Oh dear! I had hoped we were beyond the stage of narrow definitions of “classical music” and anything outside that realm on Radio 3 as “dumbing down”, but Richard Carter clearly disagrees (Letters, 27 September). I have a friend who thinks anything written after Bach and Mozart is scarcely worth listening to, but I’m delighted by the discovery of so much music, past and present, written by composers, often women, who I’ve never heard before, presented to us free by the much-maligned BBC.
My wife and I attended the Chineke! Orchestra’s Prom, including Duke Ellington’s wonderful version of the Nutcracker Suite. Would this be classed as dumbing down, and if not, where is the line drawn? Let’s put aside these quibbles and take some much-needed hope from the news that the prime minister is a music enthusiast, keen to reverse the cuts in state school support for the arts.
Roger Downie
Glasgow
