On An Overgrown Path

News that the Queen's Diamond Jubilee is to be celebrated with a concert promoted as a joint venture between the BBC and Gary Barlow featuring Elton John, Paul McCartney and Lang Lang prompts me to reblog this from my 2008 post Tippett in focus : Above is Georg Solti's recording of the symphony missing from the Colin Davis' Tippett cycle, the 1977 Fourth which was a Chicago Symphony Orchestra commission. The Decca recording did appear on a CD coupled with The Knot Garden , but is now deleted. The LP coupling was Tippett's Suite for the Birthday of Prince Charles commissioned by the BBC in 1948 to celebrate the birth of the heir to the throne. I am told by someone who tried to programme the Suite in the royal presence some years ago that Charles hates the piece. Which must make it very good music indeed . Also on Facebook and Twitter . Any copyrighted material on these pages is included as "fair use", for the purpose of study, review or critical analys...

I have no doubt that you are absolutely right about the entertainment fallacy , Bob. I've commented on the issue here in times past but a couple of things I might add. First, there is a site called ' Classical Live Online Radio ', a great convenience for it provides links to 160 or so classical music stations, these categorized geographically as Europe, USA, and Rest of the World. The great majority of the stations thereon that I've listened to in all regions have the simplest format: an announcer who names the composer, work and performer(s), and then the music. Why anyone would suffer the teeth-grinding twittering and blethering of BBC Radio 3 and similar when they could stream, to take one example among so many, RAI, which I light upon because much of its programming is drawn from the vast RAI archives of studio and broadcast concert performances (and that raises another beef with the Beeb), I do not know. For people who do not have a vast personal collection of reco...

Young people are more responsive to the visual than to the aural, which is why using images to attract new audiences to classical music is a recurring theme On An Overgrown Path . A number of North American orchestras have been experimenting with concert visuals and the Toronto Symphony has now joined their number as described on the orchestra's website : Visual elements added to performance With the 2012.2013 season, the TSO adds more visual elements to the concert experience than ever before. In partnership with the Royal Scottish National Orchestra, the TSO has commissioned photographer James Westwater to photo-choreograph Smetana’s Mà Vlast , the composer’s heartfelt tribute to the lush landscapes of his Czech homeland (Apr 17 & 18, 2013). Images illustrating Mussorgsky’s Pictures at an Exhibition will be projected above the Orchestra in performances led by TSO Music Director Peter Oundjian (Sep 27 & 29, 2012); and with West Side Story , TSO Principal Pops Conductor S...

In the Guardian's portentously titled 'What the music industry needs to do with the classical renaissance' Max Hole from Universal Music declares that classical music's problems will be solved if it embraces "the spirit of change". There are others who think the problems will be solved if the Guardian stopped publishing transparently derivative advertorials written by long serving executives on whose watch the record industry has been brought to its knees - particularly one whose carefully spun Wikipedia entry tells us "he was referred to in Billboard as a serious contender for title of most powerful label executive outside America" and he "charted #16 on the Guardian and Observer’s ‘Music Power 100’ in 2011". Seen above is independent label Mode Record's double CD of Treatise by Cornelius Cardew, a composer who fell out with the BBC over the spirit of change when he wanted the slogan "Apply Marxism-Leninism-Mao Tse-tung ...

'The trouble is not that we want entertainment, but that we don't. If audiences truly insisted on nothing but entertainment, the world's theatres would: (a) be completely emptied, once and for all; (b) start delivering much more serious work.' That observation from theatre and film director Peter Brook is relevant to the RAJAR audience data for UK classical radio stations released today. In the last quarter of 2011 BBC Radio 3's audience decreased by 5.4% against the previous year and continued the downward trend for the station. Everyone, with the exception of the BBC Trust, knows that Radio 3 is broken ; so there is no point in going down that path yet again. But it is worth looking at the trend for the total audience for classical radio. There is now virtually no difference between BBC Radio 3 and Classic FM - they both put entertainment before art , employ the same presenters and sound the same . If the audiences for the two stations are added together we f...

New York Magazine's ' What Do You Get Just for Showing Up? An appearance-fee pecking order ' can usefully be extended to classical music. A noticeable appearance-fee beneficiary is the BBC's self-styled 'Prom Queen' and 'Maestro' star Katie Derham whose recent Tweets include "Sofya Gulyuk tickling ivories v effectively right now on @bbcradio3 Rach 3. Beautiful". In addition to a reported salary of £250,000 Ms Derham will just show up for corporate and public sector clients for a fee of "£5k - £10k" per appearance. Katie Derham is positioned as the BBC's 'face of the Proms' and the BBC Proms are subsidised by the public via the TV license fee to the tune of around £75,000 for each concert . Others benefit from appearance-fees more clandestinely , but it's all part of classical music's celebrity economy . Also on Facebook and Twitter . Any copyrighted material on these pages is included as "fair us...

'I think there is a great deal in The Kingdom that is more than a match for Gerontius , and I feel that it is a much more balanced work and throughout maintains a stream of glorious music whereas Gerontius has its ups and downs.' That is from Sir Adrian Boult's introductory note to his 1969 recording of The Kingdom and after writing yesterday's post about mystical devotion I listened once again to Elgar's oratorio. Sir Adrian's high regard for The Kingdom is reflected in his interpretation - his recording is probably the finest achievement of the EMI dream team of Boult, Bishop and Parker , although their Pilgrim's Progress runs it a close second. Forget about Elgar the flag waving patriot, he was a Catholic and it was only twenty-eight years before he was born that Catholic emancipation became law in England. Instead follow these links to Elgar the mystic and Elgar the occultist . Also on Facebook and Twitter . Any copyrighted material on these page...