David Lister: Sadly all the noise is about the novelties – not the classics

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Thursday, 9 April 2009

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I have a dream that one day the Proms programme will be announced, and among the headlines the next day will be words like Beethoven, Brahms, Rattle, Barenboim. It's a little fanciful, I know.

The director of the Proms yesterday made much of drum 'n' bass star Goldie, of songs from Bollywood, of Radiohead's Jonny Greenwood, of MGM musicals. And there's nothing wrong per se with any of that. There was nothing wrong last year either with David Tennant hosting a Doctor Who Prom for children. There was a fair bit wrong the year before with an evening of songs from the musicals by Michael Ball. All these ingredients give a diversity to the world's biggest classical music festival, even if some are truly imaginative and others downright gimmicky.

But as this is the world's biggest classical music festival, why does there seem to be such reluctance to trumpet the glories of classical music? Each year, at least in recent years, the BBC executives who run the Proms make more of the sideshows than the main event. There seems to be a nervousness in the BBC Proms hierarchy about proclaiming the glories, excitement and inclusiveness of classical music.

The increasingly impressive Roger Wright, the Proms director and also head of Radio 3, should have the confidence to challenge this nervousness. His core programming of this year's Proms is excellent: virtuosi such as Gidon Kremer, Lang Lang and Yo Yo Ma, conductors such as Mariss Jansons, Daniel Barenboim, Gergiev and Mehta, some of the world's best orchestras, Stravinsky's complete ballet music, Haydn's Creation, Beethoven's Fidelio and much else.

It doesn't actually need Goldie to make it world-beating, nor even to make it newsworthy. Those who run the Proms should have faith in the Proms and the power of classical music.

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The Proms, world beating AND classical

dreamraven71 wrote:

Thursday, 9 April 2009 at 11:19 am (UTC)

First off, a bit of background: I have never really liked The Proms, not the stereotypical flag waving toffs, the classical music, OR the Doctor Who Proms for 'the children', please 'think of the children!'. Having said that, I do agree with the above article. If there is world beating classical music on the programme, let everyone know about it. Goldie, Radiohead and musicals may or may not be a suitable addition to the event, but surely its core content needs to be given a decent 'shout out'?

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Inclusive?

lima_charlie wrote:

Friday, 10 April 2009 at 03:14 am (UTC)

You trumpet the glories, excitement and inclusiveness of classical music but I fear you may be well off the mark on the latter. Inclusive is one of the last words I would associate with classical music and the inevitable accusations of dumbing-down and pandering only emphasise the sense of not being wanted many will feel when attempts to reach out to them are derided by the core audience as concessions of the worst sort and a general 'lowering of the tone' (as such).

Still, leaving all that aside for a moment you say you dream about headlines of Beethoven, Brahms, Rattle, Barenboim and that is indeed fanciful. The reason? They're classical names at a festival of classical music. It'll need to be a very slow new day indeed before any headlines are devoted to 'Famous Orchestra and Composer to play Classical Music' type news. What was headline about Glastonbury 2008? Jay-Z, and why? because it challenged people preconceptions of what sort of music could be played there.
Of course Goldie and Bollywood and Johnny Greenwood is what will get headlines - they're not what you would expect to find at a classical music festival and in that it attempts to challenge preconceptions on both sides. Right now, the people complaining are Liam Gallagher (it's pop I know so if you're having trouble Wikipedia him and Jay-Z too while you're at it)

Despite my earlier comments about the lack of inclusiveness in classical music, I still think you'll find traditionally non-classical audiences far more open-minded and receptive to these attempts to engage with them than the core 'aficionados' who will likely continue to see it as nothing more than a never-ending dilution of what they love (despite performances by all the acts from todays headlines taking up just 5 in over 100 Proms and in Johnny Greenwood's case, just 18 minutes)

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Bizarre

tommypearson wrote:

Friday, 10 April 2009 at 01:01 pm (UTC)

This is a bizarre article on two counts:
The main article on the same page of the print edition of the newspaper was almost exclusively about the 'novelty' parts of the Proms season - rendering Lister's point completely useless (click on the link within the text above 'The Proms are taking a walk on the wold side of music' to see what I mean).

Second, everyone I know who was at the Proms launch agrees that what Lister 'reports' is wrong - the main sell was the classical music performances in the Proms, not the more pop-orientated stuff.

http://onemoretake.blogspot.com

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