Don’t like dance music at the Proms? You’re snobs, says host
WHEN the line-up for this year’s Proms was unveiled, fans were horrified at the inclusion of an Ibiza-style dance party.
But presenter Suzy Klein has branded such criticism ‘a load of old cobblers’ and called those making the complaints ‘self-elected snobs’.
Miss Klein, 40, is fronting some of the BBC’s coverage of the Proms and insisted the 120-year-old institution must look to the future by including club music and rappers.
The Radio 3 presenter said: ‘What has been reported... is the BBC teetering at the top of a slippery slope where it dares to forsake the peaks of musical integrity for base musical inclusivity. They want us to believe that in looking to the future... the Proms is losing sight of its past.’
However, she said ‘a couple’ of more controversial performances ‘out of 92 sensational concerts’ hardly constitutes the ‘Proms Armageddon’.
Speaking to the Radio Times ahead of the Proms which start on July 17, she added: ‘What a load of old cobblers. These self-elected snobs and scaremongers are not there to fight for the universal power that great music unleashes – what they want is to “protect” classical music... from the onslaught of mass entertainment.’ Miss Klein said that regard- less of genre, ‘great music has always had the power to move both heart and head’, and she praised dance music for its ‘primal energy’.
In a major departure from classical programmes, Radio 1 DJ Pete Tong is hosting a late-night concert at the Royal Albert Hall on July 29, which is promised to be a ‘homage to Ibiza and its club music’.
Artists will perform alongside the experimental Heritage Orchestra.
Rapper Wretch 32 will also appear on August 12 alongside pop orchestra Metropole Orkest – which has previously worked with Elvis Costello. The night is billed as a celebration of urban music, featuring genres such as hip hop and grime.
When the plans were unveiled earlier this year, Proms director Edward Blakeman said it was a ‘natural’ move, adding: ‘Dance [music] has been a huge phenomenon on Radio 1 so why not celebrate it with a big orchestra? We do now live in a world where you can like all kinds of music.’
But Tory MP Conor Burns said last night: ‘I think that [Miss Klein’s] comments are breathtakingly arrogant. What makes the Proms successful is the enduring formula of showcasing the best in classical music and making it accessible to a very wide audience.
‘If people want to go to a rap concert, they should buy a ticket to a rap concert.’
‘It’s hardly Armageddon’