The Courier & Advertiser (Fife Edition)
Let’s hope it all goes with a bang – and not a whimper
Over the years, listening to selected highlights of the BBC Proms has brought me a lot of pleasure and introductions to music that I would otherwise not have experienced. So I was quite pleased that this Proms season, as with elements of the Edinburgh International Festival, has gone ahead without audiences in situ but with a wide range of music (from the archives and as of last Friday night, live) that can be accessed in a number of ways. The arts world may be regarded as a luxury by some but the creativity and intrepidity shown by its members in getting entertainment and thoughtprovoking presentations out to the public seems to me to have been exemplary in these times of danger and isolation.
Then we come to the Last Night of the Proms, that traditional jamboree of all things British. Its flag-waving style has never meant a huge amount to me personally but I know it appeals to many. If people want it and they feel it brings them together, then good luck to them, as far as I’m concerned.
In the dim and distant, I used to have a bit of a soft spot for Land Of Hope And Glory and Rule Britannia. I’ve even sung part of the latter as a soloist – yes, in public and yes, for ready money – and found it a lot of fun to do. So I have very mixed feelings about all the hoo-hah re the cultural hokey-cokey as to whether these pieces should be in, out or shaken all about in this year’s Last Night programme.
It’s all a bit Mrs Doyle, isn’t it, to quote the zany housekeeper from Father Ted? “Ah, go on, go on, go on!” “Ye will, ye will, ye will!” Or “Ye won’t, ye won’t, ye won’t!” as the case may be.
First, they were not to be sung but only played. Now, choirs and vocal groups all over the country have had to give up regular rehearsals, meetings and performances as they knew them, due to the potential mass spittle-derived spread of Covid bugs. So you might think that this non-singing approach made a kind of sense, which is more than you can say for a lot of rulings on coronavirus-related subjects. The whole point of the Last Night is the communal experience of people singing together and if there wasn’t an audience in the hall to do the necessary participating, it would be more than a little bit of a non-event. And nobody ever said that those of us listening at home couldn’t join in with gusto if we so chose.
But no. Cue outcry and lots of mouthfrothing about political correctness, “woke” behaviour and the threat to our cultural traditions and patriotism by those highlighting issues of colonialism, slavery and racism in the song lyrics and trying to get them “banned”. Which as I understand it, was never actually the case.
The Last Night conducting gig is widely seen as a plum role for the occupant of the podium but this year, conductor Dalia Stasevska – young, female and Finnish, make of that what you will – has been subjected to dire abuse online and in print, as have her family – when, in fact, none of it was anything to do with her. Or, as far as I can see, with anyone, even at the
“Next year, with luck and a following wind, 2021’s public events will be very different
much-criticised BBC, actually trying to rewrite the past permanently.
The prime minister, of course, came out with ringing comments about not succumbing to “cringing embarrassment about our history” and stopping “this general fight of self-recrimination and wetness”, in an attempt, perhaps, to channel his inner Margaret Thatcher.
It has always seemed to me that nobody needs to be embarrassed about their history, no matter how controversial, if – and it’s a big if – they learn from it. Nobody’s trying to pretend our past shouldn’t exist. It made us what we are – but how we make our present and future is then up to us.
You don’t have to condone the toppling of statues or the alteration of street names to see that the format of this year’s concert was, rather clumsily, formed as a response to this year’s threat to public health rather than any sinister conspiracy to alter history to one size fits all. Next year, with luck and a following wind, 2021’s public events will be very different. And, we can all devoutly hope, back to what those who wish to continue their Last Night traditions feel is and should be normal.
Taking public reaction – and overreaction in some cases – into account, a change of mind now means that Land Of Hope And Glory and Rule Britannia are to be sung by a small group of the estimable BBC Singers who, I have no doubt, will do a great job. But with a dozen or so of them as opposed to the massed ranks of choir and audience, it’s to be hoped that the wetness about which Mr Johnson fulminated doesn’t turn out to be a damp squib.