The BBC Proms
2006
By the time that you
read this, the world’s greatest festival
of classical music for 2006 will have
ended. This year, the Proms used two
venues, the Royal Albert Hall and Cadogan
Hall, with 81 classical concerts playing
116 hours of music.
Those interested in
the Proms will have noticed that, in
recent years, there has been a steady
decline in the performance of British
music. I venture to suggest that this
is the worst year for British music
since the Proms was established in 1895.
So for devotees of
British music, what was on offer this
year? Of greatest length was Handel’s
oratorio Alexander’s Feast. There were
three works by Elgar, including his
2nd Symphony, Anthony Payne’s
reconstruction of Pomp & Circumstance
March No 6 and the Overture In the South.
There was one short work by Benjamin
Britten, the Colour Symphony by Arthur
Bliss and Walton’s Belshazzar’s Feast.
And that’s it. Of course, there were
the usual works by Elgar, Parry and
Henry Wood on the last night. Total
output was just over five hours. I’m
sorry, but that is completely unacceptable.
Members of the RVW
Society will be astonished that not
one single note of VW’s music was played.
But a host of other composers were also
ignored.
It is only right and
proper that music (both new and old)
by Britain’s contemporary composers
should be performed. This year there
were 15 works by 12 composers, an output
of just over four hours of music. Hardly
impressive, is it?
And what of those four
composers who have been knighted for
services to music? There was one work
by Sir Peter Maxwell Davies, the Master
of the Queen’s Music. However, nothing
was heard of the music of Sir John Tavener,
Sir Harrison Birtwistle or Sir Malcolm
Arnold.
All in all, the amount
of British music ran to just nine hours,
under 8% of the total output. Imagine
a French music festival playing only
8% French music. C’est impossible!
This year, the Proms
have marked three notable events, namely
the 250th anniversary of
the birth of Mozart, the centenary of
the birth of Shostakovich and the 150th
anniversary of the death of Robert Schumann.
There were 55 works by Mozart, 23 by
Shostakovich and 11 by Schumann. Isn’t
nearly 90 works just a little over the
top?
Although the Proms
are, generally speaking, very good at
marking anniversaries, this can be very
selective. For instance, one would have
thought that the Proms would have celebrated
the 85th birthday of Britain’s
oldest composer, namely Sir Malcolm
Arnold. Furthermore, this year sees
the 50th anniversary of the
death of Gerald Finzi. No music by either
composer was played ("snubbed",
as a music critic described the neglect
of Finzi in the Telegraph on 29th
July). It would have been entirely possible
to have marked both events, simply by
reducing the coverage of music by Mozart,
Shostakovich or Schumann.
Last year, the Proms
celebrated the centenaries of Tippett
(12 works) and Lambert (two works),
but William Alwyn was completely ignored.
Was that a balanced approach?
However, let us turn
to the music of Vaughan Williams. Looking
back over 30 years, there have only
been three years when no VW has been
played at all, namely 1977, 1984 and
2006. There have been 26 performances
of VW symphonies, of which the 5th
(with six performances) has been the
most popular. However, numbers 7, 8
and 9 have only mustered one performance
each.
The Lark Ascending,
the Wasps Overture, the Tallis Fantasia
and the Serenade to Music have all done
reasonably well. Nevertheless, there
have only been two performances of Job,
Valiant for Truth and Toward the Unknown
Region. There was just one performance
of the Tuba Concerto, Oboe Concerto,
On Wenlock Edge, the Songs of Travel,
Dives & Lazarus and the Five Mystical
Songs. Four relatively minor works were
also played. However, with a total of
61 works in 30 years, the average is
a miserable two per annum. Nevertheless,
apart from the present year, there does
seem to have been a greater inclusion
of VW’s music in more recent years,
as opposed to the earlier period.
Any devotee of VW’s
music would have been extremely disappointed
to have found not one single performance
in that 30-year period of any VW opera,
the House of Life, Dona Nobis Pacem,
the Concerto Grosso, the Violin Concerto,
the Partita for Orchestra, the Piano
Concerto, Flos Campi, the Five Tudor
Portraits, Norfolk Rhapsodies Nos 1
and 2, In the Fen Country, the Oxford
Elegy or the English Folksong Suite.
