Editorial

Keith Clarke - Editor
From the current issue of Classical Music

It looked like an unusually well-heeled gathering at the launch of the Wigmore Hall’s 110th season on 9 February – not the usual motley crowd of arts hacks and hangers-on. And as we were ushered into the auditorium after a glass or two of bubbly it became clear why. For after the joy of hearing bow hit string as the Elias Quartet kicked things off with the first movement of the Schubert Quintet, cellist Alice Neary making up numbers, on came  the hall’s sprightly director of development Marie-Hélène Osterweil, beaming at the prospect of asking everyone to put their hands in their pockets. For here was a hall full of donors, and the Wigmore was doing two things: asking for more money, which is the usual request from arts organisations, but also saying thank you, which sometimes gets forgotten. So the bubbled-up philanthropists were made to feel welcome, given a taste of first-class music making in one of the world’s great acoustics, made privy to a brilliant new season, and got to see the Duke of Kent giving a special award to Wigmore favourite Dame Felicity Lott before being taken back downstairs for more fizz. It was an object lesson in how to do things right.

But it’s not just about getting things right for the sponsors; you have to do the business for the audiences, too, and hearing the roll call of musical luminaries tripping off Wigmore director John Gilhooly’s tongue there could be little doubt how well they were catered for (season details in Barlines, this issue). The Wigmore has not got to this fabled position without a lot of hard graft, and in his five innovative and creative years as director, Gilhooly has built on the firm foundations provided by legendary predecessor Bill Lyne, to whom Felicity Lott paid tribute when accepting her Wigmore Hall Award (Diary, this issue). Gilhooly has put in ten years, as he initially joined as executive director in the run up to the centenary in 2001. In the decade since that celebratory season, the hall has seen a £4m refurbishment in 2004, the launch of its own record label in 2005, and the acquisition of a 250-year lease in 2006. Along the way there have been record-breaking audience numbers, season after season. In 2005, the box office was dishing out 110,000 tickets a year. Now the figure stands at 170,000. ‘I see this anniversary programme very much as a tribute to all those who have helped us to achieve so much over the past ten years,’ said Gilhooly.

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While all that was happening, in another corner of London W1 ten years ago the PRS Foundation was setting up shop to help fund new music. During its first decade it has given over £13.5m to contemporary music across all genres and funded 500-plus new commissions. It is marking the anniversary with a new name and a new logo: it is now the PRS For Music Foundation, which certainly has more going for it than PRS Against Music Foundation. We spend a lot of time promoting new music in this magazine, but what do musicians really think about playing it? Ian Fisher, a player in one of our finest bands, spills the beans in this issue, and without wanting to give the game away, before the building is surrounded by placard waving modernists we had better make clear that it’s a personal view. ‘New music’ covers a vast range, of course, from terminally bland pastiche Mozart to real fingernails-on-blackboard stuff, and a whole lot in between. And across the range there is good and not-so-good. But even if you know what you like and like what you know, there is every reason to embrace the new. Museums are great places, but you don’t really want to live in one.