A time for rebuilding
The post-pandemic music scene
I asked Uchida and Padmore, as respected pillars of the British classical music scene, to gauge the morale and state of the business right now.
‘I am an optimist, so I think the longterm future of classical music is fine,’ Uchida says. ‘It’s the present that is so unsettled. People still want to hear us oldies: our names are known. But some of my younger colleagues went through horrendous times during the pandemic, and we are still not back to normal.
‘On top of that, there’s a worrying decline in music education offered in schools. England used to be famous for its music education, in ordinary schools as well as music colleges. So much has been cut now because it doesn’t immediately generate money.’
‘Morale is quite low,’ Padmore agrees. ‘Lots of performers are struggling, lots of concert halls are struggling, even to heat their facilities this winter, and we don’t have a government that seems to value the arts at all. We are operating in a cultural world that feels embattled. There are times when I feel like stopping myself and having a much easier life, but it is important to carry on and try to set an example, and to encourage others as well.
‘And the habit of going to concerts, which was disrupted by the pandemic, hasn’t properly picked up again yet.
The unpredictability, the riskiness, of live performance really needs to be celebrated again. Recordings and the internet can never recapture that. Live performance is really one of the things that makes living worthwhile.’