A CBC without an orchestra can be sound step for Radio 2

This is from the Star. Terauds lauds Baird's defence of CBC management's decision. Yet Terauds never bothers to find out if as Baird seems to suggest that Radio Symphonies are archaic remnants of the past no longer necessary in the internet age. Did Terauds the Critic bother to critique Baird's defence. No. Not at all. I just Googled "radio symphonies". There are oodles of them and not just in large countries such as Russia but in cities and regions. For example in Germany there are: The Stuttgart Radio Symphony, The Cologne Radio Symphony, and the South West German Radio symphony. There are also many in smaller countries: The Danish Radio Symphony, The Slovak Radio Symphony, Austrian Radio Symphony, Finnish Radio symphony, Netherlands Radio Symphony. So I guess we are too small and poverty stricken to afford one CBC Radio Symphony.



A CBC without an orchestra can be sound step for Radio 2

Mar 29, 2008 04:30 AM
John Terauds
Classical Music Critic

Don't mess with what we know and love – especially if it's our music.

We treat our radio stations like an infant who has grown attached to her first teddy bear.

CBC Radio 2 has for years been the favourite plush toy for the country's classical music listeners.

Like many a teddy, our radio network has lost its eyes somewhere along the way. The fur is stained and matted. The ripped fabric around the neck has let some stuffing spill out.

It's not pretty. But no matter. Radio 2 is ours and we're not letting go.

Yesterday, our cash-strapped national public broadcaster announced that it is disbanding the 70-year-old CBC Radio Orchestra this fall. This comes on the heels of significant changes to Radio 2 programming that include moving much Toronto radio production to Vancouver. CBC Records is also closing its classical division.

Wails of anguished reaction are already reverberating across Canada.

It's the dumbing down of Canadian culture. Our composers will no longer have an outlet. Classical-music lovers will be denied their favourite tunes. Children will never be introduced to the joys of Mozart and Beethoven.

Toronto-based Canadian Music Centre executive director Elisabeth Bihl was one of the louder voices of alarm yesterday, citing the important role Radio 2 and the CBC orchestra played in helping foster new music in the country.

Asked how many new compositions were commissioned by the CBC orchestra in recent years, Bihl initially had no idea but, in a later call, gave last year's number as 18.

It's like that with the rest of us. Shocked by news of losing yet another oasis of familiarity in our daily lives, we forget to think about the precise value this institution may have, other than making us forget the inexorable passage of time.

I'm willing to bet it's not what is being changed that scares us most. It is change itself – in any form.

In a conversation yesterday afternoon, CBC Radio 2 producer Matthew Baird, who will join the migration of classical music production from Toronto to Vancouver in the coming months, was eloquent in his defence of CBC management.

Baird explained that it costs about $400,000 to produce an eight-concert CBC Radio Orchestra season in Vancouver. Given musicians' pay scales, "this is three to five times more than it costs to do remote broadcasts" – from a concert hall.

So, instead of broadcasting to the entire country from a Vancouver base, Radio 2 can beam concerts from any venue from St. John's to Toronto to Victoria for a fraction of the expense – while still doing justice to our vast geography.

What's wrong with that?

Radio orchestras were set up 70 years ago because it was too difficult to move around the big, heavy analogue broadcasting equipment – not because there was something inherently better in having an orchestra in your studio.

The whole notion of a national broadcaster, linking people otherwise isolated from a national culture, needs to be more flexible in the Internet age. After all, the Australian Broadcasting Corporation, National Public Radio and the BBC are only a few mouse clicks away.

In the same way, the CBC is now a portal to Canadian culture for the rest of the world, not just ourselves.

Wouldn't it be nice if our portal truly reflected the country – so our rich and ever-regenerating indie pop and rock artists and burgeoning world and world-fusion musicians can get equal airtime (and bandwidth) with the venerable Toronto and Montreal symphony orchestras?

That's where Radio 2 is going – while still guaranteeing listeners several hours of classical programming every day. We should be proud – not angry – that the CBC is willing to take this kind of risk.