Amid the voluminous tributes to the BBC’s late creative director, we ought to point out that Alan Yentob knew nothing about classical music and disliked to be reminded of its existence.
Although he once cleared the BBC2 schedules for Angela Gheorghiu’s debut at Covent Garden in La traviata and was prepared to consider major anniversaries, the flow of classical music and opera documentaries all but dried up on his watch. For Yentob, classical music was an irrelevance, insufficiently chic. He made a fawning show about the ephemeral prodigy Alma Deutscher and another about opera divas. That was about it.
For a while Melvyn Bragg kept the flame alive on the South Bank Show until ITV extinguished his show. The damage to the art forms was severe.
BBC bosses firewalled the Proms and Fadio 3 ourside his zone of influence.
It took years for the BBC to be minded of its responsibilities and, slowly, to repair the Yentob cataract. Yentob, who died this weekend, has been praised justly for imaginative commissions in the fields of contemporary art, stand-up comedy, rock stars and festivals. His door was open to new ideas. Classical music was his most notable omission.
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