Orders of the Day — Grants for the Arts

Part of the debate – in the House of Commons at 12:00 am on 5 February 1970.

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Photo of Captain Walter Elliot Captain Walter Elliot , Carshalton 12:00, 5 February 1970

During this debate we have heard of the glories of British artistic achievements, and I pay tribute to those as I do to the work of the Arts Council and the hon. Member for Wolverhampton, North East (Mrs. Renée Short) and her Committee. I will direct my speech to one aspect which has been neglected. In paragraph (iii) of the observations of the Secretary of State on the Estimates Committee's Report, there is this passage referring to music: Here, as in drama, it is difficult to accept that artists have any justification for feeling that they do not get the professional support they need. This does not apply to the young British orchestral conductor. Paragraph 128 of the Estimates Committee Report says: Britain is no longer 'the country without music'. If this is so, it is largely because the conductors of our orchestras come from foreign countries. Of 163 concerts advertised this current season by the five London orchestras, only 31 were or are advertised as being under British conductors. Of 182 concerts advertised since February, 1968, under the Royal Festival Hall subscription voucher scheme, only 16 were or are advertised as being under British conductors. All these concerts, except those given by the B.B.C. Symphony Orchestra, are advertised as being given in association with the Arts Council. Of 13 major orchestras in Great Britain, only three—the Bournemouth Symphony Orchestra, the Scottish National Orchestra and the B.B.C. Scottish Orchestra—have young assistant or apprentice conductors. All the major London orchestras, except the B.B.C. Symphony Orchestra, have foreign principal conductors. We have just heard that the next principal conductors of the B.B.C. Symphony Orchestra and of the City of Birmingham Orchestra are to be foreign nationals. The Bournemouth Symphony Orchestra and the Ulster Orchestra are already in the charge of foreign nationals.

I hope, in quoting these figures, that I shall not be misunderstood. It is not my intention to draw frontiers in the realm of art. I could not, even if I wanted to, and I do not want to, take a narrow insular view. I believe that we have gone a little too far in hiring foreign conductors and do not do enough to help young British orchestral conductors—and we have some of great worth.

I have talked to many of these young men and corresponded with them. May I give briefly the career of one of the lucky ones, and I underline the word "lucky" because it is purely a relative term: It is, I think, worth mentioning that I studied at the Royal College of Music, London, was trained as a conductor, continued my studies abroad, worked and conducted in Germany, and, since returning to this country in 1965, I have been engaged as conductor to the Royal Ballet, Covent Garden, have conducted for the B.B.C. and for other important organisations and orchestras and have been engaged in other musical work. I am sure that any number of reliable musicians will vouch for my work as a conductor, and for the talent which I am told that I have, and this can be backed up by a large number of laudatory press reviews of my work and by tape recordings of my broadcast performance. I can back that up; I have seen these laudatory reports of his work. Now we see why the luck is relative. This young man is aged about 30 and he is fairly distinguished. He goes on to say: However, because of the very few opportunities open to me, I am earning something like £7 or £8 per week … This was early last year: … from music teaching and am drawing supplementary benefit in order to bring my weekly earnings up to £10 or £11. On this, I keep myself, my wife and our two children; as you can well imagine, there is not enough left even to buy orchestral scores etc., let alone gramophone records or other items which would normally be considered essential for the artistic development of a young conductor. Incidentally, upon asking recently at my local labour exchange whether they could find me any other work to help keep body and soul together. I was told that all they had were vacancies for a chef and an office cleaner, both full time-jobs. As a postscript to that letter, may I read a letter from the Arts Council of Great Britain to the father of another young man trying to make his way. This means of course that your son has to submit himself to the heartrending and formidable task of 'knocking on the doors' of the various orchestral managements seeking for engagements. You will know that there are many other young men trying to climb the same ladder, and few of them do in the end manage to get established unless they can demonstrate what must inevitably be above average, or even outstanding, talent. I have many letters which illustrate this heartrending knocking at doors.

The dilemma of the young British conductor is that he cannot get conducting opportunities without experience, and he cannot get experience without the conducting opportunities. There are good arguments for saying, "Let us get the best conductors, no matter from what country they come", but many of these foreign conductors are quite unknown and certainly no better than many of our young men. Even so, I would not discourage the young, unknown musicians from coming to this country and taking their chance, as long as our young men get a chance too, and I do not believe that they do.

Some time ago, in reply to a letter from me, the Minister was kind enough to give me her thoughts on this subject: Meanwhile, I am sure you will agree that it would be very undesirable to attempt to interfere in any way with the essential freedom of orchestras and companies to approach those conductors whom they feel are most suited for particular posts. I wonder if that is absolutely right. I am not sure that I entirely agree with it. I see her point, but surely, where State and other public money is provided with the object of fostering music, it is reasonable to allocate some of it to fostering the development of our young British conductors with talent. The Minister went on to say: But I believe that there will be increasing opportunities for our own young men to develop their skills, particularly perhaps with opera companies. This letter was written in August, 1967. I assure her that the problem is still there, and I hope she will bear it in mind.

In speaking of the young British conductor, I may be accused of being prejudiced in favour of my own nationals. If so, I am not the only one. Towards the end of 1969 a critique written by William Mann, the music critic, was published by The Times:An orchestra manager, a few weeks ago, casually asked me whom I would suggest as the next principal conductor of his symphony orchestra. I mentioned the names of two or three experienced and reliable British conductors with sizeable repertoires. No, they would not do: useful for several concerts each season, but not enough glamour to draw large audiences every week to their concerts in and out of town. There is a good deal more of interest in that article which I could quote.

I will go on to an interview between Alan Blyth of The Times and a Mr. Haitink, who took over as principal conductor and artistic adviser of the London Philharmonic Orchestra. Mr. Blyth in his article said: Mr. Haitink is as anxious to encourage young artists as he is to promote good music. 'It's not good for any orchestra to have only foreign conductors. And it's stupid to say that you have no young ones. There must be some, and the only way to find out is by giving them a chance. It can be done—look how Colin Davis has established himself'. What can be done about this? The Arts Council should take action and says, on page 33 of its Report, that it gives the necessary support where needed. I believe that it ought to look particularly at the situation of the young British conductor.

My last quotation—and I apologise for so many—is from the publication Music and Musicians in May, 1969. It is a quotation from an article by Mr. Noel Goodwin, in which he said: One practical means of improvement would be for the Arts Council to insist, as a condition of grant, on the appointment of an associate conductor with each major orchestra. It would, of course, be made at the orchestra's discretion and for a specified term, with the appointment renewed or changed after that period according to merit and circumstances. Such a scheme would at least offer one means of enabling genuine talent to develop without having to rely on the 'lucky break'. It is a sobering thought that if such a break had not come his way, even Colin Davis might at one time have been lost to music. I would ask the Minister to consider that suggestion.

Is there any tie-up between the National Youth Orchestra and the young British conductor? Is there scope for this and, if so, will the Minister look at that matter? Could she also look into the whole question of the selection of conductors for the major orchestras and concerts in London and throughout the country? I am not saying that she should dictate or limit in any way the employment of many well-known conductors from other countries. That is out of the question. But could she not see whether an opportunity could be created for young British conductors of talent to give experience? I am sure that there are other ways in which we could help our young people. If the Minister will look into this matter, I am sure that she will find under a wealth of musical talent available in this country that it will refute the gibe that Britain is a country without music.