Letter from London: Critic in the most positive sense

By JOE HARROP

Last weekend I interviewed Antony Hopkins - not the actor, but a namesake equally famous in his field. Antony Hopkins, CBE, has been described as "one of classical music's great explicators". An accomplished pianist, improviser, composer, lecturer, writer, teacher, conductor and broadcaster, Hopkins has greatly influenced the classical music experience for British listeners.

His early education consisted of piano study at the Royal College of Music - one of his classmates was NZSO legend Alex Lindsay. He went on to study composition with Michael Tippett, and made a name writing incidental music, many scores of which are still played today.

Hopkins is known for his insightful and entertaining broadcasts on Radio 3. These came about when a producer asked him, over a cup of tea in the BBC canteen, if there was anything he'd like to do on radio that he wasn't already doing.

Hopkins replied he'd like to have a half-hour programme on a Sunday evening talking about a piece being broadcast that week. Three months later a contract arrived to do exactly that. The programme Talking About Music played on and off for 36 years.

From these broadcasts came requests for a book along similar lines, and so emerged Talking About Symphonies, Talking About Sonatas, Talking About Concertos, and so on. Enjoyable and easily read, these books present analytical studies of works in a manner accessible to the music lover, as opposed to the music scholar.

Some of Hopkins' metaphors and modes of analysis seem dubious when put under the infrared light of heavy musicological scholarship. But his aim is firmly fixed on the everyday audience of the everyday classical musician.

The guiding hand of his lucid explanation does a service to performer and listener alike: a critic in the most positive and proactive sense. Hopkins makes a deep experience of classical music accessible without cheapening it.

Hopkins' ability to communicate the inner workings of classical music led me to question him on the issue of its reception. He believes it is a great pity that audiences of today are swamped with music and says this breeds complacency. The listener is so used to having classical music as "aural wallpaper" that when they have the opportunity to really listen, they fall short of creating their own inner meaning for the work. This will often occur despite enthusiasm for the live experience.

This issue is addressed in his book Understanding Music. He does not condemn elevator music, but states that "music that deserves respect should be treated with respect". He outlines three qualities in an ideal listener.

First, there's a response to sound (such as the recognition of a melody). Second, there should be a sense of period - being able to put oneself into the musical era of the time. One example is to truly appreciate the outrageous nature of Stravinsky's Rite of Spring. This quality is a difficult one, depending on the state of one's imagination. The third factor is the willingness to attend concerts, a concrete statement of intent and support.

But the book was written in 1979. The arrival of the CD has us living in a completely different musical society. Hopkins believes it is all too easy now, citing the wind-up gramophone as an example of the effort once required to listen to music.

I disagree. The modern ease of buying a good CD recording of a Haydn symphony and having it reverberate through the house is a great situation. It's what happens when you press the play button that counts.

This is where Hopkins can help. Even the seasoned concert-goer would find something new in his pages of advice and argument, born of common sense and experience.

Talking About Music has been broadcast and its format copied all over the world. At the end of an illustrious career, Hopkins remains a sprightly individual and a formidable conversationalist.

He speaks of music as an inexhaustible river - one can dip into it at any point and come out refreshed. It's a nice metaphor and it's obvious Hopkins doesn't mind getting his feet wet.