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Politicians “meddle in concert programming” by Last night of the Proms they are “ridiculous irrelevance”, according to a former director of the BBC concert series.
Sir Nicholas Kenyon, writing in the Observer, described the “synthetic row” that has erupted on how Land of hope and glory and government, Britannia! It will be done without an audience.
Last week, Boris Johnson, Oliver Dowden, the culture secretary, and Alok Sharma, the business secretary, joined a cacophony of voices attacking the BBC after it was reported that the songs would be performed by orchestras without singers. on the stage.
Kenyon, who ran the Proms from 1996 until he became managing director of the Barbican Center in 2007, writes that the controversy “combines instinctive attacks on the BBC, a familiar and too easy target; politicians meddling in concert programming, a ridiculous irrelevance; and the harassment of a driver on social networks, an unpleasant fact ”.
Johnson said he couldn’t believe that “they won’t sing the words,” traditionally sung by the Proms audience, that they will be absent due to social distancing rules. Sharma suggested that the BBC subtitle the words, allowing for a karaoke-style event for the home audience, while Dowden raised the matter with the BBC.
Nigel Farage and Tory MPs had attacked the BBC following reports that executives were considering abandoning the two pieces entirely, and Finnish director Dalia Stasevska was blamed for the decision. The 36-year-old woman received death threats on social media, but both she and the BBC said she was not involved in deciding how the concerts would unfold without an audience.
Kenyon, a member of the board of directors of the English National Opera and a music historian, writes that Last Night is a national event and a regular ritual: “It has to respond to the mood of the moment and change with changing circumstances. It is not true that the last night is an immutable ritual. The elements have come and gone over the years as directors and programmers have tried new experiments. “
Sir Henry Wood, who ran the Proms from their inception in 1895 until his death in 1944, wrote the Fantasy on British sea songs of which Rule, Britannia! Is taken. “In all the years of Henry Wood’s administration of the Proms, the words of Rule’s verses, Britannia! they were never sung, although as a dusty archival recording from 1933 shows, nothing could prevent the audience from joining the chorus, “adds Kenyon.
