THE BRITISH STUDENTS' ORCHESTRA
SIR,—I appreciate Mr. Cairns's courteous reply to my letter. It is true, as he states, that the orchestras of the conservatoires do not always reach, in their terminal concerts, the level attained by the orchestra that went to Vienna. The reasons are obvious. The directors, in nominating players for the orchestra, were asked to select only the best; and this meant that their choice was bound to fall, in many cases, upon senior students between twenty and twenty-two who are already experienced and expert players. There was a further eliminating selection when toe names had all been submitted. A selective process like this is necessary when the purpose is to give a public performance of the highest possible standard. The duties of a conservatoire, however, are different. The public concert is not for them the principal objective; it is one important episode in a prolonged course of training. Their orchestras must include promising but inexperienced players of seventeen or eighteen who would be excluded by a conductor who was aiming only at the reclaim, of a single brilliant performance. Yet these younger students are just as much entitled to the training as their more senior colleagues, and need it more, The success of a Vienna visit in 1963 depends entirely upon our including in our orchestras this year some players who may not yet have reached the standard that they will ulti- mately attain, and certainly have not yet had wide experience. For the moment they may lower the standard a little, but are we to exclude them on that account?
I should like to assure Mr. Cairns that I do indeed pay great attention to what my students tell me; and they tell me quite a lot, including a certain amount about their curious encounters with music critics. They are often critical, and why not? It will be a bad day when our young artists are inarticulate and conformist. But they do not always know all the circumstances or see all sides of the picture— and as W. H. Thompson said of G. W. Russell: 'We are none of us infallible, not even the youngest of us.'
1 should like to end by inviting Mr. Cairns to come and see me; I will show him all there is to show; he can make his own inquiries; and I will listen, with such intelligence as I have, to all his criticisms.— Yours faithfully, THOMAS ARMSTRONG Principal Royal Academy of Music, Marylebone Road, NW
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