Of Rebels And Wannabes
The Classical Brit Awards were this past weekend, and I'm sure you were all glued to your TV sets watching to see what Anna Netrebko would wear, and whether Andrea Bocelli's duet with Sarah Brightman would live up to the hype.
Hmmm? You've never heard of the Classical Brits? Oh. Well, think of them as the UK-based awards show that annually attempts to make the classical genre as tacky and meaningless as the MTV Video Music Awards. Seriously - this year's big lifetime achievement honoree was Andrew Lloyd Webber. Yes, that Andrew Lloyd Webber. Apparently, the fact that the doodler behind such Broadway dreck as Jesus Christ, Superstar and Cats managed to scratch out an oratorio or some such nonsense in his spare time qualifies him as a classical composer worthy of statuary. (It's not as if there's any shortage of truly great living British composers who could have been given this award, either.)
The big story of the weekend appears to have been the fact that bad-boy violinist Nigel Kennedy was a no-show, after being told that he could not enter on a bicycle and play with the string quartet Bond instead of the house orchestra. As superstar tantrums go, this one seems awfully mild, but Kennedy seemingly has the British arts press on a string these days.
I've never really gotten the Kennedy mystique. He's certainly a talented player, and he jumped on the whole "dragging classical music out of its own stifling formality" bandwagon long before it was fashionable, but aside from that, what has he done in the last ten years to merit as much attention as he's paid by the press? When you Google his name, the first thing that pops up is still that old video clip of him playing Vivaldi with a few lighting effects, and I'm pretty sure he did that when I was in high school.
Throw in his thoroughly invented Cockney accent and his penchant for inflating his own importance to the music world whenever there's a reporter handy, and it's all just a bit much. Call me old-fashioned, but I prefer my musical rebels to be, well, musical. I'm all for busting barriers between the classical tower and the rest of the music world, but I'm not sure acting like a spoiled rock star is the way to go.
The good news is that, whether the Classical Brits recognize it or not, there are an awful lot of musicians rebelling against the norms of the business in a way that actually results in great performances of cool music that crosses genres without dumbing anything down or tarting it up. For an example, look no further than Hilary Hahn's recent collaborative performances with Idaho singer-songwriter Josh Ritter. If you ask me, any duo that can pull off this...
and this...
...in a single show is worth more attention than all the crossover garbage the Classical Brits celebrate.
Hmmm? You've never heard of the Classical Brits? Oh. Well, think of them as the UK-based awards show that annually attempts to make the classical genre as tacky and meaningless as the MTV Video Music Awards. Seriously - this year's big lifetime achievement honoree was Andrew Lloyd Webber. Yes, that Andrew Lloyd Webber. Apparently, the fact that the doodler behind such Broadway dreck as Jesus Christ, Superstar and Cats managed to scratch out an oratorio or some such nonsense in his spare time qualifies him as a classical composer worthy of statuary. (It's not as if there's any shortage of truly great living British composers who could have been given this award, either.)
The big story of the weekend appears to have been the fact that bad-boy violinist Nigel Kennedy was a no-show, after being told that he could not enter on a bicycle and play with the string quartet Bond instead of the house orchestra. As superstar tantrums go, this one seems awfully mild, but Kennedy seemingly has the British arts press on a string these days.
I've never really gotten the Kennedy mystique. He's certainly a talented player, and he jumped on the whole "dragging classical music out of its own stifling formality" bandwagon long before it was fashionable, but aside from that, what has he done in the last ten years to merit as much attention as he's paid by the press? When you Google his name, the first thing that pops up is still that old video clip of him playing Vivaldi with a few lighting effects, and I'm pretty sure he did that when I was in high school.
Throw in his thoroughly invented Cockney accent and his penchant for inflating his own importance to the music world whenever there's a reporter handy, and it's all just a bit much. Call me old-fashioned, but I prefer my musical rebels to be, well, musical. I'm all for busting barriers between the classical tower and the rest of the music world, but I'm not sure acting like a spoiled rock star is the way to go.
The good news is that, whether the Classical Brits recognize it or not, there are an awful lot of musicians rebelling against the norms of the business in a way that actually results in great performances of cool music that crosses genres without dumbing anything down or tarting it up. For an example, look no further than Hilary Hahn's recent collaborative performances with Idaho singer-songwriter Josh Ritter. If you ask me, any duo that can pull off this...
and this...
...in a single show is worth more attention than all the crossover garbage the Classical Brits celebrate.
Labels: contemporary culture, stirring the pot
posted by Sam at
10:00 AM
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