Hungarian Musicians, Indian Curries, German Composers & “Fundamental British Values”

We’ve been away again! What an  exciting life we do lead! This time it was up to Manchester – to be more precise Hale Barns which is adjacent to Altrincham on the Cheshire border. The reason for the visit ? – our daughter, Kate, was playing in a concert and it seemed a good excuse to enjoy the concert and see the grandchildren.

The Vivaldi ensemble gets
under way

Kate plays in a string group, “The Vivaldi Ensemble” (http://www.vivaldiensemble.co.uk/),  and has done so since she moved to Manchester over ten years ago. It’s a hobby. At one stage Kate considered playing professionally but in the end decided that she would prefer to keep  her music as a hobby and a love rather than a wage earner.

Rehearsal night

I have long been of the belief that the musical (as with the sporting) health of a nation is better judged by what happens at the "grassroots" rather than in the big stadiums and concert halls. In football our stadiums are packed every week and millions watch the big named millionaires who play the game at that level. But our national team is incapable of winning anything which says much about what we are doing for our young players. And so too with music - except the opposite is true. Many of our young musicians are famous throughout the world and this reflects, I believe, the good work, fine teaching and high level of interest that is shown in the church halls and village halls of the country. And for me, especially as I get older, I find infinitely more pleasure out of watching "amateurs" play music or sport than big name professionals. In music this is especially true since most baroque music was written for the small, intimate audience - not the large concert hall. Friday night was superb example of this.

It was a lovely concert – held in the lovely Church of All Saints, Hale Barns (http://www.allsaintshalebarns.org/), the area where my daughter lives. It was  especially  enjoyable for me since it was wholly baroque music and contained one of my favourite pieces -  a little known and even less played piece by  Telemann (a contemporary of J.S. Bach and in his day more popular than Bach!). It was the Festive Suite – “Festliche Suite in A major (TWV 55A5)”. Indeed this piece opened the evening and as I sat there listening I felt a warm glow since I had brought this piece to my daughter’s attention (she didn’t know it previously) and had suggested that it would be a nice piece to play at a future concert – and there it was, so I felt a kind of "ownership"!

A picture from a few years ago
with Rudolf Botta  conducting.
The concert was in a tiny but
beautiful church in the Forest of
Bowland - north Lancashire 

We received a very warm welcome from the Vicar - Fr Clarke - and as I sat there listening it made me think. Firstly, here was the “big society” at work – local people using their own skills and enthusiasms to provide something positive for the local community – and in the process raising money for worthwhile ventures. Our PM and his Community Minister, the illustrious  erudite (I use the term loosely!) Eric Pickles – “Big Eric”, would be proud! The trouble is that we don’t need a government minister to claim it as their big idea – it’s what ordinary  people do quite naturally and have been doing so for generations! The lady who sat at the side of me - who was quite unknown to me -  turned and whispered to me in one of the breaks between movements "I was at the Bridgewater Hall last week - this is much better!"

The orchestra was founded over 40 years ago by a refugee from the Hungarian uprising in 1956 – Rudolf Botta. Botta fled his native country and settled in Manchester where he taught violin and viola at the Royal Manchester College of Music. Indeed if you “google” Botta’s name you will find a wealth of accomplished and established musicians who mention him as their mentor whist they studied at the Royal College.

Rudolf Botta set up his Vivaldi Orchestra as a vehicle for his students to play in and over the years they gradually assimilated other musicians such as my daughter. They played for charity events, in churches and the like. Botta was the archetypal middle European –  heavily accented , warm, with a sincere voice, bow tie and velvet jacket. He could have been mistaken as a maker of cuckoo clocks. A lovely, gentle old man when we knew him when my daughter first joined the orchestra . You could just imagine him as a young man playing his fiddle in some Viennese or Budapest cafe in the fading years  of the Austro-Hungarian Empire!

