Opinion - Editorial

4 June 2013

Editorial, June: Maria Miller’s tale

Maria Miller used her first speech on the arts since taking over to urge arts leaders to ‘hammer home the value of culture to our economy’; the comment pages of the dailies went into overdrive and all manner of artistic luminaries queued up to voice their displeasure.

BBC Proms: From Daleks to Katie Derham, plus seven Wagner operas Photo: Robert Viglasky

24 April 2013

Editorial, May: Proms, women conductors and austerity economics

Many of you will have been burying yourselves in the Proms guide following the recent unveiling of the 2013 season, or indeed filling in one the newfangled online planners. You have till 11 May to get your diary straight because when ticket sales open, you can be certain that the hottest tickets will fly.

2 April 2013

Editorial, April: Divide and rule

Is it a conscious strategy on the part of an embattled government with a slim mandate, or a side effect of reactive policies in a difficult economic climate? A dose of both perhaps.

Kimon Daltas, Editor, Classical Music

1 March 2013

Editorial, March: Dark clouds and little else

Writing this welcome note would be a lot more fun if the good news weren’t so thin on the ground this month. The allegations of abuse by music teachers are as shocking as they are sad, and there is no guarantee that the coming months won’t see more revelations.

Kimon Daltas, Editor, Classical Music

10 February 2013

Editorial, February: Straw men and sine qua nons

I’ve been enjoying reading various responses to comments made by Max Hole, the ceo of Universal Music Group International, at the Association of British Orchestras conference towards the end of January. Most seem to have jumped to conclusions about what he said, based on a few quotes. Straw men were raised and dutifully knocked back down, in admittedly interesting and well-reasoned terms. What were off-the-cuff comments have been interpreted as if he were issuing sine qua nons for the survival of the orchestral sector or even classical music itself.

Kimon Daltas, Editor, Classical Music

9 January 2013

Editorial, January: New year, new CM

The changes coquettishly hinted at by my predecessor Keith Clarke in his editorial last issue have pretty much come to fruition. The first is that, as of this issue, we are a monthly magazine. CM has been fortnightly for 35 years, and although I think the printing press was around back then, pretty much every other aspect of publishing has changed.

Keith Clarke

15 December 2012

Editorial, 15 December: Twirling tassles and saucy smiles

As my old yoga teacher used to say (and Heraclitus 2,500 years earlier), the only constant factor in life is change. And it’s certainly all change here – this venerable publication is about to unveil untold wonders. At the risk of following in the footsteps of legendary striptease artist Gypsy Rose Lea, I am going to do no more here than twirl a tassle, strut my stuff and do a saucy smile. Suffice to say that over coming weeks you will be offered a spanking new website, a greatly improved news service, and a whole lot of other delights. The thinking behind it is to provide a more comprehensive facility for all our readers.

Edit-keith-pic-e1354266121677

1 December 2012

Editorial, 1 December: Huffing and puffing on tax

There is something faintly ridiculous about Margaret Hodge and her public accounts select committee huffing and puffing over the tax avoidance prowess of Starbucks, Amazon, Google et al. Think what you like about the moral rights and wrongs of it, no one in their right mind is going to pay more tax than they are legally obliged to.

Keith Clarke

17 November 2012

Editorial, 17 November: Celebrating the RPS

With 200 years of glorious history behind it and an action packed bicentenary year in prospect, the Royal Philharmonic Society could easily have held a celebratory launch party where we all shouted hooray at the announcements, got stuck into the buck’s fizz and bacon butties, then headed off with a warm glow in our hearts. But the society has always had a firm grip on reality, and launching the celebratory year in a West End pub on 7 November, chairman John Gilhooly was determined that the party mood should not throw a veil over the elephants in the bar.

Keith Clarke

3 November 2012

Editorial, 3 November: George Entwistle and orchestrating survival

Flicking through some old papers the other night I came across an interview I did with Jimmy Savile in 1985 during a spell of work within the shameful portals of BBC Television Centre. If nothing else, it gives me a topical way into pondering whether George Entwistle will be the shortest-serving director general in BBC history. If he goes, there will probably not be too many tears around the music business, since for right or wrong he is held largely responsible for the lamentable mess made of the jubilee river pageant, throwing overboard an extraordinary wealth of specially commissioned music in favour of some of the most crassly shallow broadcasting ever associated with a royal event. But hold the schadenfreude.