‘Frankly, the economics are horrendous’
What can the classical music industry do to survive lockdown? Ivan Hewett reports
Classical music has entered a state of weird suspended animation. A sector that generates around £280million per annum is now generating nothing. Everywhere, concert halls stand dark and silent. Some institutions are cushioned by subsidy, but many are purely commercial operations which have seen their income plunge to near zero. One well-known agent, Hazard Chase, went bankrupt with frightening speed.
However, the classical music industry is not facing a calamity on the scale of commercial theatre. It’s more a slow attrition of cash and morale, and, while restrictions may be eased soon, there is still a sense of gloom. Most institutions have a stubborn base of fixed costs which have to be paid. One venue that has eye-watering overheads is London’s Southbank Centre, which costs £17million a year to run, before a single musician is booked.
But Gillian Moore, director of music at Southbank, is determined to get creative. “It’s likely the lockdown will be lifted piecemeal and performing arts will be at the back of the queue because bringing people together in hundreds and thousands is what we’re all about.”
She also pinpoints one particular problem for the industry: “Much of the [classical music] audience falls into the vulnerable older group. So if there is legislation to keep older people indoors, we may have to consider the idea of targeting specific events to different age groups. For example, we are thinking about events for family groups, who will be OK to come out together. We’re not actually acting on this yet as we need to have a clearer idea of the future.”
Moore is thinking about social distancing in the hall. “That would mean that in the Royal Festival Hall, which seats 2700, if we had the right distance between people, we could seat 800. Franky, the economics of that are horrendous, but we’re seeing if we can make it work.”
As for orchestras, their immediate problem is to protect their players, which are their only real asset. For those with salaried players, such as the BBC Orchestras, the furlough scheme is a godsend. For the four London orchestras which employ freelance players, the Government scheme to pay freelancers offers some help, but many players fall through the net, because they can’t prove their income. Like all orchestras, the Hallé Orchestra in Manchester is doing its best to go the extra mile, in its case by topping up its salaried players’ incomes and honouring contracts for “extras” until the end of May.
John Summers, the orchestra’s chief executive, says the lockdown allows orchestras to ask hard questions about themselves. “We need to think more about the needs of the people we’re serving, rather than our own priorities as producers. Take foreign touring for instance, which orchestras love to do. I’ve never understood why it’s a good idea to put 80 people on a plane with all their gear and fly several thousand miles to play exactly the same music that the local orchestra plays. This crisis will bring that idea into question because venues have suffered more than most from this downturn, and they will not have the money to bring in foreign orchestras. In any case, the environmental cost of an orchestral tour is horrendous. My feeling is the role of the orchestra will be more in the community. I think we’ll see more British artists working with more British orchestras, and less travelling. There’s an opportunity here to change the entire model of orchestral provision.”
If the crisis did prompt a movement towards being more local, that would have big consequences for many areas of classical music. Festivals that pride themselves on their international content would need to think again. Foremost among these is, of course, the Proms.
There’s a tantalising silence from management about this year’s plans, although a rumour emerged yesterday on website Slipped Disc that the concerts would run for four weeks – two in an empty Albert Hall and two with a minimal audience. Whether these will feature homegrown orchestras remains to be seen.
However, some movers and shakers in the classical world are moving towards ever greater internationalism, using digital media. Chi-chi Nwanoku, the double-bassist who founded the Bme-majority orchestra Chineke!, says that the crisis has forced her to think in new ways. “Right now I’m working on a joint digital project for Chineke! with Sphinx, our sister organisation in the US. We’re creating a joint video concert, with half the players coming from them and half from us. We’re also working with youth orchestra projects in deprived areas of Los Angeles and Baltimore, where we’ve worked before. I think there’s a huge problem with isolation among these younger musicians, who really need social contact, so we’re organising a kind of “buddy” scheme between our players and theirs.”
Meanwhile, Gabriel Prokofiev, the composer and promoter of the concert series “Nonclassical”, which puts on music by living composers in clubs and disused factories, has more radical ideas. He says: “At the moment people are just broadcasting concerts via their iphones, and that’s fine because we’re still in a state of shock, but I think in the longer term that’s just not going to keep people interested and engaged. We should think about working with animators to create clever animations that help people to follow the narrative the music, so the music can enter the Netflix domain.”
While there are many people like Prokofiev and Nwanoku who embrace digital technology, there are many other prominent voices in classical music who believe it can never be anything more than a useful bolt-on. What counts, they say, is the face-to-face, elbow-to-elbow contact of the real live event.
Vasily Petrenko, chief conductor of the Royal Liverpool Philharmonic Orchestra, feels that this is so precious that we can’t wait until the end of the year, or even longer, for concert life to be restored. He feels we should be thinking about building temporary new spaces, or reconfiguring the old ones, to make them safe. “I really wish there was more research into technologies that can help us to create large sanitised spaces, so we can literally ‘clear the air’. The most urgent thing is how to create spaces where both performers and audiences feel safe. Perhaps we could develop systems where people could be screened at the entrance, perhaps only allowing people in who have been tested.”
Even to countenance such an idea might outrage some, but Petrenko insists that such drastic measures are required. While the exact future of how organisations will return to some sense of normality is unclear, Petrenko believes that “many institutions will simply not survive”.
“And that is a tragedy,” he says. “Because an orchestra or theatre company is not like a business which can be quickly replaced. It may have decades or even hundreds of years of tradition and history behind it.” He’s right to raise the alarm. Like all the performing arts, classical music has been quietly coping with the crisis, not making a fuss. Maybe now it’s time to start shouting.
GODDESS” emblazoned across the chest. When he eventually got around to doing some baking, though, he really enjoyed it. Squishing the dough between his fingers, forming it into little blobs, arranging them on the tray, pressing little lines into them with a fork… He was a picture of total absorption.
The recipe, by Mary Berry, was very simple, only three ingredients (butter, sugar, flour), so perfect for a child. And once the biscuits came out of the oven he was bursting with pride, and so eager for us to try them.
We all agreed they were very nice. And since there were still quite a few left over, we put them in the biscuit tin, on top of his beloved custard creams.
Unfortunately, this proved a grievous error. The next day, when he bit into a custard cream, he pulled a face in disgust.
“Ugh,” he said. “This custard cream tastes of… biscuits.”
vTomorrow is our 10th wedding anniversary. I’ve been trying to think of a romantic gift for my wife, but it’s not easy. Apparently for your 10th the theme is tin.
Of course, tomorrow is a double celebration, because it’s also the 75th anniversary of VE Day. I wonder if she would appreciate a tin of Spam.
‘People could be screened at the entrance, perhaps only let in if tested’