Editorial: Don't fiddle with classical music

Max Hole, of Universal Music, is the latest luminary of the arts world to argue that classical music needs to make itself more attractive in order to reach beyond its traditional audience. Among his ideas are that orchestras should get out more and that conductors should be better dressed, drop their batons and address the audience. We remain to be convinced.

Classical music, like any other sort, deserves to be treated on its merits, without the addition of discordant bells and whistles. If some think that boring, so be it. As for conductors dressing more racily, quite enough of them in our view have already swapped white tie and tails for trendier garb, and they should desist from talking at all costs. Conductors' speechifying at The Last Night of the Proms only shows how right they were to prefer the language of music.