Classical music fans rally across Canada
You could say the gloomy weather reflected the mood of more than 200 classical music enthusiasts in Toronto who turned out to protest the upcoming changes to CBC Radio Two’s schedule.
The Globe and Mail’s culture columnist Russell Smith — who argued for the shuttering of CBC Radio Two in column — spoke out against “propaganda” being used in the discussions.
While demonstrators were gathered, Toronto transit vehicles drove by with ads reading “Attention CBC Radio Two listeners” — a promotion for a local classical music radio station.
The Toronto rally was one of several across Canada. Here are some photos from the Vancouver event and another Toronto speech.
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We had a taste of what could happen if the CBC really was serious about giving voice to different kind of music being produced in Canada. Sunday night the Studio de musique ancienne de Montréal (SMAM), the Société de musique contemporaine du Québec (SMCQ) and jazz singer Karen Young gave a terrific performance of music written between the 1300s and 25 years ago.
The theme was Eclectic Paths/Passages The concert began with a Requiem by medieval composer Johannes Ockeghem and ended with Karen Young, two soloists from SMAM’s excellent choir, a bassist and percussionist doing jazz riffs on music by Guillaume de Machaut from about 1360. In between were two pieces by Quebec composer Claude Vivier who died at 35 in 1983.
If the CBC were to broadcast more things like this concert which bring together different tendencies and traditions, I don’t think anyone would complain. We heard excellent performers throw themselves into interesting music, illuminating points in common and glorious differences. But was the CBC there? No.
Howard Knopf explores the slimy underbelly of CBC politics in the commercial music world… And promises more to come!
–Bob.
Times change. Tastes change.
Apparently I didn’t understand the edit function.
Would the bus have been from Classical 96? If so, my personal opinion of that radio station is that it plays an extremely limited repertoire and does not explore the variety that is ‘classical’ music in the manner that CBC does. Also, note that it is a local station and only broadcasts in south-central Ontario. If you don’t live there -or have reliable, cheap, high-speed internet, it seems that you’re out of luck even for that.
Personally, if it is going to become harder for me to explore the classical music genre on the radio, I am now more likely to turn to non-Canadian sources on the internet than I had been in the past.
I hope that Radio 2, in trying to be something to many does not become nothing to many.
Why does this entry end with a comma? Was it unfinished?