Review - Classic Brit Awards 2011

The annual Classic Brit Awards are a reflection and celebration of the critical and commercial successes within the classical music industry. For me, it is also an opportunity to see some of the greatest names in the industry perform on stage – for a fraction of what it would cost in an Opera House.

Now in its twelfth year, the awards ceremony itself has evolved not only with its change of name (formerly known as the Classical Brit Awards) but also in the areas of music it covers. Previously this ceremony had been exclusively for classical music and opera – and in fact any album up for consideration for an award had to be at last 60% classical in content – now the category has been expanded to include musical theatre and orchestral music written for soundtracks. The aim being to appeal to a wider section of music fans and hopefully make classical music more accessible.

All Angels

This would probably explain therefore, the high number of what are termed Classical Crossover artists that appeared and performed on the night. They are artists who combine both classical and popular music in their performances and who appeal to a broad cross section of the audience.

Il Divo

Whilst I enjoyed many of the performances on the evening; particularly Alfie Boe & the cast of Les Miserables, Anne-Sophie Mutter and Eric Whitacre and the Eric Whitacre singers, I would have liked to have seen more classical and operatic performers take to the stage. Last year’s awards were heavily dominated by the world of opera with performances from Dame Kiri Te Kanawa, Rolando Villazon, Angela Gheorgiu and Bryn Terfel which for me was a dream come true. This year, the programme appeared to be more Crossover and I feel that a more balanced programme between the two genres would have been better received.

Part of the problem within the classical music industry, at least in my opinion, is that the industry itself want to appeal to as broad an audience as possible and thereby sell more albums, but the purists within the industry want to maintain the exclusivity of the classical and operatic genres and see the introduction of crossover artists as effectively dumbing it down. It was interesting to note though, that in the past three years when I have attended, the hall has been completely sold out. This year there were still many seats available in the higher levels. Now whether this is due to the economical climate, or the fact that the awards have changed to appeal to a wider audience is difficult to say, but for me, this year it lacked the splendour and excitement of former years.

That’s not to say that the evening wasn’t enjoyable as I did enjoy it immensely. I arrived in time to see many of the artists arrive on the red carpet and enjoyed watching the reaction of both the crowds and artists as they took to the red carpet. One criticism of this would be that some of the artists didn’t spend time with the fans and yet again, the placement of the Classic Brits backdrop meant that many fans had an obscured view of the artists arriving. What I found interesting is that whilst all eyes were on the red carpet, just behind the crowds were other musicians just walking up and down almost unrecognised. I took the opportunity to talk to my friend, tenor Thomas Spencer Wortley who was attending the awards for the first time. Thomas is relatively new to the music scene but is incredibly talented and with any luck will be nominated in the Best Newcomer category next year. As we chatted we started our own alternative commentary to the arrivals on the red carpet which proved quite entertaining and if the organisers are short of people to interview next year, we’d be more than happy to oblige! I also had the opportunity to meet Gareth Malone, the genius behind projects such as The Choir. Gareth has also attended for the last four years and yet despite his huge success on TV, mingled happily with the crowds and was a delight to talk to being as he is genuinely charming and funny. He and Thomas were sitting on the same table during the awards and I would dearly loved to have joined them for I’m sure the conversation would have been highly amusing all evening.

Alfie Boe arriving at the awards.Photo courtesy of Hilary Sargeant

Gareth Malone & I watching the arrivals on the Red Carpet

My own seat though afforded an excellent view of the stage and the orchestra. There is nothing quite like the sound of a live orchestra and The London Chamber Orchestra under the superb direction of Christopher Warren-Green performed spectacularly. Indeed at times it felt like I was part of the orchestra I was sat so close, and the sound that we experience d was truly spectacular. It was also a thrill to be so close to the stage and to see the emotion and effort that each singer or performer put into their performance. You could see the nerves of some and yet also the excitement and anticipation of others. Thanks to a technical fault following the performance of Alfie Boe and the Les Mis cast we also got to hear their reaction as their mics stayed on and we heard the backstage shouts and squeals of “that was so much fun”, “amazing”, “let’s do it again”. This provided a huge response from the audience who had also clearly enjoyed their medley of songs from the show.

As mentioned before, the highlight for me was Anne-Sophie Mutter’s performance of Vivaldi’s Four Seasons (Winter).She seemed to play so effortlessly and we watched in wonder as her bow seemed to fly over the strings, barely touching them and yet producing such an amazing sound. Eric Whitacre and his singers provided a more calming and almost ethereal performance with their rendition of “Sleep”. They captivated the audience’s attention so that at the end of the performance you could almost hear a pin drop. Alfie Boe and the Les Mis cast were another triumph and received possibly one of the biggest cheers of the evening with their medley of hits from the popular musical. Alfie’s rendition of”Bring Him Home” always manages to bring a tear to my eye and that night was no exception. Their finale in which they sang “One Day More” also gave me goose bumps as their performance really brought out the beauty of the music and the poignancy of the lyrics.

The cast of Les Mis

The final award of the evening was the Outstanding Contribution to Music awarded posthumously to the late John Barry OBE. John was well known for the number of film scores he composed and as a tribute, artists and orchestra performed some of his better known tracks. Katherine Jenkins and Alfie Boe sang the beautiful “Here’s to the Heroes” from Dances with Wolves which was quite fitting and a perfect tribute to the man and his genius.

Katherine Jenkins & Alfie Boe perform Here's to the Heroes

The show ended with the incomparable Dame Shirley Bassey who sang the theme tune to the James Bond film Goldfinger. Judging by the audience reaction as she took to the stage, this was the one they had been waiting for. It seems incredible that this lady doesn’t seem to age and can still belt out the tune with as much power and glamour as she did the first time she sang it. She seemed to enjoy every minute just as much as the audience and it certainly ended the evening on a high note.

Dame Shirley Bassey performing Goldfinger

It seemed to be over all too soon and whilst many of the artists made their way to the after show parties, there was just time for me to catch up with the Spencer-Wortley brothers and get Thomas’s take on how the evening had gone before heading back to the hotel.

It was a wonderful evening and I look forward to next year when hopefully there will be a more balanced mixture between all of the music they are trying to promote and celebrate.

(Thanks to Hilary Sargeant for the photographs)