English festivalgoers threaten to boycott Beethoven’s 9th

The Three Choirs Festival has received phonecalls from Brexiteers, threatening to organise a boycott of a symphony that contains the EU anthem.

From the Observer today:

A spokeswoman for the Three Choirs festival, which is held in Gloucester every three years, alternating with Hereford and Worcester, said that an email and a phone call had made the feelings of a small minority of local people very clear.

“I was told that some people felt it was not an appropriate programming for a concert in an area that voted overwhelmingly for Brexit,” she said. The complainant then promised to call for other people to stay away.

“We can’t be sure this is why there are still tickets,” said the spokeswoman. 

Read on here.

Through two world wars, Beritish audiences flocked to hear Wagner, the most German of composers. The anti-Beethoven intolerance, manifested in this week’s actions of Brexit MEPs (above),  gives the whole Brexit movement a profoundly unEnglish character.