“The musical equivalent of St Pancras Station” was how Sir Thomas Beecham sniffily dismissed Elgar’s glorious First Symphony. Reading some of the less glorious reviews of my brother Andrew’s art collection – currently on display at the Royal Academy – I was reminded of Beecham’s patronising verdict on Elgar’s masterpiece. Romanticism (a.k.a. wearing your heart on your sleeve) traditionally has an uneasy relationship with the critics. At its New York premiere, Rachmaninov’s Second Piano Concerto was, “like a mournful banqueting on jam and honey”. In Paris, Verdi’s Rigoletto “lacked melody – it has hardly any chance of staying in the repertoire”. Puccini’s Tosca was “a shabby little shocker” and Gaston Leroux’s novel The Phantom of the Opera “a penny dreadful”. Atkinson Grimshaw’s wonderfully atmospheric evocations of gas-lit Victoriana are among my own favourites in Andrew’s collection. Yet, according to one critic – who doubtless prefers the concrete mausoleum that is our National Theatre to the gothic splendours of St Pancras – Grimshaw’s paintings are “marred by sentimental human interest”. Human interest in art? God forbid! Another critic – singing a refrain which is all too familiar to lovers of such English composers as Frank Bridge and John Ireland – belittles Grimshaw’s work as “English Trivia”. The perfumed titles of John Ireland’s piano pieces alone (February’s Child, Amberley Wild Brooks, Ballade of London Nights , etc.) are enough to cause a certain type of critic to dip their pens into their bile buckets. Arthur Machen, the writer who John Ireland most admired, routinely received such dreadful reviews that – as a sort of cathartic exercise – he collected the worst of them together and published them in a volume called Precious Balms. In his introduction, Machen bravely argues that “opposition, whether it be that of a mountain side or a body of critical opinion, is one of the chiefest zests and relishes of life”. By that reckoning the Romantics have an awful lot to relish.
The supposedly up-market Observer newspaper has launched OMM, a new music magazine which promises to ‘bring you the best in music from around the world’. Yet, despite riveting articles on ‘The Secret Life of Britney Spears’ and a three page spread on the demise of Hear’Say, classical music is conspicuously absent from its seventy pages – unless they think a postage-stamp size review of an Arvo Pärt CD gets them off the hook. “We’ve had a blast putting OMM together”, trills its editor Caspar Llewellyn Smith, “Let us know if you like how we’re sounding.” Classical music lovers should do just that at: HYPERLINK “mailto:omm@observer.co.uk” omm@observer.co.uk Another snub to classical music was delivered recently by the purveyors of The Mercury Music Prize (“open to all types of music including contemporary classical”). This year’s competition finally abandoned any pretence of inclusivity by omitting classical music from its shortlist altogether. During its eleven year history no classical CD has ever won a prize and nor will one while Mercury’s ‘Radio Partner’ is Radio 1. So why don’t it’s organizers come clean and admit that the Mercury Prize is just for pop? Meanwhile the excellent Masterprize continues to go from strength to strength. Under the Artistic Direction of the formidable Mariss Jansons, more than 1000 composers from over 60 countries have submitted symphonic works for its third competition (who said that classical music was dead?). The final will be held at the Barbican on October 30th and – uniquely – the public will have a big say in who wins. The compositions have been whittled down to just six and these can be heard in their entirety on the cover CD’s on the current issues of both Gramophone and Classic FM magazines. There is a voting form attached, and the public vote will count for 45% of the overall total on the night. I know which way my vote is going but please register yours, as this is exactly the sort of stimulus that contemporary classical music needs. For more information on Masterprize see: HYPERLINK “http://www.masterprize.com” www.masterprize.com
