Classic FM in The UK

For the last couple of months, I have been listening to Classic FM in the UK. Besides the great music they play, their presenters are across the board great to listen to as well. What I have noticed though have been some trends in the classical music that have been quite surprising. Of course, they are just personal observations!

The first amazing thing that I noticed was how many top notch orchestras are now playing in the UK such as Liverpool and Birmingham. And listening to the radio, other countries certainly seem to have a similar growth when one listens to excellent recordings from across the European Union countries. Years ago, if one country supported one first class orchestra it was quite something. What this means is that the uptake of music as a career has grown hugely. The level of skills required to play in an orchestra are not far removed from taking up a solo career. With other words, skills levels have to be extremely high and huge amounts of work and dedication are required to achieve that.

The next thing I noticed, not having lived in Europe for many years, was the number of unbelievably great soloists from such countries as China and Japan, an incredible tenor, Florez, from Peru and notable ones from Argentina and Mexico as examples. The talent pool has crossed borders, which is wonderful for classical music.

Classic FM runs an audience driven Hall of Fame chart which happens once a year. Another noticeable trend, looking at the results, showed that the composers in the top eleven are still predominantly old school such as Beethoven, Mozart, Bach. Where are the living ones? True, one tends not to get that famous while still alive, still. And none of them were Americans.

A sort of answer was presented on Classic FM recently. A modern composer was interviewed and one of the questions was, what trends in modern classical music were showing up. The answer surprisingly was that many modern composers are working with their own sounds. They are not writing for orchestras anymore. Having access to digitally generated sounds obviously has influenced the art of composing. Previously most composers used the piano to 'hear' their work.

There are obviously some modern composers getting airplay, one of which is Karl Jenkins and his music is great. He did start his career as a jazz and jazz-rock musician. That influence really shows. What it does mean though, and something I have noticed with other current classical composers is that there is a 'pop' music influence in that percussion gets a far bigger role to play than in previous classical periods.

And the final surprise has been that soundtracks to the movies have made it big into the classical repertoire and seems to be something that provides a very lucrative income to symphony orchestras. One could say that due to the lack of modern classical music, the movie industry has stepped into the void providing excellent musical scores. In a way, the idea of a leitmotif is relevant in symphonies, operas or movies. When the hero is in the frame, a similar repetition of a few music notes supports that.

There are bound to be other trends in the classical music industry that I haven't noted. For instance a lesser one has been the cross over of pop artists such as Paul McCartney and Sting to try their hand at interpreting classical music whether by writing or playing. Not sure if what I have heard of these efforts so far, is really mind blowing, but I certainly applaud the effort and a spin off is that classical music is finding a larger audience. No wonder Classic FM just won the UK Radio Station of the year award at the UK Radio Oscars. Well done.

Anja Merret lives in Brighton, UK. Her personal blog http://www.anjamerret.com allows her to voice opinions on issues that interest her and observations she makes.

She has started a new blog http://www.pinkblocks.com that deals with observations on self development and personal power. Her recommendation for self help tools may be found on http://www.anjamerret.blogspot.com

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