Simon Heffer. Social Conservatism. Sibelius. D'Oyly Carte.

Arts & Ideas

BBC

Society & Culture

4.2 • 599 Ratings

🗓️ 28 September 2017

⏱️ 44 minutes

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Summary

Philip Blond, Eliza Filby, Tom Simpson and Simon Heffer join Rana Mitter to look back to Edwardian England and at conservative thinking now. New Generation Thinkers Eleanor Lybeck and Leah Broad share their research into touring opera and the links between Sibelius's music for theatre and his symphonies. Simon Heffer's latest book is called The Age of Decadence: Britain 1880-1914 Opera: Passion, Power and Politics opens at the Victoria and Albert Museum on September 30th. Tickets cost £19 and BBC Radio 3 is broadcasting the operas featured in the exhibition. The BBC Symphony Orchestra embark upon a cycle of Sibelius to mark 100 years since Finland gained independence. Catch up with tonight's performance of Sibelius 5 on the Radio 3 website. Eliza Filby is the author of God and Mrs Thatcher Philip Blond is the Director of think tank Res Publica. Tom Simpson is a New Generation Thinker and Associate Professor of Philosophy and Public Policy at the Blavatnik School of Government, University of Oxford You can find a discussion of The Union Jack and of George Dangerfield's The Strange Death of Liberal England in the Free Thinking collection of Landmarks on our website. Producer: Luke Mulhall.

Transcript

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0:00.0	Welcome back to the home of the oxymoron. Evil genius. He asked the newspaper to print his obituary early so he'd enjoy it. That's like hiding at your own funeral. Yeah, a big, great gig. I'm Russell Kane. Join me to weigh in on whether the biggest players in history are more evil or genius. Becoming that rich, I'd say that is some level of genius. It also helps that it's a long time ago, right?
0:23.3	It's like the podcast version of telling your kids the ice cream van plays music when it's out of ice cream.
0:28.8	Listen to evil genius on BBC Sounds.
0:32.1	This is the BBC.
0:35.6	Hello and welcome to Free Thinking.
0:38.1	We're diving into decadence with historian Simon Heffer.
0:41.6	Join us to peer at the grubby hem of a crinoline or two as we inspect the darker side of Victorian values.
0:48.0	And in the week of the Labour Party conference, free thinking exercises our freedom to think about conservatism.
0:54.2	We ask whether you can be right wingwing and right on at the same time,
0:57.7	and asking what does social conservatism mean in the era of data mining and dating apps?
1:03.8	But first, Radio 3 has just broadcasts Sakari Oromo and the BBC Symphony Orchestra
1:08.5	playing Sebelius' Fifth Symphony as part of a cycle of symphonies in this anniversary year for the independence of Finland.
1:15.7	It's a towering work that has the full force of Nordic nature running across its staves.
1:20.5	But what motivated Sibelius to write it?
1:23.5	New Generation Thinker Leah Broad is an expert on Scandinavian music.
1:27.4	So who better to ask the question, is Sibelius' fifth really an expression? New Generation Thinker Leah Broad is an expert on Scandinavian music.
1:33.6	So who better to ask the question, is Sibelius' fifth really an expression of Finnish nationalism?
1:46.8	Personally, I don't look at the Fifth Symphony as a nationalist work, because Sibelius does write works during this period, which can be more politically associated.
1:51.2	He writes a march for one of the political groups within Finland.
1:54.5	But he sees his symphonies in quite a different way.
1:58.9	He writes about the symphonies being a different type of composition to the rest of his music.
2:00.7	He says they're declarations of faith. And he's earlier
	...

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