Proms go 50/50

[ferneyhoughgeliebte]

This has stirred a few things up in other places

I don't really see why; it merely regurgitates all the stuff that's been said (and contradicted) everywhere else - not least on this Forum!

He makes a decent comment about the lack of representation from working-class and other under-represented social groups, but this is only to skim over them to (as he sees it) demonstrate how ridiculous "quota systems" are in principle. The rest is merely a riff on his flawed central premise:

The quota-based approach to music festivals will inevitably mean that quality begins to take a secondary role. Those who argue in favour of quotas shy away from this obvious side-effect of their policy which ultimately places group identity above all else.

It may be "obvious" that such an outcome is "inevitable" to Mr Sharp - but, as has been mentioned already on this Thread, given people with imagination and intelligence this doesn't have to be the case.

[MrGongGong]

You might like this bit Ferny

People who are familiar with contemporary classical music events know that audience numbers are often on a par with those found at the preliminary rounds of a regional curling championship, so to sacrifice the quality of contemporary music at the world’s best attended classical music festival, in which new works are placed alongside favourites from the canon, seems decidedly short-sighted when it comes to recruiting new audiences.

Of course NO ONE ever goes to new music events and they are all people playing to empty halls

[ferneyhoughgeliebte]

You might like this bit Ferny
Of course NO ONE ever goes to new music events and they are all people playing to empty halls

Yes, I saw that, and wondered which "events" he was talking about (although, sadly, the attendance at Richard's Studio6 concert in Leeds last month would have supported his assertion ). But even more ridiculous to me was the idea that the "quality" of New Music at the Proms recently has done very much to "recruit new audiences"! Given the ideal of "quality" (and again, this has already been mentioned on this Thread) expounded in Proms commissioning, it would be a profound improvement if the people in charge also included a couple of works that they thought were absolutely dire. Chances are that they'd be the ones that made most impact.