In 2017 London’s Ealing Philharmonic orchestra visited Lucca and performed a concert in one of the city’s most resplendent churches, Santa Maria Corteorlandini. I describe that event with more details in my post at Ealing Comes to Lucca | From London to La Costa (and Lucca and Beyond) Part Three (wordpress.com).
Among the items played was Elgar’s superb ‘In the South (Alassio)’ tone-poem which encapsulates the colours and sensations of Italy from a glorious sunrise to the march of Roman legions to a shepherd’s evening song.
It’s not often one gets a dollop of Elgar in Lucca; it was most welcome and, as befits an English orchestra, played to perfection.
Unhappily the Ealing Symphony has never returned to Lucca and the inhabitants of the beautiful tree-lined walled city have been starved of British orchestral music despite the interventions of its own maverick conductor, Andrea Colombini.
This is all to do with Brexit which has had calamitous effects on the ability of British orchestras to tour in the European Union. There are four main areas the ghastly event has affected them:
- Travel and tourism.
Before Brexit orchestras were able to freely travel and perform in Europe without the need for visas and work permits. They could also extend their stay on the European continent without any bureaucratic problems. It’s all different now that Britain has, since 31 January 2020, become a third-world country. Visa and work permits have to be applied for requiring time and money. There is also the impact on the transport of musical instruments with checks at customs for everything from piccolos to double–bases to violin bows.
- Financial.
As the UK is now outside the EU’s single market import and export of musical instruments and sheet music has been adversely affected by trade regulations and tariffs adding significantly to musicians’ expenses. Furthermore, British musical organisations have lost EU funding opportunities for any educational projects and festival management.
- Orchestral recruitment.
Music is a universal language. Musicians are a universal resource. They join orchestras from different countries, especially European. Restrictions on musicians’ movement between the EU and the UK lead to recruitment problems and the availability of top class soloists and conductors. This clearly has affected orchestras’ and instrumental ensembles’ performance quality.
- Cultural Exchanges
This is perhaps the most disastrous result of Brexit on the world of music as it affects the youngest players. British persons between the ages of 16 and 26 are no longer eligible to join the European Union Youth orchestra which was once open to them when they were EU citizens.
Cultural exchanges and artistic collaborations have all been seriously affected by Brexit. Within the EU it’s possible for opera productions to travel from one EU country to another. Lucca’s Giglio theatre (now renamed Puccini-Giglio in the centenary of its most famous son’s death) exchanges with France and last year it received a visit from the Vienna Philharmonic: I Wiener Philharmoniker al Teatro del Giglio il 29 novembre (lavocedilucca.it) Imagine now trying to get any part of a Covent Garden season to travel abroad in the EU! It’s difficult enough for an eight-person band of musicians from that benighted country.
UK orchestras are trying to cope with their country’s disastrous decision to leave the EU – the only one to do so in the union’s seventy-year-old history. The whole arts field has been very badly affected as the philistine UK negotiators were far more interested in trading arrangements than in cultural ones. However, culture is economically as important to a nation as industry and farming and contributes so much revenue to its finances in areas like tourism and other services.
Recently I received this email from the director of an instrumental group I enjoy listening to and support.
“Yes, Brexit remains a problem for us. We haven’t toured to Europe (besides one festival in Malta and a couple of engagements in Germany for a UK promoter) since Brexit. The paperwork is onerous for a small charity and frankly we don’t get invited by EU promoters since the vote. We hope this will change!”
I just hope things may change a little after the UK’s general election this year. The predictable result will mean that that we shall have a Prime Minister who plays flute, recorder and piano, and was a Guildhall music scholar. The fact that he chose Beethoven’s ode to Joy’ – the European Union’s anthem – for one of his Desert Island Discs is a promising sign.
