Take children to ballet from age 7, Prince of Wales says
Trip to the Bolshoi as a boy inspired lifelong love of the arts, Charles reveals in Classic FM interview
MOST seven-year-old children are too obsessed with riding their bikes and playing with friends to contemplate fostering a love of opera and ballet.
But as Prince George approaches his seventh birthday in July, his grandfather, the Prince of Wales, has offered a clue as to where he might be taken for a treat once lockdown is over.
The heir to the throne has described the sheer joy he experienced when his grandmother, Queen Elizabeth, took him to see the Bolshoi Ballet perform at the Royal Opera House in Covent Garden when he was seven. The impact was so transformative that he believes it to be the perfect age for grandparents to introduce their grandchildren to the performing arts.
The Prince said he would “never forget” the Bolshoi’s performance of The Fountain of Bakhchisarai in 1956, describing the music as “unbelievably exciting”. In an interview with Alan Titchmarsh for Classic FM, he said: “It was all Tatar dancing and cracking of whips and leaping in the air and doing unbelievably energetic things, which only the Bolshoi can do.
“I was completely inspired by it … which is why it’s so important, I think, for grandparents or other relations to take children, at about the age of seven, to experience some form of the arts in performance. That’s what really inspires people, I think.”
The Prince went on to learn the cello and trumpet at Gordonstoun and played the cello in the orchestra at Trinity
College, Cambridge. His passion for classical music meant he took a guiding role in choosing many of the pieces for the Duke and Duchess of Cambridge’s wedding ceremony in 2011, an experience he thoroughly enjoyed. “I love trying to organise some interesting pieces of music for certain occasions, particularly for weddings,” the Prince said.
“Certainly, I know my eldest son was quite understanding and was perfectly happy for me to suggest a few pieces for their wedding. I hope that gave some people pleasure, but it’s rather fun having orchestras in for great occasions like that and why not suggest a few pieces occasionally?”
The Prince discussed his passion for music with Titchmarsh for the first of two two-hour programmes, titled A Royal Appointment, to be broadcast on Classic FM this evening.
Each piece of music was chosen by the Prince and performed by his patronages, including Siegfried Idyll, by Richard Wagner, choruses from the St Matthew Passion by Johann Sebastian Bach, and Bridal March from The Birds of Aristophanes, by Hubert Parry. The Prince revealed that he had inadvertently introduced one of his protection officers to Wagner after playing his music on a CD in his car. “The person I had with me at the time, long ago, had never heard Wagner before in his life,” he said.
“But because I played it on various occasions in the car, he grew, can you believe it, to love it so much that he then became a Wagner fan, having never heard it before and presumably having also thought, ‘Well, it’s not for me’.
“So it is familiarity, I think, which in this case doesn’t breed contempt. It breeds real devotion, I’ve found.” The Prince, who is the president of the Royal Ballet and patron of the Royal Opera House and the Philharmonia Orchestra, among many others, said the impact of coronavirus on the arts world was “a desperate thing”.
The UK’S arts institutions were “utterly vital to this country” and played a “huge part” in culture and diplomacy, he said. “They are completely silent and unable to operate, unable to work,” the Prince went on. “We have to find a way to make sure these marvellous people and organisations can survive through all this.
“It’s so important I think, to remember that the creative arts sector is of enormous importance to this country’s economy, if nothing else, and plays a huge part in attracting people here and the quality and the standards that this country produces.
“It’s absolutely crucial that they can come back twice as enthusiastic as before.”
Titchmarsh, who presents a weekly Saturday morning show on Classic FM, said he had enjoyed discussing his mutual love of classical music with the Prince.
“It is typically thoughtful of him to choose to highlight the plight of his many musical patronages, alongside the difficulties that all musicians face, during an unprecedented period when enjoyment of live music has been curtailed,” he said.
The first part of A Royal Appointment, presented by Alan Titchmarsh, will be broadcast this evening at 8pm on Classic FM. The second programme, presented solely by the Prince, will be broadcast tomorrow at 8pm.
‘We have to find a way to make sure these marvellous people and organisations can survive through all this’