Latest: BBC stands firm on orchestra cuts

Latest: BBC stands firm on orchestra cuts

Orchestras

norman lebrecht

May 08, 2023

Simon Webb, the BBC’s head of orchestras and chorus, has circulated another update on his wrecking mission.

‘Since my last note,’ he writes, ‘we’ve moved into a new phase of consultation with the Unions.’

‘At these meetings we have been discussing the classical review and its recommendations.’

In other words, all cuts are still on the table.

‘We are also actively exploring the alternative options for the BBC Singers with prospective partners.’

So, they are still for the chop.

Plus ca change, chez Simon.

Comments

  • Alastair Orr says:

    I would respectfully encourage all trade union representatives meeting with Mr Webb to sup with a very long spoon in these negotiations. It is important not to be beguiled by the word ‘consultation’, as this does not mean agreement. Counting your fingers on the way in and, most importantly, on the way out of meetings will be essential.

    • Tim says:

      Indeed, “consultation” and “agreement” are two very different things. Hopefully the unions understand the difference, though if they don’t that would explain quite a bit.

  • Celso Antunes says:

    This is simply disgusting!

  • Robert says:

    The structure is wrong. It should be as impossible for anyone to get rid of the BBC singers as it is for the British Library to flog its Magna Carta to the highest bidder overseas.

    • Tim says:

      The Magna Carta isn’t a money pit, relatively speaking. When the business case for the British Library’s Magna Carta deteriorates to the same extent as the business case for maintaining the BBC Singers as a going concern, it should be flogged to the highest bidder wherever they may be. That’s why we have photocopiers.

  • Jan Kaznowski says:

    Well done – circulating notes like tis is where SD provides a valuable service

  • Robin Blick says:

    According to Wikipedia, Estonia, population, 1.33 million, compared to the Uk’s 67.3 million, GDP $32 billion, compared to the Uk’s $3.1 trillion, has the largest state funded, full-time choir in the world. We, in Boris Johnson’s Brexit ‘Golden Age, can’t seem to afford one a fraction of its size. We can, however, afford public funding for the crowning of billionaire king.

    • Tim says:

      The UK can afford a state-funded, full-time choir. It just doesn’t want one. I’m not sure why it wanted to pay for the coronation of King Tampax I.

    • mark(London) says:

      pathetic political rant

    • MR DONALD R MACLEOD says:

      At least the King enjoys and supports classical music. Inter alia, he learned to play the cello. I am republican by temperament but somehow a non-political head-of-state such as our new monarch seems to me to offer a better chance of holding the anti-cultural tendencies of uncaring politicians and the purblind Arts Council to account. I am hoping Kier Starmer will be elected to office. It is a little-known fact that he is a graduate in music and can play four different instruments (see his entry in Wikipedia). I am hoping he will in time prove able, with the support of the King, to stop some of the current nonsensical decisions of the Arts Council, such as forcing ENO to leave London. Every music lover should write both to the King and to Starmer encouraging him to support the arts, especially music.

      • squagmogleur says:

        Wikipedia says he was a Junior Exhibitioner at the Guildhall School of Music and Drama but that he graduated in Law at Leeds university. But, as you comment, he has been an accomplished instrumentalist and someone we might expect to support the cause of music and musicians if and when he forms a government.

    • Peter San Diego says:

      At least a coronation only occurs once every several decades, on average…

    • Barry says:

      “Afford” has nothing to do with it. It’s BBC priorities that are the problem.

      And the Coronation has nothing to do with it either.

  • dennis says:

    the price of everything and the value of nothing

  • mark(London) says:

    Oh get over it NL. Singers can get work and are paid. No need for salaried . In Fact how many salaried professional Singing groups are there in the Classical music industry ?

  • Mr Gareth R Vaughan says:

    Or the egregious and largely unwanted Boris Johnson vanity project that is HS2.

    • mikealdren says:

      HS2 was the brainchild of the Labour Party transport secretary Andrew Adonis who set up HS2 Ltd in 2009.

  • classic dancer says:

    Tragic for Great Britain to lose any music, especially when the new king is an advocate for classical music, commissioning new works for the coronation, etc.

  • Edward L Seymour says:

    Is this how we learn that the BBC needs money?

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