Saturday 18 December 2021

Nigel Kennedy v The Bleeb Bleeb C


Richard Morrison's Times review of Nigel Kennedy's autobiography made me chuckle, especially the violinist's run-ins with the BBC. I remembered the earlier spats but didn't know about this one:
Later Kennedy caused friction at the BBC’s Last Night of the Proms [back in 2013] where he appeared alongside two formidably woke American women: the conductor Marin Alsop and the singer Joyce DiDonato (neither of whom Kennedy names). Irritated that DiDonato had declared that she would be dedicating her performance “to transgender people around the world” (“WOT D FUKK?? WHY?” Kennedy asks, not unreasonably), the violinist announced at his rehearsal with the BBC Symphony Orchestra that he was dedicating his performance “to all the forgotten and displaced heteros”.

“As I finished my sentence,” he writes, “my eyes rested on the front of the viola section. I saw two very unamused women glowering at me as if heterosexuals shouldn’t be allowed to be recognised or celebrate anything. The conductor also seemed rather unsupportive.”

I bet she did. “The Bleeb Bleeb C [sic] won’t make shows with me any more,” Kennedy observes. “Jimmy Savile was OK, but apparently I’m not.”

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