A BBC D-G responds to his music critics
NewsTim Davie has written an open to everyone in the music sector who has protested at his tactics for shrinking the BBC’s classical outlay.
Nick Daniel has kindly shared it (below).
I decided to share the email from Tim Davie to me (and ‘all’, all meaning every winner of BBC Young Musician). There is no doubt that we are still in a real fight for classical music on the BBC. pic.twitter.com/a6mFdwT30h
— Nicholas Daniel OBE 🇺🇦🏳️⚧️ (@ndanielmusic) March 28, 2023
At face value, it looks like a bad strategy. Presumably, they decided to reduce their core activities to save money. They then list a bunch of vague and unspecified initiatives to support choral music, invest more in music education and expand the repertoire and concert touring of the orchestras. To me, all this seems like spreading scarce resources thinly across a wide range of activities, while cutting back on their core business. And, in case you did not notice, the word “broadcasting” is not even mentioned.
I suspect this is more of a smokescreen to obscure financial cutbacks rather than a real “strategy”.
Why draft this letter at all? It says absolutely nothing not already known (or, rather, not known).
Mealy-mouthed tosh
Reads like bureaucratic push back to pressure.