A serious question: why are you even bothering to review new music at The Proms? Why not throw your weight behind a festival that takes new music seriously?
Why does it need to be an either/or situation? As you may know, i cover the Huddersfield Contemporary Music Festival – the UK festival that arguably takes new music more seriously than any other – in considerable depth every year. As far as the Proms is concerned, it’s one of the most prominent music festivals of the year (though not, of course, a contemporary music festival), subsidised – via the BBC – by all of us tax-payers, and for both of those reasons, and others, i think it’s something worth responding to from a considered, critical perspective. This seems to be backed up by the statistics, in terms of the very large number of people who read my Proms articles each summer.
i do agree with the premise of your question, that the Proms doesn’t take new music seriously enough. It has done, in the past (remember John Drummond’s reign?), and i’m optimistic that it will do again. But i don’t think ignoring it until it improves is the best approach.
i do agree with the premise of your question, that the Proms doesn’t take new music seriously enough.
It doesn’t even have to be new in the literal sense – Nørgård 3 was premiered around a year before I was born, so why has it taken so long for it to be performed on these shores?! Not only is it, IMO, one of the great symphonies of the past half century, but its musical language should present no difficulties for the average aficionado of, say, prog rock.
It should be no surprise, however, that I agree with you utterly: the shortcomings of the Proms in this respect won’t be remedied in a hurry if no-one publicises what little the festival does do for new music.
Antony
6 years ago
I wonder what happened to Mvula’s originally commissioned work “The Virgin of Montserrat” and why it became something else.
Volker
6 years ago
At The young euro classics festival of youth orchestras in Berlin this summer there was an audience award for best new composition – and Agata Zubel´s Fireworks won easily as it was about the only seriously modern piece on offer. Many pieces sounded as if 70 years old and others were impossibly cheap (Kristjan Järvi – RUN!) Naturally the audience went wild with the Järvi stuff, but Agata Zubel got them too, and you just had to like her for achieving this without compromising the dignity of her craft.
Musical
6 years ago
“one of its other main problems is that the only substance, the only meaning, the only depth in the piece is contained in those voiceovers”
More obviously the music of Bela Bartók is one of the only things of any depth in this piece?!
i was focusing on Venables’ own contribution, but i admit when i wrote that sentence i wondered if it might inadvertently imply that the Bartók didn’t have any substance. But you’re right, of course – i’ve slightly amended that sentence to make the point better!
A serious question: why are you even bothering to review new music at The Proms? Why not throw your weight behind a festival that takes new music seriously?
Why does it need to be an either/or situation? As you may know, i cover the Huddersfield Contemporary Music Festival – the UK festival that arguably takes new music more seriously than any other – in considerable depth every year. As far as the Proms is concerned, it’s one of the most prominent music festivals of the year (though not, of course, a contemporary music festival), subsidised – via the BBC – by all of us tax-payers, and for both of those reasons, and others, i think it’s something worth responding to from a considered, critical perspective. This seems to be backed up by the statistics, in terms of the very large number of people who read my Proms articles each summer.
i do agree with the premise of your question, that the Proms doesn’t take new music seriously enough. It has done, in the past (remember John Drummond’s reign?), and i’m optimistic that it will do again. But i don’t think ignoring it until it improves is the best approach.
It doesn’t even have to be new in the literal sense – Nørgård 3 was premiered around a year before I was born, so why has it taken so long for it to be performed on these shores?! Not only is it, IMO, one of the great symphonies of the past half century, but its musical language should present no difficulties for the average aficionado of, say, prog rock.
It should be no surprise, however, that I agree with you utterly: the shortcomings of the Proms in this respect won’t be remedied in a hurry if no-one publicises what little the festival does do for new music.
I wonder what happened to Mvula’s originally commissioned work “The Virgin of Montserrat” and why it became something else.
At The young euro classics festival of youth orchestras in Berlin this summer there was an audience award for best new composition – and Agata Zubel´s Fireworks won easily as it was about the only seriously modern piece on offer. Many pieces sounded as if 70 years old and others were impossibly cheap (Kristjan Järvi – RUN!) Naturally the audience went wild with the Järvi stuff, but Agata Zubel got them too, and you just had to like her for achieving this without compromising the dignity of her craft.
“one of its other main problems is that the only substance, the only meaning, the only depth in the piece is contained in those voiceovers”
More obviously the music of Bela Bartók is one of the only things of any depth in this piece?!
i was focusing on Venables’ own contribution, but i admit when i wrote that sentence i wondered if it might inadvertently imply that the Bartók didn’t have any substance. But you’re right, of course – i’ve slightly amended that sentence to make the point better!