Mu s ic
Ticklish predicament
Peter Phillips
It is a commonplace, as we all know, to hear that the BBC is lowering its standards. So far as I can make out this process is gradual and perpetual, occasionally inter- spersed with violent jolts, as when the Talks Department was closed down, which gives glorious focus to the general decline. Things are never held to improve. It is surely no coincidence that, to the many people who hold this point of view, our entire existence as a nation is in decline: it is not only the BBC, it is everything from the Royal Family, through the judiciary to the Church of England downwards and along; but the BBC is the most present and the most tangible evidence of it.
This is the BBC's problem and especially the problem of Radio Three: how to appeal to the articulate, who express their opinion most volubly, whilst protecting themselves from the charge of being elitist. The moment the Corportion puts on some- thing with wide appeal, they are accused of lowering standards; the moment they field someone with a plummy accent they are held to be living in the past. Radio Three seems recently to have hit on the safety- first formula of mixing chatty, classless voices with a good deal of middlebrow material, only to find that everyone is still Complaining and the station is losing listen- ers to Classic FM. Stuck with this most
unhelpful requirement to maintain a set of standards which are never defined and a need to be competitive in the modern market-place, Radio Three never seems to have found an appealing balance, as wit- ness the astonishingly lifeless manner of so many of its regular presenters. One is left wondering whether, as things are constitut- ed at the moment, such a balance can ever be found.
Hand-in-hand with this commonplace saying goes another, that in the old days the Proms gave listeners a thorough basic education in the classics, from early to the most contemporary, whereas nowadays the programme is at the mercy of the Con- troller, who for some time now has had his favourites to the detriment of whole areas of the repertoire and specialist groups per- petrating music he doesn't like. Once again the BBC is falling foul of the memory of how things used to be, and is put in the impossible position of trying to maintain the substance of a great tradition in changed circumstances. The Proms differ from Radio Three in having been part of national cultural life rather longer and maintaining a higher profile, but if any- thing this makes the tug-of-war for them the greater, between those who would make it more commercial, opening the sea- son fully to sponsorship, and those who want the standards of the past to be recov- ered. The Proms has been obliged to strike a balance between the two and has done it more successfully than Radio Three; but in the end they depend on each other, their fates intertwined.
Tryingly, this Proms' season resembles in certain respects those seasons of yore, and in particular of the just post-war years. In those happy times it was customary for the BBC Symphony Orchestra, usually under the direction of Sir Adrian Boult, to take on whole weeks of Prom concerts at a stretch. In this too evidently cost-cutting season there is again a plethora of BBC orchestras: is everyone delighted? No, they are not. Much has been made of the fact that next year is the 100th anniversary, for which money needs to be saved (though I suspect that budgeting may not work in this
convenient annual way); but if next year also sees such a superabundance of native talent the reputation of the series will be permanently dented. The double-think will surely strike again.
As for the actual fare on offer, a slightly more subtle argument is being applied to the cycle of events this year. It embraces the idea that in the past the few orchestras who took part were expected to cover all the standard repertoires and, in addition, take risks with a representative spread of contemporary works. Since then, by pres- sure of having to produce the best record- ing there ever was of the best-loved pieces ever written (for example the complete cycles of Beethoven, Brahms or mature Mozart symphonies), the most famous orchestras of the world are discouraged from taking risks with anything and are rarely to be found programming any sur- prises. As very few of these famous orches- tras are taking part in the Proms this year, the overriding impression of the series is being formed by 'smaller' and youth orchestras. The results are really quite interesting, even if everybody is in some measure dissatisfied. If I were to choose a performance of Bruckner's Fifth, the Gus- tav Mahler Youth Orchestra might not spring first to mind — but how wonderful that they are doing it and how many Big Name orchestras have it on hand? The same could be said for Birtwistle's Gawain's Symphony (National Youth Orchestra of Great Britain) or Maxwell Davies's Second Symphony (BBC Philhar- monic) or Thomas Wilson's Violin Concer- to (NYO of Scotland) or Part's Cantus in memory of Benjamin Britten (Docklands Sinfonietta). This year the bulk of the safe, standard repertory is being given by the few visitors of distinction; see, for example, the programmes of the Leipzig Gewand- haus.
The fact is that the BBC cannot win: they have to appeal to all their licence-payers and cannot. I should feel less sorry for them if their critics were inclined to show any awareness at all for the very ticklish predicament the Corporation so evidently finds itself in.
`I fancy an early night, too. Let's put the telly on.'
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