And, of course, my list is by no means
exhaustive.
Some of these omissions
(particularly the choral works) are
surprising. Indeed, the omission of
Dona Nobis Pacem is astonishing.
One can but hope that
Stephen Connock will be successful in
persuading Nicholas Kenyon, the Controller
of Music BBC Proms to include many neglected
works by VW when we commemorate the
50th anniversary of his death
in 2008.
The 27 works played
at the Proms over 30 years should be
compared with the output of Classic
FM during the 12 months from July 2005
to July 2006. During that period, 38
works by VW were broadcast, including
the first six symphonies and Dona Nobis
Pacem. Furthermore, VW had seven works
in the Classic FM Top 300 for 2006.
So how have other British
composers fared over the last 30 years?
Gustav Holst was a contemporary and
close friend of VW. As you would expect,
the Planets Suite has featured predominantly,
with no less than 17 performances. Ten
other works have been played. However,
on eight occasions, no Holst was played
at all. The average is just one work
per season.
Despite Sir Malcolm
Arnold’s enormous output, he is now
largely forgotten at the Proms. Of his
nine symphonies, incredibly, just one
has been played in 30 years. Only 11
works, in all, have been performed,
of which the last (a film score) featured
in the 1996 Proms. That coincides with
Nicholas Kenyon’s appointment. Perhaps
one should conclude that Mr Kenyon does
not like the music of Arnold.
But what of other British
symphonists? There has been one performance
of a symphony by William Alwyn. Of Sir
Arnold Bax’s seven, only the 5th
has been performed (1984). The last
time that a symphony by Sir Lennox Berkeley
was played was in 1978. The Bliss Colour
Symphony was performed in 1993 and again
this year. The symphony by Sir Hamilton
Harty has never been played. Of the
12 symphonies by George Lloyd, only
the 6th has been heard. And
the magnificent Symphony in G minor
by E J Moeran was last heard in 1938!
The founders of British
music in the late 19th and
early 20th centuries, namely
Parry and Stanford, who between them
composed 12 symphonies, have met with
no success. Of Edmund Rubbra’s 11, only
two have been heard. Even Sir Michael
Tippett has not done that well, with
just six performances of his symphonies
(one every five years).
The symphonies of Havergal
Brian, Alun Hoddinott, Robert Simpson,
Sir Granville Bantock and Sir John McEwen
have been completely forgotten. Plus
many others too.
So what precisely is
the problem with British music? A year
or so ago, I wrote to Nicholas Kenyon
enquiring why we had only heard one
Bax symphony in 30 years. In his reply,
he pointed out that when the 5th
Symphony was played in 1984, the concert
itself was probably the worst attended
in living memory. As a result of that
experience, it would appear that Mr
Kenyon will not countenance any suggestion
that a Bax symphony should be played
again at a Prom. And yet, when you consider
that in 1984 Bax was largely forgotten
as a symphonist, is it really so surprising
that so few people decided to attend
that concert? There has, in more recent
years, been a resurgence in interest
in Bax symphonies, one of which (the
4th) even reaching the Classic FM Top
10, just a year or so ago. There have
been a number of recordings of Bax symphonies
and they are now generally far better
known than they were during the early
1980s.
However, with all due
credit to Mr Kenyon, he did include
Bax’s Spring Fire in the 1996
programme and November Woods in
2003.
In contrast, during
the last 30 years, there have been 29
performances of Prokofiev’s symphonies.
All seven have been played.
Shostakovich has done
even better, with 82 performances of
his symphonies. Only one of the 16 composed
has been omitted.
And why should Schumann’s
four symphonies (19 performed in 30
years) be considered more worthy than
Parry’s five or Stanford’s seven?
The lack of British
music at the Proms is not a new problem.
