Live broadcasts are due to be cut by 50% next year, but at what cost?

Limelight reported on 24 November “The number of concerts recorded will be slashed by a massive 50%, with just 300 performances due to be recorded over the next two years verses the 600 concerts recorded during the previous two years. Broadcasts of live performances currently account for 17 hours of Classic FM’s weekly output.” This means ABC Classic FM’s loyal listeners will lose around 8-9 broadcast hours of Australian-performed music each week.

Beyond the mere air-time being cut, what else will we lose?

Events like the 30 November broadcast of the fine new Australian opera by Iain Grandage and Alison Croggan, The Riders (2014), inspired by Tim Winton’s great novel is a prime example. Many thousands of people will have heard this groundbreaking new work on Classic FM radio (and it is still up on Listen Again), meaning this new work obtained a reach far beyond that which could be achieved in the theatre.

Also pertinent would be British composer Max Richter’s new composition Vivaldi’s Four Seasons Recomposed (2012), which he played with the 22-piece Wordless Music Orchestra, an outstanding New York electro-acoustic group, in Melbourne...