Nigel Kennedy critical of ‘jobsworths’ seeking carbon-copy hits

ONE of the world’s leading violin virtuosos has hit out at record company executives who he says stifle creativity.

Nigel Kennedy said “mental midgets” and “ignorant” jobsworths with little understanding of what it takes to play an instrument drove him to withdraw from the classical world for four years. He said in the early 2000s he found himself unable to work with some EMI executives who he said were more interested in repeating previous successes than creative freedom.

He said: “It disaffected me from the classical music world, this kind of fuddy-duddy atmosphere.” He found that some executives had “a very narrow perspective of music”, adding: “There literally was some geezer who’d managed to sell a certain number of fish fingers and then he was head of a department. It was a strange mix of a lack of credibility and qualifications.”

While Kennedy wanted to explore all kinds of repertoire, executives wanted “carbon copies” of previous hits, such as his 1989 version of Vivaldi’s The Four Seasons.

Of his own experience, he recalled: “They had such a narrow agenda for me.” He added: “It’s a shame that people don’t trust the instinct of artists.”

He also lamented the death last week of Lynn Harrell, “the greatest cellist of his generation and maybe for the last century”. He revealed that it was Harrell who coaxed him back to performing. He searched in vain for coverage of Harrell’s passing on the BBC’s website: “They’ve got American TV reality stars and all kinds of stuff. For the world’s greatest cellist, they’ve got no space. A shocking omission.” Discussing EMI, he said: “I wouldn’t say they were any worse than any other record company. They were very good in some ways.”

A Universal Music Group spokesman said: “Following our purchase of the company in 2011, Universal Music brought in new management, shifted strategy and invested in EMI and its artists globally.”