Alfred Brendel

As I type this, the great Alfred Brendel is playing Mozart on BBC2 - unusual eh? Not unusual that Brendel should play Mozart, of course - although sadly not in public anymore, since his farewell concert at the Musikverein in Vienna on the 18th December last. No, unusual, because BBC2 doesn't seem to pay much heed to cultural matters in general, yet alone broadcasting fairly esoteric stuff that dates back eight years or so. Is there a logic to this scheduling? In the rapidly fragmenting broadcast landscape, does it matter?

Yet another spin off from the DCD Media "empire" has just gone - well, sort of live, www.classicaltv.com promises much, but will presumably deliver little of contemporary relevance. This will be because, of course, there are so few music films being made, other than the statutory Proms broadcasts from the Beeb and a couple of "landmark" events a year from C4. Sky Arts does, of course perform miracles, but still with an almost exclusive reliance on back catalogue.

This mustn't turn in to yet another sad middle aged arts film maker's rant. (Nor indeed, be as badly constructed as the last sentence). The nub of it is simply this: in times gone by, artists of Brendel's stature would be sure of having their work recorded in sound and pictures, not least so that future generations could learn and be inspired. This still happens to a degree, but given that high class hi def video is so much easier and cheaper to produce now than when Brendel was at the height of his fame, should there not be more stuff being recorded and filmed?

I'm not nuts about simple performance relays -as anyone who has investigated my paltry oeuvre can attest - but I sure as hell am keen that the new Brendels don't get ignored in the scramble to maintain viewer ratings and set up Internet channels with the same old artists and repertoire. To be continued - I have to stop now 'cos this is the first blog I have attempted as a non smoker, (4 days only) and I'm starting to twitch!