But with the Hungarian uprising of 1956 he fled to England – and brought his talents with him. He died in the late 1990s and  the orchestra was taken over for the next decade by his musically gifted daughter and son in law and now they too have retired. And in the last year or so my daughter and her friends from that orchestra have taken it over – now calling it the “Vivaldi Ensemble” – keeping the flame alive and still retaining the essence, feel, aspirations and ambitions of Rudolf. I hope that if Rudolf is somewhere up in the clouds playing his violin or conducting some angelic string group that he will also be listening to what is going on in south Manchester   and will approve of what they are doing in his name.  I’m sure  he will!

Saturday's Programme
cover - double click
to enlarge

And as I sat listening and thinking  I thought how much this man, this Hungarian refugee, had given to his adopted country – his musical skills which have influenced and benefitted the generations of the  talented young musicians he taught at the Royal College; the interest and opportunities and friendship that he provided for recreational musicians like my daughter; the churches and charities which have benefitted from the funds they have raised; the musical life of the locality and indeed the wider nation and the thousands of people over the years who have simply sat and listened and enjoyed – as we did on Friday night.

And I thought what a wonderful thing it is that an event in the middle of Europe - the Hungarian Uprising - half a century ago should still be having small repercussions in Manchester half a century later. I was a school boy at the time of that revolution and yet here I was, half a century later watching my own daughter take part in something that was in effect born of that far off uprising. I can vividly remember as an eleven year old looking at the black and white newspaper pictures of Russian tanks lumbering into Budapest  and each news broadcast giving the latest news. And even more vividly, I can remember one name from the period - Ferenc Puskas the great Hungarian footballer - then captain of the the greatest team in the world - Hungary. Puskas was abroad with his team at the time of the uprising and refused to go back to his homeland and there was much news comment as to whether he would be forced to return and whether his family would "get out" of troubled Hungary. As with Rudolf Botta all ended happily and Puskas found a new life in a new country and became the supreme footballer in the great Real Madrid side which dominated football for the next generation or so. Never, as an eleven year old, did I ever think that almost sixty years later I would sit in churches and village halls in and around Manchester and listen to  concerts where someone else who had been part of that uprising would be prominent in my life and would be very much part of my own daughter's life. What a very small world we have - and how intertwined we are. How dependent we are on each other - and how easily can the past return to haunt, move or touch us!

And as I sat and listened to the strains of Telemann, Corelli. Vivaldi and Handel drift through the church   I sadly thought that in this day and age, as our government cuts back on immigration into our country and increasingly requires potential immigrants to prove their usefulness, language skills and  potential economic contribution, perhaps Rudolf would not now be admitted, as an itinerant musician with no immediate job prospects! Indeed, only this morning I read in the Guardian that at the Labour Party Conference this week (and they should be ashamed)  the Party is intent on “wooing white working class voters” and  a way of doing  this, apparently, is to  “ration” housing so that “before you get something out you have to have put something in” – this, according to MP  Margaret Hodge, is the way forward.

The evening's programme -
double click to enlarge

Mmmm, presumably, if the innkeeper in Bethlehem had adopted that viewpoint then perhaps I would not have been sitting in "All Saints Church" on Friday evening.  No, no matter how much I try, I don't remember the bit in the Bible where the innkeeper turns to Joseph and Mary and says "Sorry mate, stables are rationed this year and you're new to this town. You've just wandered in on your donkey, no  money, no job prospects and I can see your wife's expecting. Typical! You're all the same you immigrants bringing your kids. We don't want your kids to become a drain on our resources - filling up school places, wanting nurseries, filling up beds in our maternity units, taking jobs from us locals. And you say that you're a carpenter - we're up to our eyes in carpenters in Bethlehem. We've got more Nazarene carpenters here than Polish plumbers. I've already had half a dozen shepherds here today - wandering around the place with a load of sheep, blocking the roads and causing traffic jams - looking for stars they said! And then just before you turned up three blokes on camels - called themselves wise men. All wanting accommodation and feeding. I ask you! Mind you these blokes were all right -camels weighed down with gold and posh scents. Servants too. Like kings they were. I reckon they were bankers, or venture capitalists - they can come any time and put some money into the town. I gave them the best dining room, threw out the ordinary punters. I asked if they'd like to put a bit of money into my business, help me expand. With this recession I can't get a bank loan. But they mumbled something about not trusting the government and King Herod in particular.  Said they were off back home - somewhere in the east they said - the minute they'd found this star. All the same these foreigners - stick together, don't mix, keep their money within  the family. No - push off you two. Go back where you came from - you've no money and no job.  Unemployment is high in the town and you'd just be three more mouths to feed - four if we include the donkey.  So, sorry, mate, on your donkey. Bethlehem for the Bethlehem residents I say. We can't subsidise immigrants with no prospects.  Get yourself a respectable job, get a bit of capital behind you, learn our ways and pass our annual 'Bethlehem Values Awareness Test' and we might consider you - but we do have a five year waiting list"

