The Guardian view on the BBC Proms: give women more space and time
The Proms began in 1895 as the brainchild of impresario Robert Newman and conductor Henry Wood. “Democratising the message of music” was, in Wood’s words, the aim of this cheap summer season of orchestral concerts. When the festival was threatened by financial catastrophe in 1927, it was one of the great enlightened acts of the young BBC to take it on and subsume it into its own work.
The annual arrival of the Proms programme, which was published last week, continues to mark a particular moment in the British cultural calendar. “Your guide to the world’s greatest classical music festival … UK bestseller”, proclaims the cover. For once, such arrogance is justified. The BBC Proms are excellent and open to allcomers. Each night, 1,350 standing tickets are available at the Royal Albert Hall – for great artists from Sir Simon Rattle to Mirga Gražinytė-Tyla – for £6 each. All the concerts are broadcast on Radio 3 and available thereafter on the BBC Sounds app; some are shown on TV. Wood’s aims have been fulfilled magnificently.
The festival, in a way, acts as a microcosm of the BBC at least in one sense – that the act of acknowledging the nation’s good fortune in having it at all is usually a prelude for complaining that it is not better. What “better” might consist of remains in the eye of the beholder. The repertoire of complaints is as predictable as the appearance of Brahms in the programme: that it is too elitist; that it is not radical enough; that it does not have enough new commissions; that its non-classical concerts are gimmicky; that the flag-waving patriotism at the Last Night of the Proms represents a frightful imperialist hangover; that not enough concerts are on TV.
Some of these complaints are more valid than others. What is perhaps more interesting is to take a step back and to give thought to how the Proms reflect the cultural moment. We are in the midst of a surge of fourth-wave feminism, and this year’s programmers have clearly given thought to female composers, from the 12th-century Hildegard of Bingen, via Barbara Strozzi and Fanny Hensel, to significant figures of our own day such as Judith Weir, Errollyn Wallen and Anna Þorvaldsdóttir. Indeed, last year the BBC promised that by 2022, half of all Proms commissions would be given to women. On the face of it, the headcount of more than 30 female composers in the programme this year looks impressive – at least compared with previous festivals. On the other, their contribution adds up to only around six hours of music, spread over 75 concerts (most of which last a couple of hours or more). Crucially, around half of these six hours of music will be performed outside the Royal Albert Hall – in much smaller venues, including Cadogan Hall.
Women still aren’t taking up enough time, or space, in the Proms. That may be a regular complaint, but it is one whose failure to address history will look on unkindly.