I graduated as BMus with Honours from the University of
Birmingham in the summer of 1969. That autumn I was thrilled to be commissioned
to review for the Birmingham Post a concert promoted by what was then one of
the city’s most august musical organisations. It was not long after that that
the Post’s music critic, Kenneth Dommett, invited me to become his assistant;
musical activity in the city and region was burgeoning, and he could no longer
handle it all on his own, particularly since the newspaper had the entree to
review events throughout the country, such as at Covent Garden, the Coliseum,
Glyndebourne, Aldeburgh, and of course closer festivals, such as the Cheltenham
and the Three Choirs.
The Birmingham Post had a huge reputation for its arts
coverage, not only within these borders, but much further afield, as I was to
find when I was appointed Chief Music Critic in 1988. By that time the team of
reviewing assistants had increased to six, with often three reviews being
submitted every night. Such was the reputation of the Post that I was invited
to events all over Europe, and in fact beyond, to Russia on three occasions,
and even as far as Japan, where I was called to assess the performing standard
of their symphony orchestras.
But back at base the circulation of the printed paper was
dropping, as online news became the coming thing. Eventually a once proud daily
broadsheet, with a huge readership served by an imposing fleet of delivery vans
distributing over a huge catchment area (I have even bought the paper in
Newtown and Presteigne in Wales and in Buxton in Derbyshire, containing my
overnight reviews) became the apologetic, heroic, over-priced weekly it has now
shrunk to.
Many years ago the Birmingham Post stopped paying for any
arts copy, relying I guess, upon its reviewers’ avidity for free tickets to
keep the arts pages going. That was
never the motivation for me and my team. I felt the musical life of the city
and the region was so important that it deserved acknowledging and recording.
However, I have come to the regretful conclusion that it is
no longer worth the unpaid and unrecognised hassle of our work representing the
newspaper. The turning-point came when someone in the marketing department at
Symphony Hall asked me if I could send them copies of past reviews. Why do they
no longer read the Birmingham Post? Why should I be expected, unpaid, to
maintain an archive? I do have other,
international outlets publishing my work, and those will continue, as will my
website www.midlandsmusicreviews.co.uk.
So I am relinquishing the once august title of Chief Music
Critic of the Birmingham Post, with all its responsibilities, and I fear no-one
in today’s newsroom will remember and regret me, after 36 years of service in
that honourable position, and 55 years as a reviewer. It has been a huge honour
to have been connected with such a highly-regarded newspaper, as, I believe, its
longest-serving reviewer in any of the arts disciplines.
Best wishes,
Christopher Morley