RPS Awards audience thumbs nose at new Government | reviews, news & interviews
RPS Awards audience thumbs nose at new Government
RPS Awards audience thumbs nose at new Government
Wednesday, 12 May 2010
The announcement by the Royal Philharmonic Society's keynote speaker Grayson Perry that the Queen had sent for David Cameron last night was met with audible groans from the great and the good of the classical music world at their Awards ceremony. Speaker after speaker made it perfectly clear that the Lib Dems (though almost certainly not the economically liberal, pro-nuclear, immigration-capping, Tory-serving Lib Dems that they have now woken up to) were the choice of the majority here and one after the other they pleaded that the Government ring-fence arts funding.
None of this is particularly surprising. The left-wing bias in the arts is no secret. And it wouldn't be the only sector campaigning to fend off budget cuts. But is all this begging and moaning and visceral anti-Conservatism right, helpful or grown-up? Cutting state funding of the arts is not the end of the world. Indeed, there is an argument that says that the arts thrive best on less. Look at America. Is it any wonder that some (if not most) of the greatest art, music and theatre of the past 50 years did not take place under the sclerotic system of state patronage in Europe but in the lithe, capitalist market of America?
The classical music industry needs to accept that cuts will come. They need to start thinking about how to slim down, or shall we say focus, their operations. Education? Outreach? Conductors' salaries? Are we perhaps producing too many musicians? If they don't, Cameron will just start slashing, willy-nilly, Freddy Krueger-style, and they'll have themselves to blame.
Oh, and here are the winners:
- Award for Audience Development: the Philharmonia Orchestra's re-rite
- Singer: Philip Langridge (the award was delivered to him in hospital two days before he died)
- Young Artist: counter-tenor Iestyn Davies
- Instrumentalist: pianist Stephen Hough
- Conductor: Oliver Knussen
- Opera and Music Theatre: the BBC Symphony Orchestra's performance of Martinů’s Juliette
- Education: English Touring Opera with Hall for Cornwall’s One Day, Two Dawns
- Chamber Music Celebrations, and Song: the Wigmore Hall’s Haydn Bicentenary Season Celebrations
- Concert Series and Festivals: Huddersfield Contemporary Music Festival
- Ensemble: London Sinfonietta
- Large-Scale Composition: Kaija Saariaho's Notes on Light
- Chamber-Scale Composition: Kevin Volans's viola: piano
more Classical music
Bach's Easter Oratorio, OAE, Whelan, QEH review - the joys of springtime
The upbeat, sunlit side of Holy Week Bach
Schubert Piano Sonatas 4, Paul Lewis, Wigmore Hall review - feverish and sometimes violent
Explosive new insights in the pianist's latest interpretations of the last three masterpieces
Bach St John Passion, Dublin Bach Singers, Marlborough Baroque Orchestra, Murphy, St Ann's Church, Dublin - choral fire
Passion and precision from a very engaging ensemble, soloists more variable
Bach Passions, Dunedin Consort, Mulroy/Jeannin, St Mary's Episcopal Cathedral/Queen's Hall, Edinburgh review - twin peaks
Scaling the heights of Saints Matthew and John within a week
Our Mother, Stone Nest review - musical drama in a mother's grief
Touching staged version of Pergolesi’s 'Stabat Mater' features brilliant singing
Gillam, Hallé, Poska, Bridgewater Hall, Manchester review - an experience of colour and fun
Sensitive shaping from a consummate Estonian
Ensemble Augelletti, London Handel Festival, Charterhouse review - dynamic framing of the honorary Englishman
Delightfully inventive repertoire performed with wit and energy
St Mary's Music School, RSNO, Søndergård, Usher Hall, Edinburgh review - a shining role for young choristers
A youthful evening promises more than it delivers
Bevan, Williams, BBCSO, MacMillan, Barbican review - inspirational journey from darkness to light
UK premiere of 'Fiat Lux' alongside other works evoking transcendence and revelation
First Person: conductor Peter Whelan on coming full circle with the Monteverdi Choir and Orchestra
From watching Handel's 'Israel in Egypt' on TV to conducting it
Hughes, SCO, Kuusisto, Queen’s Hall, Edinburgh review - Clyne shines, Grime fragments
Playing and programming admirable, but this concert bulged at the seam
Classical CDs: Cigars, cognac and tarantulas
Concertante works for cello and orchestra, plus music for pianos, winds and solo strings
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