The scrapping of ambitious plans for the Centre for Music lays bare the place of the arts in austerity-torn Brexit Britain

By Martin Kettle

“When the Brexit deal was completed last year, London’s orchestras were left high and dry, along with thousands of other arts organizations. Worst of all for those who yearned for a new hall, Rattle himself pulled out, preferring to relocate to Germany, where they take music seriously and where Brexit is seen as the catastrophically foolish decision Rattle believes it to be.

Covid made things even more difficult. Halls of any kind were virus spreaders. Existing halls shut down. Orchestras struggled to find ways of functioning online, ran up huge debts, survived on faith, hope and charity, and sometimes not at all. The medium-term future of all concert halls is still a land without maps.”

Source: The Guardian New and Media