Not Even The Composers Expected The Works
Sydney Morning Herald
Friday April 28, 2006
The picture Greg Barns paints of ABC Classics as the "main culprit" that undermines classical music with "dumbed down", "best of" compilations is frankly dishonest ("Attitude to classical music a few notes short of a symphony", April 25).
Indeed, we release many compilations of isolated movements of multimovement works. But Mr Barns forgets these are drawn from recordings of the complete works, which are simultaneously available. Our ideology is that the classical music audience is varied and complex. Some prefer complete works; some excerpts. Some even prefer Australian compositions, bless their hearts. We cater to all. The public today has greater access to classical music than ever. Nothing stops you from consuming classical music the way Mr Barns wants you to. But today, lifestyle CDs, iPod playlists and internet streams are new avenues for enjoying classical music. They give consumers new choices, among them the choice to listen to their preferred movement rather than an entire work. Mr Barns wants that choice taken away. His motivation is an unhealthy paternalism: average consumers, perhaps not as educated as the breed from which Mr Barns hails, cannot be trusted to know what is good for them. He wants them educated so they will make the same choices as he. I want education, too, but a kind that imparts a real love, born of true comprehension of classical music, rather than the continuation of classical music's elitism and snobbishness. We need the removal of the rituals that surround it like a fortress: this is what you wear to a concert; this is where you clap. We must teach our children to think for themselves. And, yes, there's the risk their opinions will differ from ours. It might entertain you to know Mr Barns's desires to protect the composers' integrity exceed the composers' own. Mozart often took arias from his operas for isolated performances; even Wagner made a concert ending to the Parsifal prelude so that it could be played on its own. It's piquant Mr Barns makes his point in the Herald - the Life is Beautiful series he assails as the epitome of the "dumbed down" problem was created for free distribution by this paper. Lyle Chan ABC Classics, Sydney
© 2006 Sydney Morning Herald