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Bramwell Tovey’s Rally Speech
By admin1 | May 24, 2008
Saturday 24th May, 2008
To Whom It May Concern:
For the last twenty years I have served as music director of two Canadian orchestras: the Winnipeg Symphony (from 1989 to 2001) and the Vancouver Symphony Orchestras (from 2000 onwards.) I was co-founder (with composer Glenn Buhr) of the Winnipeg Symphony’s New Music Festival which has taken place annually in January/February since 1992 and is broadcast on CBC Radio 2.
My concerns are with CBC Radio 2 as a public broadcaster on the FM network.
The Vancouver Symphony Orchestra performs for hundreds of thousands of British Columbians every year. In B.C. there is no alternative classical music radio station to CBC. The unilateral decision of Radio 2 directors to severely dilute the classical music programming emphasis on the network leaves hundreds of thousands of people without a classical radio choice.
CBC Radio 2 is in dire straits. Loyal listeners are abandoning ship. On Easter Sunday morning this year, a performance of J.S.Bach’s B minor Mass, by a European ensemble, was followed by a song from Johnny Cash. Such a lurch of programming would guarantee failure at any box office in the real world. This style of programming forms the core of the new schedules on CBC Radio 2.
Protesting financial problems, the CBC ‘dismantled’ its own celebrated 70 year old radio orchestra and dispensed with the services of its brilliant young conductor, Alain Trudel. This was an institution born of the need to promote Canadian talent and new music. A few days later the network managed to find several thousand dollars to print a self-congratulatory full page ad in the Globe and Mail newspaper, extolling itself in partnership with major record companies whose logos were part of the ad, even though none of them contributed one cent to the corporation’s costs.
Distinguished radio hosts have been let go without regard for any long standing relationships they enjoyed with listeners nationwide. Manitoba born Eric Friesen (who was originally poached by CBC from a public radio station in the US,) and Howard Dyck, distinguished host of Saturday Afternoon at the Opera for 20 years, are broadcasters whose knowledge base and dulcet tones guaranteed a welcome in Canadian homes across the country.
They were unceremoniously ditched with announcements laced in Orwellian doublespeak about ‘new pursuits’ and ‘tremendous service’. Most of their listeners were aware of the reality of the situation. The network is pursuing an ageist agenda that it seems to believe will seduce new listeners in the 35-50 year old age bracket, although exactly how that’s to be done remains to be seen.
Lifting management-consultant speak, CBC Radio talks of ‘phase one’ and with no realization of irony, ‘phase two’ as if such unexplained jargon could placate the increasingly disgruntled listenership. Constantly interrupting programmes (four times an hour in some cases) with self-promoting advertisements, the network mantra is endlessly chanted “Everywhere music takes you”. As a distinguished Canadian opera singer said to me recently, “It takes me to the off button.”
In seeking to control the debate about Radio 2 programming the network has ruthlessly controlled its own blogsites. In May 2007 I submitted a critical comment to a CBC blog concerning changes at Saturday Afternoon at the Opera. The comment was never posted. When I asked why, I received numerous telephone messages and then an email from a senior CBC manager:
“Let’s talk further about what we’re trying to achieve. I’d still be more than happy to post most of what you wrote, but do need to edit out one line, and want your approval to do that ….We’re not trying to censor you.” (sic)
Numerous independent web discussion and information sites have emerged, such as www.standonguardforcbc.ca and on Facebook, since it became evident that CBC wished to control the debate which was often highly critical of Radio 2’s direction.
CBC has obligations to Canadians that are clearly laid out in the corporation’s mandate. The lack of open public discussion has caused pointless friction between Radio 2 and its normally loyal audience. It is very good news that the Standing Committee on Canadian Heritage has decided to hold hearings across the country. These hearings will dignify the debate and compel the network to respond to criticism under scrutiny.
As the great Canadian violinist, James Ehnes pointed out in the Globe and Mail earlier this week, the CBC’s decision to programme classical music in the Fall between 10 am and 3 pm on weekdays seems particularly “inappropriate and misguided”. The VSO, for example, performs to 50,000 children every year and is about to open a state of the art music school in downtown Vancouver. Yet none of these children will hear any classical music on Radio 2 during the week since classical music will only be broadcast during school hours.
My youngest daughter is 7 years old. She has been learning the cello for two years. A few months ago she played “Twinkle, Twinkle Little Star” at a family party. Her tiny hands pressed on the strings as her bow found the sounding point on the instrument and she entered the world of self-expression afforded by the language of music. She dreams of playing in our local youth orchestra. Unfortunately, CBC Radio 2 has nothing to offer her and worse still, the network gives the impression that it couldn’t care less.
There is a widespread lack of confidence in the current direction of Radio 2. The new Fall schedules, presented as the future of the network, are barren and devoid of either detail or interest. It is time to take stock and re-engage the audience before the present policies dismantle what’s left of the network. A rejuvenated curatorial concept which would embrace, rather than alienate Radio 2’s core listeners could revitalise Canadian airwaves and breathe new life into the treasured legacies of Radio 2.
Bramwell Tovey
O.M., LLD, FRAM, FRCMT
Topics: Articles about CBC, Articles About CBCRO, Dispatches from Conductors, Dispatches from Musicians, Public Speeches | 3 Comments »
3 Responses to “Bramwell Tovey’s Rally Speech”
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May 25th, 2008 at 2:25 pm
Excellent speech. Well written, well said. I wish I could have heard it in person. I am very pleased you will be speaking to the Heritage Committee.
The music and broadcasters that I have been able to listen to for many years are extremely important to me – a refuge in my life. I want them back. I hate the changes that have been made to CBC Radio 2. I dread the changes that are coming. “Everywhere music takes you” is a revolting slogan. I too will be taken to the off button.
The orchestra is unique to North America and should be supported so that it can perform and record as it has done.
listener in small town BC
May 25th, 2008 at 7:46 pm
Bravo, Bramwell. Let’s keep the pressure on.
May 29th, 2008 at 4:26 am
Thank you Maestro, for taking an important public stand on this issue. Our children (particularly our 23 year old son) are avid listeners of CBC Radio 2 programming and are very distressed about the proposed programming changes. The “alternative” music that the CBC is proposing to play on Radio 2 is available on many other stations and can easily be programmed on Radio 3. I challenge the CBC to tell us where we can listen to classical music and really good jazz (other than in the middle of the day when most of us are at school or working). I encourage everyone to send in the paper petitions that are being circulated (as apparently online petitions are not being considered). There is a fair amount of irony in that – given that the CBC is apparently encouraging people to listen to music online. Unfortunately, I do not have a computer in my car or in my garden and I don’t know anyone who does.