ARTS
Music
Another European take over
Peter Phillips blames the British character for the inept marketing of our music
Perhaps it takes an outsider to see the wood for the trees, perhaps the British are peculiarly in need of advice from foreign- ers, at any rate I was disconcerted by the following sentences contained in a commu- nication to me from Douglas Dunn, an amateur observer of the musical scene, who lives in New York: "With a few exceptions the British more or less invented 'early music' as a successful endeavour. Fifteen years ago what was in the market? The Academy of Ancient Music (Christopher Hogwood), The English Concert (Trevor Pinnock), The Consort of Musicke (Tony Rooley), The Taverner Choir (Andrew Parrott), the Schutz Choir of London (Roger Norring- ton), the Clerkes of Oxenford (David Wul- stan), their assorted soloists and sub-ensembles. Apart from Leonhardt and Harnoncourt I can't call to mind any non- British conductors, ensembles or soloists operating at the highest international level in the whole gamut of early music from those crucial years of the late '70s and early '80s. And yet in 1994, with the principle exception of John Eliot Gardiner, every last one has been superceded by more stylish continental competitors.
Where one might once have anxiously awaited the Academy of Ancient Music, one now looks to the Orchestra of the 18th Century. Where once the Consort of Musicke held court, Concerto Italiano is attracting attention (and the Consort of Musicke, on its new label with those aston- ishing cover photos suggesting some bar- gain-basement masquerade party, appears determined to embarrass itself). The Salomon Quartet is overtaken by Quatuour Mosaiques, and even a soloist like Lynn Dawson now seems like rather a second choice to Guillemette Laurens. And so on.
I am reminded of the old criticism of British business: that although British sci- ence and technology was for a time peer- less, British industry was singularly inept at developing viable industries from it. I fear that British early music has gone the same way - good at pioneering, bad at marketing and development. . A number of rather depressing issues are in question here, revolving in the first instance around that old war-horse, the decline of the British character. We are all well used, I suppose, to British commenta- tors telling us we are of no worth, but to hear it from well-informed foreigners makes one think. It has also become some- thing of a cliché.
Unfortunately Mr Dunn's impression of the European early music scene bears scrutiny. (If one were feeling hurt, it would be possible to ask why a country the size of the US has failed to produce an early music ensemble of any description to chal- lenge the British and continental ones, past and present - unless Anonymous Four prove to have the necessary staying-power, which I doubt - but I won't, since this arti- cle is essentially a defensive one.) Indeed the state of things is arguably worse than he describes since the father of the whole movement, David Munrow, found the pres- sure of winning so tortuous that he com- mitted suicide as early in the history of it all as 1975. And Mr Dunn's general view is, I think, accurate. Where now are the great anthologising recording projects which Christopher Hogwood and Tony Rooley used to put together? Where the Taverner Choir's annual Prom or the Clerkes' Mag- dalen College Chapel concert at the end of every seventh week of the Oxford term? Time has moved on; the innovative perfor- mances cannot now reliably be heard in England, but in Paris, Brussels, Utrecht, Cologne and Milan.
Part of the explanation is that the direc- tors of these particular groups have branched into other careers. David Wul- stan never ceased to be an academic, even- tually becoming Professor of Music at Cork and Aberystwyth. Andrew Parrott is now to be found guest conducting; Hogwood and Pinnock always had parallel careers as key- board players and Hogwood as a broad- caster. Whatever it takes to focus on doing just one thing, of piecing together an old- fashioned life-time in one job, seems to be impractical in the early music world, which is not entirely surprising since many of the groups in question were set up to explore particular repertoires or particular ways of performing music, following the changing notions of authenticity, which more or less inevitably produced relatively short shelf lives. The structure of a career directing an ensemble of one's own foundation is much less certain than treading, for example, the symphony orchestral ladder. Symphony orchestras and opera houses exist, and they are many; they need conductors and there is a pecking order for them. A talented person, revolutionary fervour not obligato- ry, can stay in that hierarchy without having to worry much about the future. It is the early musicians who are the revolutionaries - it is their raison d'elre - and revolutionar- ies have a disconcerting way of becoming dated.
But Mr Dunn also oversimplifies a scene which has become more complicated recently as it has entered a period of transi- tion. The British groups are still up there with the best of them, but they are differ- ent groups and seem to be run on more pragmatic lines. They tend to be led by people who are less keen to pioneer and more keen to seek out the spotlight. The competition from abroad has sharpened up their presentation and actually raised play- ing standards. They form a block in the market place amongst several and can no longer rely on those festivals from the past, most notably in the Low Countries, which year after year used to consist almost entirely of British artists. It couldn't last for ever; and, indeed, the continental groups which are now emerging, may themselves yet fall victim to the early music syndrome which has carried off our own groups.
I actually believe that the future for our ensembles looks very promising. a hard-nosed professional attitude is what is wanted and what outfits like the Hilliard Ensemble, the Orchestra of the Age of Enlightenment (regularly conducted these days by Simon Rat- tle), the Tallis Scholars, the Gabrieli Consort and London Baroque are giv- ing. But we could all take our cue from John Eliot Gardiner, whose Montever- di Choir celebrated its thirtieth anniversary this year. He has consis- tently shown all the necessary ambi- tion, stamina, musicianship and, like the perfect politician, ability to trim without losing credibility. To have sur- vived so long in the world I've been describing is a feat which the demise of so many competitors puts neatly into perspec- tive. It was not that in the past we Brits didn't want to win: winning in those days was easy. The problem was to keep on win- ning as the scene changed, to which end some lessons had to be learnt and some rigour acquired. Music remains one of Britian's most successful and undervalued exports; and we still have better-trained musicians, in all departments, than any other country in the world.
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