A splendid conductor and
a wonderful soloist.

No, the story went rather differently as I remember it - the town was crowded, the inn was full, but the innkeeper did what he could and provided shelter. And the rest, as they say, is history. Obviously the innkeeper wasn't a paid up member of the Bethlehem Labour or Conservative Parties.

No, and I’m glad that Ms Hodge and the present day Labour Party weren't around in 1956 when Rudolf arrived in these shores – he would have received short shrift. And had they been around in 1710 then George Frederick Handel would have been refused entry to Britain – and we would then have been denied some of the greatest of “English” music – no "Messiah" to fill our churches and concert  halls at Christmas, no "Water Music" or "Firework Music" to entertain the King and to give generations huge pleasure, no  "Coronation Anthems" that have been sung out in Westminster Abbey on  the coronation of every King and Queen of England since 1710. Old  Handel certainly hadn’t put anything into Britain when he arrived so the Labour Party (ably assisted by the Conservatives) would have given him soon seen him off. So, too, with Rudolf.

But there you go – such is progress. I have supported the ideals and passions of the Labour Party all my life – not so anymore. They, like the Conservatives, are morally and intellectually bankrupt. The government tells us that with the financial melt down we are nearly economically bankrupt and that their economic measures will rescue us. I'm afraid I'm a bit more worried about the moral bankruptcy and the government don't seem to have a plan on that!

The ladies of the strings! Kate is
fifth from the left, under the Cross

And over the weekend I  read the latest “Professional Standards” being imposed on teachers by  our government. I read that a new imposition is that teachers must (rightly) “uphold public trust in the profession and maintain high standards of ethics and behaviour, within and outside school”. And how does the government in general and Michael Gove in particular envisage them doing this?  Wait for it....by  “ not undermining fundamental British values.....” . And I wonder what these “fundamental British values” are – and did Rudolf have them? Did Telemann? – after all he was a German and we have fought two great wars against his country and its values in the last century. Or what of Corelli or Handel or Vivaldi  after whom the orchestra is named – did they have the “fundamental British values” which are so important to Mr Pickles, Mr Gove and Mr Cameron? And are these the same "British values" that prompted the recent riots? Are they the same "British values" that I see on my local High Street as the pubs turn out? Are these the same “values” that encouraged many of our MPs to fiddle their expenses a year or two ago? Are these the same “British values" that for years motivated the hatred in Northern Ireland from the likes of the awful, hate filled Ian Paisley? Or just this last week or two we have followed the story of a group of gypsies being evicted from their homes in Basildon Essex. With real irony Basildon is the adjoining constituency to that of our Communities Minister, Eric Pickles - the man whose ministerial brief it is to develop and foster "good" communities and community spirit. I've noticed that Eric has been strangely quiet on this one and I wonder how this squares with our "British" value of "individual liberty and mutual respect and tolerance of those with different faiths and beliefs".  I could go on – I’m sure that you get the gist.

Wine at the interval - the vicar said
he would ring the church bell at the
end of the interval.