As long ago as 1981, the composer Robert
Simpson (since deceased) wrote a pamphlet
entitled "The Proms and Natural
Justice – A Plan for Renewal".
Therein, he mentioned that the BBC took
over responsibility for the Proms in
1927. Until 1960, the Prom programme
was settled by committee. However, in
that year, William Glock took over as
Controller of Music and promptly abolished
the committee. Since then, the Controller
has had exclusive jurisdiction over
the entire content of the Prom programme.
Glock was superseded by Robert Ponsonby
in 1973. He was replaced by John Drummond
in 1986 and Mr Kenyon took over in 1996.
Whoever is appointed is not only responsible
for the Proms, but also live events
and TV classical music. If questioned
about the content of the Proms programme,
the controller will insist that he does
consult. Nevertheless, as Dr Simpson
pointed out in his article:-
The fact that
a single individual has the complete
authority, virtually unrestricted
in time or scope, to decide all
this detail, has been dangerous
these 20 years, against the interest
of equity and therefore not morally
defensible… no matter how gifted
or imaginative, how evangelistic
for worthy causes, how inspired
is one man, his idiosyncrasies
and prejudices will feed themselves
over a long period, try as he
may to eliminate them.
Insofar as Mr Glock
is concerned, he reigned supreme for
nearly 14 years and was responsible
for programming 718 concerts, containing
nearly 3,000 musical items. And yet
during his tenure, no music was played
by: Howells, Leighton, McCabe or Stevens.
Less than an hour’s
music in that entire 14-year period
was played for each of the following
composers: Bax, Rodney Bennett, Brian,
Bush, Racine Fricker, Goehr, Rubbra,
Searle, Stevenson.
He noted not one symphony
by Bax, but simply a short choral piece
and an orchestral arrangement of his
oboe quintet. Nor were there any symphonies
of Rubbra.
It is interesting to
compare Dr Simpson’s analysis of the
period 1960 to 1973 with the period
1977-2006.
Although I do not have
the whole of Simpson’s pamphlet and
am not therefore aware of his conclusions,
one thing is clear and that is that
the problem lies not with the controller
of music, but with the BBC and the system
which has been established.
It is easy to forget
that the BBC stands for the British
Broadcasting Corporation. An examination
of this year’s programme at the Proms
would lead one to believe that it should
be renamed the European Broadcasting
Corporation, because the majority of
the music played was composed on the
other side of the Channel. As Dr Simpson
points out, the BBC is a publicly funded
service. Today it has an income of nearly
£3bn per annum. It can afford to award
a three-year contract to Jonathan Ross
paying him an astonishing £18m. The
Proms generate an income of £3.4m each
year for the BBC, but cost £6.5m. Concerts
are well attended. In 2005, ticket sales
were 86%, with 42% of concerts sold
out.
Every concert is broadcast
live on Radio 3. These concerts are
repeated throughout the subsequent year.
The Proms have no equal anywhere in
the world. It is, therefore, a unique
event, something of which we should
be justly proud.
Of course, Mr Kenyon
has an impossible job. He cannot please
everyone. Nor can he include every composer.
There are simply too many. The problem,
though, is one of balance. At present,
there is an obsession with European
music and, clearly, an antipathy towards
British music.
There is, sadly, a
hostility towards British music in this
country. British orchestras do not tend
to play British music. They certainly
do not take British music with them
when they go touring abroad. And now
we have lost Richard Hickox, that champion
of British music, who has gone to conduct
the Sydney Opera.
In April, Radio 3 devoted
the whole of its St George’s Day broadcast
to English music. This impelled the
music critic Norman Lebrecht to devote
a whole page of the Evening Standard
on 26th April to an extraordinary
article headed "Why should we fly
the flag for English music?" Therein,
Mr Lebrecht showed that he had little
time for English music. Let me give
you just one quote:-
Elgar, Walton
and Bax wrote symphonies that
trailed off after a movement or
two.
The journalist A N
Wilson, writing in the Daily Telegraph
on 5th July 2004, said that
looking for a great Russian painter
was like searching for the great English
symphonic composer: he does not exist.
