16th century indulgences were being openly sold in a tawdry trade. They may have simply left the purchaser with a worthless piece of paper, but they offered an attractive way for Albrecht of Brandenberg (picture above) to pay off his papal credit card.

Meanwhile last week, following press criticism, Tony Blair tried to restore his green credentials by announcing he would offset carbon emissions from his family holidays, including their Christmas stay at Bee Gee Robin Gibbs' Florida villa. To offset the indulgence of his long-haul short break it is calculated that the prime minister will simply need to purchase carbon credits to the value of £90. In support comes today’s announcement that carbon offsetting is getting the 21st century equivalent of papal approval. The UK government is to define criteria for offsetting schemes that use certified credits. And in a remarkable reminder that there is nothing new under an increasingly strong sun, the UK government scheme introduces a gold standard for carbon offsetting, neatly reflecting the 29,000 gold coins that Albrecht of Brandenberg was in hock for.

Of course, Albrecht’s sin offsetting scheme ended in tears. While his chief spin doctor was giving a media briefing in Brandenburg he crossed paths with a troublesome activist called Martin Luther. It was obvious to Luther that the indulgences being sold by Albrecht made promises far beyond what was realistically practical. Martin Luther was so incensed that he wrote his Disputation on the Power and Efficacy of Indulgences, and then, like any good activist, he posted them on the the 16th century equivalent of the internet - the door of the castle church in Wittenberg.

The rest is history, or more correctly the rest rewrote history. Luther’s stand against indulgences in October 1517 sparked the Reformation, and his proselytizing against Rome was taken up by Calvin in Geneva, and by Zwingli and Bullinger in Zurich. The first great split in the Christian Church had been the schism in 1054 between Rome and the Orthodox congregation, and the Reformation in the 16th century sparked the second great split, this time between Rome and the Protestant Church. This split changed the political map of Europe and the religious map of the world forever, and sparked wars and conflicts that continue today. As well as creating a religious movement, Martin Luther (left) also created a cultural movement that stretches from Bach’s St Matthew Passion to Benjamin Britten’s 1962 War Requiem. And it all happened because a greedy leader decided that indulgences were a cool way to finance his ambitions.

Now read how the Pope has another Regensburg moment
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The musical tastes of our politicians

Downing Street last night insisted that Tony Blair had paid properly and in full for his winter break, after a day of confusion over the arrangements surrounding his stay in the Miami mansion of former Bee Gee Robin Gibb (left). As yet another political storm rages around Blair's holiday arrangements it is difficult to know what is more suspect, his financial judgement or his taste in music. But appalling musical taste is not limited to the prime minister, as Michael Church pointed out in an Independent article in July.

What it adds up to is the rampant anti-intellectualism that I found Sir Peter Maxwell Davies (below) raging against, when I visited him at the Royal Academy of Music. The Master of the Queen's Music has just been listening to David Cameron's Desert Island Discs choice on BBC Radio 4, and he's not amused. "In any other European country," he says, "a politician who chose that sort of garbage would be laughed out of court. The anti-artistic stance of our leaders gets up my nose. Their main aim is to turn us all into unquestioning passive consumers who put money into the bosses' pockets. That is now the purpose of education."

David Cameron is the leader of the Conservative Party, and here is the music which caused Max to rage.

1. Tangled Up In Blue, Bob Dylan, CBS 26334
2. Ernie, Benny Hill, EMI CDGO 2040
3. Wish You Were Here, Pink Floyd, EMI 536112
4. On Wings of Song, Mendelssohn, Kiri Te Kanawa and Utah Symphony Orchestra
Decca 475 6013
5. Fake Plastic Trees, Radiohead, Parlophone CDRS6411
6. This Charming Man, Smiths, WEA, YZ000ICD2
7. Perfect Circle, R.E.M, I.R.S.DMIRHI
8. All these Things that I've Done, The Killers, Lizard King,Lizard012

Book:The River Cottage Cookbook by Hugh Fearnley-Whittingstall
Luxury: A crate of Scottish whisky.

For more on the musical tastes of politicians visit Condoleezza's musical mystery tour revealed, and for more Maxwell Davies visit A musician with teeth,.
Image credit - MaxOpus. Any copyrighted material on these pages is included as "fair use", for the purpose of study, review or critical analysis only, and will be removed at the request of copyright owner(s). Report broken links, missing images and other errors to - overgrownpath at hotmail dot co dot uk