Yesterday The Times carried a most extraordinary story. It seems that on 25 February the estimable maestro Barry Wordsworth decided at the last moment to drop a world premiere from a concert with the Brighton Philharmonic Orchestra. The work, entitled A British Symphony, had been commissioned from the composer Andrew Gant by Rowan Atkinson's businessman brother, Rodney.
Gant is organist, choirmaster and composer at the Chapel Royal, inviting comparison with some of the most distinguished British composers in history - Byrd, Gibbons and Purcell were official organists there. One GF Handel wrote Zadok the Priest while he was in post as official composer to George II.
Wordsworth had decided he 'did not believe' in the piece. But was this unprofessionalism, a middish-life crisis, something vaguely political (the title suggests a patriotism deeply unfashionable on these shores) or real artistic integrity? Unfortunately, we haven't heard the piece, so we can't say.
Can you imagine the works that would never have been performed if their conductors had decided not to believe in them? Tannhauser might never have hit 1860s Paris. Otto Klemperer might have ditched some Korngold (I remember reading he refused to take a bow after conducting Die tote Stadt for the first time. That's his problem.) On the other hand, we might never have had to suffer a single note of...well, don't get me started.
If we don't hear new works, though, we can't assess them - finito. Any artistic 'age' is going to produce mountains of dross and a few really great pieces, and while sometimes it's clear which is which, sometimes also it is not. So it's worth sitting through the occasional piece of c*)p - and conducting it, if that's your job. Who knows, someone somewhere might like it.
8 comments:
"So it's worth sitting through the occasional piece of c*)p - and conducting it, if that's your job. Who knows, someone somewhere might like it."
Possibly, but we've still got to prioritize, no? If we do hear new works, we can't assess others. Life's too short! Each conductor has their own priorities. Perhaps if they focus on the music they believe in then that gives a better chance of great works being given the best shot to become known. From what I heard he handled it quite tactfully. Weird to do that at such short notice though. :) best, S
I wonder how Barry Wordsworth would feel if he were invited to conduct the Vienna Philharmonic Orchestra and five minutes before the concert the orchestra replaced him with another conductor, publicly stating that it "did not believe in" his conducting abilities.
Ho-hum. Barry Wordsworth is a brave man and a good, honest musician who has probably presided over more concerts of populist dross than he would care to shake a baton at. He's a man who also knows when rabble-rousing's good and when it ain't - I have a great recording of him and the BBC Concert Orchestra in Edgar Bainton's fabulously pompous Before Sunrise symphony (1st movement). If he won't believe in a piece with as crass a title as A British Symphony with a Div 2 band ike the Brighton Phil, let's face it, we're talking barrel-scraping. Maybe we've got it all wrong and Gant's work is a masterpiece in waiting - a CDR of a rehearsal posted online would be good. But I wouldn't bet on it. But face it, people, we are l;ving in a time when Classic FM can get away with a DJ 'interviewing' two actors pretending to be Albinoni and Allegri and not have their licence revoked and their executives lined up against a wall and shot. If this makes me s anob, I'm damned well pleased that there are a few of us left. I'd be willing to hear Gant out - but my cynicism about this music-hating little islet now runs so deep that I suspect Wordsworth is in the right. There comes a time when you have to say no - maybe BW's reached that point, and if so, good on him.
Intersting points all round. Thing is, a) the 'Div 2' Brighton Phil is Wordsworth's own band, b) he presumably could have turned the piece down to begin with...
Right, Jessica, w/r/t to Mr. Wordsworth's turning down the piece earlier in the process. Can he not read a score?
Ho ho. Sounds like a case of someone desperately trying to be nice and ending up saying 'no, can't do this. :)
Some have sneered at the title of the symphony, 'A very British Symphony'. There is a little joke here, isn't there? Remember A Very British Coup? There is a long tradition, anyway, of naming symphonies after countries - Mendelssohn's Italian (which replaced Gant's work), Parry's English, Stanford's Irish, Sullivan's Irish.
As to Rodney Atkinson, he seems to be an extreme UKIP type and believes Germany is using the EU to gain the dominance it failed to get during WW2. Look at UKIP's website, especially the book section. There is a lot of this conspiracy stuff there. But he is no fascist - he claims it is the EU that is leading us that way. A bit dotty, then. Atkinson did not write the symphony, Gant did.
Even is Gant did have strange ideas, do we want to resume 'cutting' composers because of their political or other odd notions. Cyril Scott (theosophy), Alan Bush (Communism), Malcolm Williamson and Malcolm Arnold (mental illness) were all snubbed because they were 'not quite the thing' as far as the musical establishment was concerned.
What about the English Symphony (Parry) and the Irish Symphonies of Sullivan and Stanford. Unacceptably nationalist?
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