Making the right noises

NEWS that the Glasgow Royal Concert Hall is to drop its International Classics Season need not be a musical Doomsday. Enter Svend Brown, who has a plan for the future of all the city's concert halls

NEWS filtered out last week that the Glasgow Royal Concert Hall (GRCH) is to dump its prestigious International Classics Season – a series that has seen regular visits from some of the world's A-list orchestras, from Valery Gergiev's Mariinsky Orchestra to the Vienna Philharmonic, Leipzig Gewandhaus and Dresden Staatskapelle.

The decision is fundamentally financial. With the prospect of millions required to keep the concert hall infrastructure from crumbling, and the looming deficits that would result, the question facing the hall's ruling body – now transferring from Glasgow Cultural Enterprise to the new Culture and Sport Glasgow – has been a no-brainer.

When a top-notch orchestra costs on average 70,000 to book (more like 120,000 for the Berlin Phil), when the ticket revenue is no more than a potential 40,000 (only when all 2,200 seats are sold), and when there are numerous slots to fill in the season, the level of public subsidy required is colossal.

A kneejerk reaction would be to condemn the decision as an act of cultural suicide. After all, it's taken the GRCH more than 15 years to build support for the series, and also to build up relationships with the world's orchestral elite. We shouldn't ignore the tenacity of former GRCH director Louise Mitchell – now in charge of Glasgow's Unesco City of Music office – in delivering that.

But let's not ignore either one or two realities. Levels of attendance have been sporadic – not every visitor is "must see"; and there have been instances, such as last month's visit by Murray Parahia and the Orchestra of St Martin in the Fields, where direct clashes with resident orchestras have severely divided box-office loyalties.

To dilute the series with less-prestigious names – dubious east European orchestras whose names sound suspiciously similar to more salubrious outfits but are clearly not – would be like importing fake Levis. Quality counts, otherwise confidence in the product quickly wanes.

So, almost 20 years on from the opening of the GRCH, maybe the time is right to reappraise the roles of Glasgow's magnificent suite of major classical music venues – the refurbished City Halls and Old Fruitmarket have significantly added to the collection – and to create an artistic vision that takes account of current needs and aspirations, and is more holistic in its presentation of classical music.

Enter Svend Brown, who has been appointed acting artistic director of the venues. As a consultant, he recently spearheaded the city's successful Unesco City of Music bid; he subsequently extended his consultancy services to formulate a new way forward for the money-stricken halls; added to which, the former BBC music producer has a solid track record in making artistic ventures work – as founder and director of the amazingly successful East Neuk Festival, and as artistic director of Perth's new Concert Hall.

His new vision for Glasgow's concert halls centres on developing festivals that introduce new repertoire, new artists, broader musical genres and, most notably, a review of the classical international series and the possible development of the GRCH as a proper home to the RSNO.

The seeds of all of that are already sown. Look at the embryonic chamber concert series gathering pace, albeit slowly, in the City Halls. And do we really need a full-blown series of visiting orchestras, when the past decade has seen a significant upsurge in the musical fortunes of the city's resident bands?

The RSNO, under the meaty vision of its chief executive, Simon Woods, now attracts a more glamorous array of international guest artists, and the orchestra itself has shaken up its attitude.

The BBC SSO now has a phenomenal trio of musical directorship in chief conductor Donald Runnicles, principal guest Ilan Volkov and now Andrew Manze as associate guest, and its move from its previous West End studios to the City Halls has resulted in significantly increased public concert activity.

Against that, and the weekly visit from the Edinburgh-based Scottish Chamber Orchestra, the need to import anything other than the odd celebrity orchestra is arguably much less relevant than before.

Indeed, there's a lot of sense in Brown's insistence that Glasgow, rather than simply buying in international prestige (international orchestral series have perhaps become little more than a quick and easy default solution to justifying the existences of new concert halls in UK provincial cities), could be much more creative.

"Why are we not creating the kind of imaginative programming you find at London's South Bank, or the Barbican, or even New York's Carnegie Hall?" asks Brown.

He has a multi-point plan that revolves around creating mini-residencies and mini-festivals, collaborations with Glasgow's own orchestras, making the best use of the venues and filling in genre gaps in the city's classical music programming. First, he says, putting on expensive one-off orchestral concerts means "putting all our eggs in one basket".

"I'd rather we generated relationships with just one or two visiting orchestras, where they became involved in big orchestral or choral weekends," he adds.

"But there's so much else Glasgow is missing out on that ought to be there," he argues. "We could easily promote five or six weekend-long festivals each season, such as a piano fest, a contemporary music festival, or one focusing on early music. And as a venue, we just don't have a track record for commissioning new work or major residencies." Brown is already in talks with a leading string quartet about a major residency next season.

"Look at what the Carnegie Hall now does," he says. "Ensembles there get to perform in the world-famous hall, but are then expected to give concerts out in the wider New York community. We can offer the same deal."

There are, of course, major implications arising from such a major strategic shake-up. Consider the fact that many events in the GRCH's classical music programming have already shifted from the main hall to the various performance spaces in the City Halls. Compared with most European concert halls (typical capacity about 1,500), the GRCH is too big and the acoustics less perfect. Where will the bulk of classical activity end up?

But that's just part of so many strategic questions that need to be asked as Glasgow gets to grips with several turbulent years of exciting venue and orchestral development, all of which has happened simultaneously and with volcanic momentum.

The economic climate may have precipitated the current review, but it certainly focuses the mind. In truth, this doesn't need to be a classical music Doomsday. The only way that will happen is if the bean-counters ignore the sound artistic advice that Brown is offering.

CRITIC'S CHOICE

Robin Ticciati conducts the Scottish Chamber Orchestra, City Halls, Glasgow, 11 December; Usher Hall, Edinburgh, 12 December

ROBIN Ticciati, 26, makes an adventurous official debut as chief conductor of the Scottish Chamber Orchestra with a programme that combines symphonies by Henze and Brahms, and features the glamorous mezzo soprano Magdalena Kozena in songs by Mahler.

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