The Proms herald culture’s comeback – the doom mongers must not derail it

The fanfare greeting the unveiling of the Proms this week was jubilant, with a ‘hallelujah’ even thrown in by one arts correspondent. The 2021 season is no more spectacular than usual, but what has got the culture world in a spin is the fact that it is happening at all.

Although last year produced a hybrid Proms, with performances in a deserted Albert Hall streamed online, this summer we can expect the full monty, with actual real-life people filling the seats. 

It won’t be quite back to normal, with a slightly reduced programme of 52 rather than 75 concerts spread over six instead of eight weeks. And the presence of the Prommers remains in doubt unless all social distancing rules are lifted on June 21 and the capacity crowd of 5,000 is allowed into the hall.

But rejoicing is appropriate; after a desperately long drought, live music is back and no one, neither doom mongers nor scientific modellers, must be allowed to derail it. The arts sector has been particularly hard hit during the pandemic, with most venues closed for more than a year. 

The majority of performers are dependent on freelance work and if there are no plays and no concerts, there is no money. And because of the precarious nature of their work, many actors and musicians have not been entitled to apply to Covid furlough or self-employment support schemes.

Even established stars have suffered; streaming doesn’t really pay and the cancellations – sometimes of several years of pre-booked engagements – have been demoralising, not to say financially disastrous.

But it’s not only the artists who despaired when theatres and concert halls went dark; audiences have been bereft too. 

I was one of the lucky few to catch the Royal Ballet’s pared down production of The Nutcracker in a window of about ten days in December, a short-lived triumph for the company’s optimists. But the last time I went to a proper concert was in Edinburgh’s Usher Hall shortly before the first lockdown; it was, Friday March 13, auspiciously enough.

We probably knew that night, listening to Beethoven’s Emperor piano concerto, that the storm clouds were gathering. The crowd was thin and after the interval I noticed that the couple who had been sitting beside me in our half empty row, had either moved or left. And I wasn’t even coughing.

Then the curtains closed. We were told it would be for a month and it is now stretching into month 17 with no reopening in sight, in Scotland at least. Such an extended cultural cataclysm, that has deprived artists of their livelihood and arts lovers of their chief source of leisure and pleasure, has been met by ministerial complacency.

Nationwide, the fight to put the show back on the road has come mainly from champions within the business, most notably Andrew Lloyd Webber. He has much to lose, of course, but has tirelessly tried to gird the government into action, with his safety protocols, his mist spray and self-cleaning door handle innovations, and his theatre upgrades. “I want to lead the way and give others confidence to follow suit by getting major musicals back open,” he said in March. 

Simon Rattle is another who has shone a spotlight on the plight of performers and, with Tiggerish positivity (plus time on his hands), has made us believe the music will be back. David Pickard, director of the Proms, revealed how involved the maestro had been in programme meetings: “I’ve had more conversations with Simon Rattle directly than I’ve ever had in my life.”

Concert goers, musicians, singers and actors are raring to go, so let there be no chorus of disapproval from the usual suspects.

On the Today Show on Thursday, just after the Proms announcement had raised our hopes, Professor Neil Ferguson of Imperial College attempted to dash them, sounding an overly cautious note about a full reopening on June 21. 

But scientific consensus has shifted and there is a growing conviction that the vaccinated masses can mingle safely again. We are weeks away from declaring the pandemic over, said Professor Andrew Pollard, head of the Oxford Vaccine Group; “we can live with the virus”.

It is almost 75 years since that other great summer arts extravaganza, the Edinburgh Festival, was launched to help bring Europe together after the Second World War. “Here human relations have been renewed,” said the conductor Bruno Walter, reunited in August 1947 with the Vienna Philharmonic for the first time since the Anschluss.

Post-Covid, and post-Brexit, the healing power of artistic endeavour has never been more needed. The Proms this year will be peculiarly British, given the impossibility of getting round all the travel bans in time.

This in itself should be further cause for celebration. What a brilliant opportunity for our soloists – and orchestras, 29 out of 30 of which will be from the UK. The first night, with Vaughan Williams and Scotland’s James MacMillan included on the bill, will be an emotional moment, said Pickard.

One of those lined up for later, the soprano Sally Matthews, interviewed on Today, said singing in empty houses affected musicians’ performances and robbed them of their energy.

“We have missed the audiences,” she said. We missed you too – welcome back.