Is classical music a niche art for an ageing audience that will soon be gone? Plenty of people in the media think so, which is why its coverage is often relegated to obscure corners, turning it into a dutiful filler rather than something to celebrate. And when the head of Arts Council England defends the decision to kill off one of London’s two major opera houses – opining that it’s not needed, and that the future of opera lies in car parks and pubs – denizens of the classical music world need to hold their nerve.
And they should cheer themselves up by dropping in at the Wigmore Hall, in its discreet building behind Oxford Street. This hall is dedicated to small-scale events, but its standards of music-making are stratospherically high. Founded in 1901, it has always attracted the world’s top musicians, and its programme is anything but fossilized, having diversified of late into jazz and children’s concerts, as well as into outreach work with homeless people, and sufferers from dementia.
