Whoever you vote for, the government gets in


That EMI LP captured the then Conservative prime minister Edward Heath conducting Elgar's Cockaigne Overture at a London Symphony Orchestra concert in November 1971. The Elgar was coupled with studio recordings of André Previn conducting Bernstein, Enescu and Vaughan Williams. Heath was never quite as good a conductor as he imagined himself to be. But, plus ça change, classical music could not resist a celebrity. On another occasion he conducted a concert in Salisbury Cathedral. During rehearsals, the prime minister was growing more and more curt in his comments. The leader of the orchestra became increasingly exasperated, and eventually exclaimed: "If you don't stop being so rude to us, Sir Edward, we may start obeying your instructions." As in music, so in politics - whoever you vote for, the government gets in. Elsewhere there is more on mixing music and politics.

Also on Facebook and Twitter. Any copyrighted material is included as "fair use" for critical analysis, and will be removed at the request of copyright owner(s).

Comments

shallnot said…
One of those lovely co-incidences that make life interesting is that yesterday at my local SPCA Thrift Store (charity shop) I picked up, for amusement's sake, Heath's 1976 book "Music: A Joy for Life".
Pliable said…
Shall, you take us down an interesting path. The quantity of a book to be found in thrift/charity shops is a very accurate measure of the merit - or rather lack thereof - of a book.

For many years Ted Heath's book topped the charity shop chart. But recently it has been overtaken by Dan Brown's output.

Recent popular posts

David Munrow - more than early music

Classical music must be doing something wrong

Soundtrack for a porn movie

The Berlin Philharmonic's darkest hour

Classical music's biggest problem is that no one cares

The act of killing from 20,000 feet

Look - no hype!

Randomness is a very precious thing

Annie Proulx's 'Private Passions'

Classical music has many Buddhist tendencies