HOW THINGS STAND WITH THE CBSO
The plans of the City of Birmingham Symphony Orchestra
management to attract a diversity of new listeners off the city’s streets and
into the concert-hall have caused consternation among regular audiences,
subscribers, donors, and indeed legacy-givers.
There has been much backtracking from the original proposals,
issued in late November 2023, which included invitations to applaud whenever
people felt like it, bring your drinks in, video the performance and your
entourage enjoying it (and then send it in for publicity material), explanatory
greetings from the platform at every concert, a more welcoming approach from
front-of-house staff (a terrible affront to the expertise and experience of the
stewards who have greeted us at Symphony Hall for a third of a century). There was also an inference that the orchestra
was racist, ageist and sexist (the expression “old white men” had been bandied
around in some quarters).
The filming raised a couple of issues: the international
tenor Ian Bostridge, who had not been warned of this Taylor Swift-style
approach, stopped in mid-performance of Britten’s Les Illuminations to complain
about the distractions of mobile phones being brandished (for whatever purpose);
and there was also the question of child protection whenever non-adults were
involved.
Most controversial was the employment of a phalanx of
theatrical and lighting directors to deploy back-projected videos illustrating
and illuminating for the audience the music in performance. The first concert
subjected to this approach included Beethoven’s Eroica Symphony, in which
heroes of the players, probably bewildered and on the back foot when they were
asked, were presented in a kind of guessing-game which distracted concentration
from the world’s greatest symphony. Thank goodness the powers-that-had-now
become at the CBSO didn’t mistake the work’s sobriquet for the Erotica, as a
major newspaper, famous for its typos, had once done.
Backlash from subscribers was immediate, fulminating quite
rightly that they had booked some time previously for a conventional concert
without any of this intrusive razzmatazz. The threat to apply this son et
lumiere to every subsequent concert was quickly dropped, but part of the
process was still imposed upon a couple of subsequent concerts, most
outrageously to a CBSO Youth Orchestra performance of Mahler’s Fifth Symphony.
The opening solo trumpet fanfare is hairy enough, but imagine
the nerves of a youngster, required to stand, spotlight on him, as he delivered
it. In the event the young man came through the ordeal brilliantly, but then
the leader of the orchestra had to stand while the strings immersed themselves
in the music’s mournful march forward. I was surprised the guest conductor, the
urbane Jac van Steen, was so amenable to the process. I can well imagine the
reaction of previous music directors of the CBSO, not least Sir Simon Rattle
and the formidable Sakari Oramo…
Thankfully, the CBSO management have partitioned off this immersive
approach, dedicating a separate mini-season to works presented in such a way,
and that is a sensible step forward.
There have already been other concerts in place which might
prove inviting to those interested listeners not yet ready for the full
symphonic experience: film music evenings, tribute evenings, video-music
evenings and the like. The CBSO will continue to promote these as relaxing
evenings, possibly drink in hand, and spontaneous with applause.
But core of the orchestra’s activities must remain the subscription
season, when concertgoers can immerse themselves without distraction in some of
the greatest works created by man. Much of the core audience for these seasons
is built of subscribers, and the subscriber is sancrosanct. Too many have
already cancelled their subscriptions, donors have withdrawn their much-needed
financial support, and some have indeed cut the CBSO out of their wills. Mine
remains unchanged, as my legacy goes to the CBSO Benevolent Fund; I don’t see
why the magnificent players and staff should suffer because of the ill-informed
caprices of a management headed by someone who arrived with no musical experience,
too much deference to Arts Council box-ticking, and too much reliance upon the
world of theatrical production.
As I write, the CBSO has just completed a highly successful
outreach Open Week in Birmingham and beyond , bringing free performances to
venues such as Birmingham New Street Station, Birmingham Central and West
Bromwich Albion’s Hawthorns. The orchestra’s current principal conductor,
Kazuki Yamada, entertained passengers on the Midland Metro to a keyboard
recital.
This is certainly an inspiring way forward, together with all
the other “popular” programmes already in place. Who knows, perhaps some
listeners will be so blown away by hearing a world-class orchestra that they
will in fact take the step into traditional symphony concerts.
But what Emma Stenning and her supporters must force
themselves to acknowledge is the fact that many, many people in this wonderfully
diverse city of 2 million just aren’t interested.
Christopher Morley