The Birmingham Post has CBSO’s Emma Stenning

Christopher Morley, long-serving arts editor at the Birmingham Post, has today written an op-ed attacking its troubled management and failing reputation. Here it goes:

The name of the Birmingham Symphony Orchestra shines around the world as a beacon of excellence, with huge fans in every country who appreciate classical music. Music lovers in Japan were delighted when a talk I gave there seven years ago on the history of the orchestra, scheduled to last 15 minutes, reached 45. Its recordings under conductors such as Louis Fremaux Simon Rattle, Sakari Oramo , Edward Gardner and Andris Nelsons are rightly ranked very high. Now it has an exciting new music director in the popular Kazuki Yamada. Everything in the garden should be wonderful.

But it isn’t. Last November, newly appointed chief executive Emma Stenning, replacing Stephen Maddock, who, after a brilliant almost quarter of a century at the CBSO, went on to do great things as director of the Royal Conservatoire in Birmingham, published a Vision for orchestra. Designed to attract new audiences to CBSO concerts, it invited people to bring drinks into the hall, feel free to take photos on their mobile phones at any time, promised a more welcoming experience from front of house staff, an introduction from stage by a performer or member of the management team and, most striking of all, lighting effects and backstage projections that illuminate the music performed.

My answer, as someone who has loved the CBSO since 1966 when I came to Birmingham as a music undergraduate, and who has been reviewing the orchestra since I graduated in 1969 (and since 1988 as chief music critic of the Birmingham Post, an esteemed position from which I -I only recently retired), it was immediate. The Post published my rebuttal of these dangerous ideas, “If She Ain’t Woke Up, Don’t Fix Her” on the front page. A few days later, Ms. Stenning’s vision materialized in a concert where heroism was the theme: Richard Strauss’s Don Quixote (in which violinist Chris Yates and cellist Eduardo Vassallo were the truly heroic soloists, given all the shenanigans surrounding this performance), and the greatest of all symphonies, Beethoven’s Eroica, during which images of the various personalities whom the orchestra players had been prompted to nominate as heroes were projected in the background, distracting the audience from their absorption in the music . I’m just thankful that Ms. Stenning didn’t misread the title of the symphony as Erotica, as the Guardian once did…

The response from seasoned spectators was immediate, angry at the intrusion into their concert experience, and particularly angry that such an approach was foisted upon them after they had booked their tickets, expecting a “straightforward” concert in its presentation.

Strong letters fell on Ms Stenning’s desk, some from sponsors who were now considering withdrawing any future support. The “vision” also hinted that this Son et Lumiere approach would fuel all future concerts. Soon there was a reversal from the management, stating that these innovations were only to be used in two subsequent concerts for the rest of the season.

I was at one of these, the CBSO Youth Orchestra of all things, when the exposed solo trumpeter at the nerve-wracking opening of Mahler’s Fifth Symphony was forced to stand in the spotlight as he played the opening fanfare, and the concertgirl was somehow asked to stand while the rest of her colleagues sat at the first entrance of the violins. The young men passed their ordeal, and all who followed in this vast work, with aplomb, but the pressure placed upon them was cruel. It might work for jazz bands, but here it completely fell flat.

Around this time, Emma Stenning chaired an emergency meeting of CBSO subscribers at a pre-concert gathering at the CBSO Center at the bottom of Berkley Street. Their concerns were voiced, but apparently calmed, by the CEO and Lord Tony Hall, the Chairman of the Board, who had been appointed to the role, having left the BBC in November last year, just before the Vision announcement.

The mention of Vision evokes the sense that seasoned viewers should have sensed something brewing even from the start of the current season, with the hard rebranding of each concert’s program book cover as “CBSO Remastered,” with perhaps a subliminal message of new sweeps cleaned. . The prospect for the upcoming 2024-25 season is equally unsettling. For the first time in decades, the editorial was not written by a credentialed music writer and talks about the touch of joyous works like the Bruckner Nine and the Mahler Nine (music lovers will understand this anomaly). Ms. Stenning even went into print advertising for Dvorak’s New World Symphony with the music for the Hovis commercial and other such connections I used in my years as a school teacher.

