Classical music may not be not elitist but its prices are


Eyebrows were raised at £50 for sitting on the shingle to hear an amplified Grimes on the Beach at this year's Aldeburgh Festival. Now eyebrows are being raised even further at £60 per person for the fixed price menu in the pop-up beach restaurant which is open only for the three Grimes performances next week. But don't sweat, because for the financially challenged "Aldeburgh Music has teamed up with award winning Lawson's Delicatessen in Aldeburgh High Street to provide delicious picnic hampers" for the Grimes performances. These hampers are a bargain at £26 per person and that price even includes a bottle of still mineral water. Sycophantic journalists and Aldeburgh's banker clientele are not fazed by these prices because they do not pay their own way. But if you are not on the gravy train, dinner for two at the pop-up restaurant, two hemorrhoid-inducing places on the pebbles to hear Grimes, plus a pair of irresistible Britten centenary cuff-links to remember your evening by, will set you back a cool £239.99. Which is £90 more than Amazon's pre-release price for Decca's even more irresistible sixty-six CD Britten: The Complete Works limited edition box. Now that's food for thought.

Inset in my photo montage is the famous Aldeburgh Fish and Chip Shop which is frequented by more impecunious festival goers. 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). Also on Facebook and Twitter.

Comments

Mike said…
Everywhere I turn this week, people are writing "phase" for "faze". It's the beginning of the end...
9:30 am
Pliable said…
Thanks Mike and now corrected.

My mistake entirely - I must have been reading too much Lebrecht.
9:36 am
Mike said…
I'm sure there's something you can take for that. Aversion therapy doesn't seem strong enough.
9:52 am
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