According to the Philharmonia Orchestra’s managing director, David Whelton, “ The broad population of this country is totally unfamiliar with orchestral music.” During an interview with Prospect magazine which contains more soundbites than a party political conference he continues : “People’s experience of great music is negligible. When I was a kid you grew up with the basic harmonic tonality that underpins music from the Renaissance to the present day. Now that is a foreign language because rap music and garage and house have no harmonic reference at all.” In conclusion Whelton claims that “Nowadays sponsors would prefer to take clients to a football match”. Pretty depressing stuff and the trouble with polemics on this scale is that they raise more questions than answers. Doubtless this is what David Whelton intended because – as the Philharmonia’s General Manager for seventeen years – he knows better than most that healthy debate on the future of classical music is essential at a time when he believes : “Our world is shrinking by the day because of the overwhelming impact of popular culture”. But are things really that bad? The answer depends on your view of classical music. If you believe that it should remain a fossilised art that never changes its methods of dissemination or presentation, the answer is yes. If, on the other hand, you believe – as I do – that it is a living, vibrant art which evolves alongside society, the answer is no. Despite the oft-mentioned shortcomings of our music education system, children are still exposed to orchestral music from an early age. Blockbuster movies like Star Wars, Harry Potter and Lord of the Rings all feature massive orchestral scores. According to research by Classic FM, a significant percentage of their six million listeners are under fourteen (even if they don’t admit it to their friends!) Add Radio 3’s audience and an impressive eight million people a week are tuning in to a classical radio station. Orchestral music can hardly be “ a foreign language” to them. A certain young rapper named TY (there must be a limerick there) responded to Whelton by saying; “I don’t think that classical music has tried to contact what the youth are doing so classical musicians shouldn’t complain if they are not what the youth is listening to”. This is a harsh comeback when you consider that the Philharmonia has spent two years developing an interactive website called The Sound Exchange with the express purpose of introducing young people to the classics. The fact is that all our orchestra’s ‘outreach’ programmes are active as never before: players are going into schools, working with pupils and giving special concerts for children. Of course you would never learn this from the media as television, in particular, continues to pretend that classical music doesn’t exist. Whelton’s comments about rap music sent me scurrying to my newly installed iTunes site. Here I encountered a delectable lady named Kelis (another limerick is simmering) who implored me to sample the delights of her ‘Milkshake’. From this track it was immediately apparent that not only did Miss Kelis have a firm grasp of the basics of harmony and tonality but on a lot else besides. And as for sponsors preferring football matches to concerts, I am reminded of Mark Twain’s comment that “Wagner’s music has lovely moments but awful quarters of an hour”. So do football matches. ——————————–
Following last year’s ‘great’ gigs by those ageing warriors, Simon and Garfunkel (who had as their support act that even older brace of antagonists, the Everly Brothers) I observed that all these ‘famous musician – and friends’ concerts had become far too cosy and that we needed some ‘famous musician –and enemies’ concerts instead. So I am delighted to report the reunion of Cream – the sixties supergroup comprising lead guitarist Eric Clapton, drummer Ginger Baker and bass guitarist Jack Bruce – which broke up ‘in a storm of acrimony’ thirty six years ago. Dates are scheduled at the Royal Albert Hall in May and, so far, the signs are good. Said Baker, 65, : “I haven’t spoken to Jack in years. Cream broke up because I couldn’t stand being in his presence. Just because we’ll play music together doesn’t mean that we have to speak to each other.” Can’t wait.
Could anything have been sourer than the now forgotten ‘90’s bio-pic on the life of cellist Jacqueline du Pre, Hilary and Jackie.? Based on a poisonous biography by her jealous siblings, Hilary and Piers du Pre, it threatened – for a short while – to engulf the memory of Jacqueline, who would have celebrated her sixtieth birthday last week. The fact that it didn’t should add grist to David Whelton’s mill because it proved that the finest art will always outlast ephemera – even in our present era of ‘popular culture’.