There seemed to be conflicting messages about what the CBSO management was dangling in front of potential audiences with their slurp and snap lures, while assuring existing concerned audiences that the photo was only being “suggested” during applause breaks. The excrement really hit the fans during a performance of Benjamin Britten’s song cycle Les Illuminations, when internationally renowned tenor Ian Bostridge stopped proceedings because mobile phone flashes were disturbing his concentration.

This event was reported nationally, even on Radio 4’s Today programme, and Bostridge revealed that he had not been informed of this phone policy in advance. Ms. Stenning’s subsequent excuse was that the perpetrators were only reading their program notes (such intrusion of light is bad enough in itself).

Issues continued to wrangle, with occasional conflicting messages about slurp and snap. It should be emphasized that this policy was inconsistent with the stated policy of Symphony Hall City Hall as displayed when the Vision was first announced. It should also be pointed out that I know CBSO subscribers who renounce their devotion to the orchestra and go instead to the Halle in Manchester’s Bridgewater Hall, where notices strongly forbid any photography and drinking in the auditorium. Would you want someone to dump their beer on you as they walk to their seat in the middle of the aisle?

Another furor developed when one of the CBSO’s most loyal attendees, well-known to Birmingham concertgoers, complained about the distraction of a photographer emerging from behind his seat. Ultimately, CBSO management saw fit to issue a directive that people who continued to complain could be banned from concerts, or indeed any involvement with the orchestra. As recently revealed, Arts Council England has such a policy of threatening disgruntled customers.

Seasoned concertgoers are indeed canceling their memberships, and it would be interesting to know if these new policies succeed in attracting a younger audience. After more than 30 years of reviewing Symphony Hall concerts, I know that the average age profile of the audience has remained the same, with newer patrons replacing those who have passed away. As families grow and leave the nest, as mortgages are paid off, as more time becomes available after retirement, that’s when people start thinking about going to concerts. The means of razzmatazz of the new Vision mean nothing to them – and neither, I would suggest, do they mean anything to the younger ones who have more pressing concerns in their lives.

Far more likely to attract new audiences to the concert hall is the CBSO’s outreach program planned for August, when for a week the orchestra and its charismatic conductor Kazuki Yamada play free concerts at venues across the conurbation, including the Hawthorns, the Bullring and the Grand. Central, and New Street Station

There is a troubling subtext to the whole situation, and that is the implication that the performances in the auditorium are not enough to attract audiences. What does this do to player morale? Some anonymous contributions to Slipped Disc from within the ranks suggest that the players are discouraged and scared and that they think the management should put more thought into making up the financial shortfalls due to the bankruptcy of Birmingham City Council and not waste money on all the stages and lighting . tricks.

And there is the prominence. Emma Stenning comes from a successful theatrical background (she was a theater adviser at the much-maligned Arts Council of England), but she had no musical experience. Questions are being asked as to who appointed her as executive director of one of the world’s largest orchestras, and why is her continuation in the role not questioned?

Subscribers are upset and vote to refuse to renew their subscriptions. I detect an atmosphere of fear and resentment among the players, who continue to do their best to maintain the status of this great orchestra, which has been built so powerfully over half a century since Louis Fremaux. I’m sure the Musicians’ Union will do everything to support them in their concerns and I remember how strong the MU representation was under violinist Paul Smith and clarinetist Martyn Davies. Maybe he still is, but he gives the impression that he is mute.

I can’t imagine this sorry state of affairs ever existed in Principal Conductor/Executive Director partnerships like Rattle/Ed Smith and Oramo/Stephen Maddock. Of course, Emma Stenning has every right to respond, but I, along with all these disgruntled subscribers and countless loyal supporters, remain unapologetically convinced.