And yet at the same
time, more and more people are discovering
British music and are delighted with
what they hear. Five years ago, the
Gloucester Three Choirs Festival was
devoted to a festival of British music.
Virtually the entire week’s output was
devoted to British music. It was the
most successful festival in the history
of the Three Choirs. People have been
badgering the festival directors for
a repeat, ever since.
At last year’s Worcester
festival, I heard works by Bairstow,
Balfour Gardiner, Blake, Britten, Dyson,
Elgar, Finzi, Goss-Custard, Handel,
Harris, Holst, Howells, Ireland, Leighton,
Lucas, Parry, Purcell, Quilter, Sumsion,
Tallis, Tavener, Tippett, Tompkins and
Vaughan Williams. And what a wonderful
musical experience that was.
I attended my first
concert 40 years ago this year. There
is much that I have yet to hear in a
British concert hall. I wonder whether
I will ever get to hear a live performance
of Moeran’s G minor symphony. His only
work performed at the Proms in 30 years
was the Sinfonietta in 1994.
People ask me what
does it matter. Surely, I can hear all
the music that I like by listening to
a CD. It is true that an enormous amount
of British music has been recorded during
the last 25 years, much of it for the
first time. However, there is nothing
to match the experience of a live performance,
even if you have to endure fidgeting,
talking, sweet papers, mobile phones
and coughing.
In the last issue of
the RVW Society newsletter, Stephen
Connock reviewed a performance of VW’s
opera, Sir John in Love, performed earlier
this year by English National Opera.
He referred to it as "a life-enhancing
experience". I too would like more
life-enhancing experiences at the Proms,
by listening to neglected British music.
So what can be done?
Someone recently mentioned to me that
it was only a matter of time before
Mr Kenyon, a CBE, retires, followed
with an automatic knighthood. However,
I am told that he has no plans to retire.
I fear that his eventual successor will
be very much in the same mould as his
three predecessors. And, of course,
he will be given absolute power to decide
the programme for over 80 concerts for
ten years or more. Heaven forbid that
he should prove to be someone who loathes
and detests VW. But that is the problem.
If the controller does not like a particular
composer, you can be sure that that
composer’s music will not be played.
To my mind, the British
Broadcasting Corporation should give
priority to British music. It is disgraceful
that less than 10% of the output this
year should be devoted to British music.
It would be wonderful if we had a Prime
Minister who loved British music and
who would issue a decree that 25% of
the 116 hours of music played at the
Proms should be devoted to British music.
Those 29 hours would give us 20 hours
more than we hear at the moment. Nevertheless,
the nightmare would be that the controller
decided to play 20 hours of Harrison
Birtwistle!
A radical solution
would be to take away from the BBC the
responsibility for running the Proms,
but the BBC having done it for 80 years,
the prospect of that happening is remote.
By all means write
letters to the controller, imploring
him to play this composer or that. Years
ago, I wrote to Kenyon’s predecessor
asking why we never heard a symphony
by Parry or Stanford. He replied expressing
his exasperation that so many people
wrote to him in these terms. It never
occurred to him that people wanted to
hear music by those composers.
Perhaps one should
involve the Arts Council for England.
A correspondent to the Daily Telegraph
recently wrote that he had attended
a presentation by the Arts Council.
This included ethnic minority musical
traditions or music from deprived urban
youth. There were Jewish folksongs,
some bangra dance and a rap artist performance
poet was also featured. There was not
the slightest indication that the Arts
Council valued mainstream Western classical
music.
I am afraid that I
have no answers to this problem, which
seems to be utterly intractable. I appreciate
that we now have a Delius festival in
Bradford in July, an Arnold festival
in Northampton in October, a proposed
English Music Festival also in October
quite apart from the Three Choirs Festival
in August. But I – and I think many
others too – want a lot more from the
Proms. We are, of course, taxpayers
and licence-payers. It is about time
that the BBC started to listen to us.
Christopher Cope
chris.cope@copessolicitors.co.uk