Mahler’s Seventh Symphony was originally intended as the sole work in this evening’s concert. Such, however, was the outrage over the threat to so many of the UK’s classical music ensembles and companies that the LSO invited the now reprieved BBC Singers to perform Poulenc’s Figure humaine as well, as a gesture of solidarity.
Speaking after the interval, Simon Rattle protested how “the Arts Council’s swingeing cuts in November” and “the proposed vandalism by the BBC” have affected the musical life of this country, angrily inveighing the “political ignorance of what this artform entails” and the “stubborn pride in that ignorance” on the part of those who have wreaked such havoc.