I don’t object to the espousal of the values suggested, they are laudable and worthwhile  – they include  “democracy, the rule of law, individual liberty and mutual respect and tolerance of those with different faiths and beliefs.....” but to describe them as “British” is, I believe, potentially insulting to other nations and beliefs. It implies that others - the French, the Germans, the Americans, the Hindu, the Sikh, the Jew or the Indian - may not possess these values and that French values or American values or Indian values may somehow be less worthy than our "British" values. Did Rudolf have "British" values? Did Handel?  Is our valuation of “democracy” better, more sincere than that of our friends from the USA – I think that many in the US might contest that. And if these values are so very "British" my mother was clearly wired differently – she had no time and was totally intolerant of Roman Catholic people, the Irish or people from ethnic minorities – but she was clearly “British”. And if one of our "fundamental British values" is "mutual respect and tolerance of those with different faiths" why is that the 1701 Act of Settlement  prohibits a Catholic or anyone who marries a Catholic from ascending the throne of England? Not much tolerance and mutual respect there. And, anyway, our Queen is of Germanic stock and the Duke of Edinburgh is of Greek background - do they have these "fundamental British values"? I find it quite hard to believe that as "outsiders" they could be quite so tolerant and mutually respectful as us "real Brits" - and especially the "white working class voters" that Ms Hodge and the Labour Party want to appeal to!

No, the notion of value and value systems is fraught with philosophical difficulties. In relation to the "British" values that teachers are required to display a number of points can be made. Firstly, are they "British" in the sense that every British person subscribes to them? That manifestly is not so and to insist that it should be so is to promote the totalitarian state. Are they "British" values in the sense that in order to be recognised as "British" in law or otherwise you have to subscribe to them? Clearly, for the reason given above this cannot be and our history and current news is filled with example of people (like Ian Paisley, my mother and the local council in Basildon) who clearly do not subscribe to some of them - so using that interpretation they cannot be considered  "British". Or, are they "British" in the sense that these values are inherently "British" - that we as a nation are born with them and other nations may not be. A kind of genetic inheritance that ensures that we all subscribe to this value system? I think not. No, the whole notion is unhelpful, wrong and downright dangerous. It is the same thinking that underpinned Hitler's Third Reich, promised a "thousand year Reich" and littered the pages of Mein Kampfe"

Eleanor was so engrossed she
left her seat to get closer!

No, I’m quite happy to expect aspiring teachers to engender and cultivate certain values agreed by society - indeed it is cornerstone of the teacher's professional role and always has been. But to confuse them with any "Britishness"  is simple prejudice and jingoistic flag waving quasi-patriotism. It is only a short step from that to the growth of societies such that which  developed in Germany in the 1930s where a society believes it has the monopoly on righteousness and superiority over others. And we all know where that led. 

And as I listened to the concert and thought what a lot this “immigrant musician", Rudolf Botta gave to our country – and still gives a decade after his death - I thought what shallow and worrying view of life our political masters have.  If those  people, who like me,  sat in the audience quietly appreciating the wonderful music in ten years time “google” David Cameron or Margaret Hodge, or Michael Gove, or Eric Pickles will they be directed to many young people all praising them for their individual contribution to their life  and skills – as I did when I “googled” Rudolf? I think not.

The Ensemble received a very warm round of applause at the end of the concert, some enthusiastic and obviously sincere thanks from the Vicar and as we all trooped out it was plain from the comments of the departing audience that the experience had been  enjoyed, memorable and, I believe, uplifting. My only complaint? In a society that knows the price of everything and the value of nothing, where everything has a cost, Fr Clarke could probably have charged a bit more and made a few more quid for his church. No-one would have objected!

Sophie  in her Sari

A lovely evening . And as Pat and I sat listening with Kate’s two daughters (Sophie and Eleanor), our grand children,  sitting entranced alongside I thought I’d much rather my grandchildren soaked up the values of old Rudolf than some nebulous and questionable piece of patriotic jingoism set out in the “Teachers’ Professional Standards”.  I’m so glad that I am no longer engaged in teacher education and working with newly qualified teachers.  I’m afraid that would have been one step too far for me to  make judgements about how far  my young aspiring entrants to the profession  were successfully  displaying “fundamental British values” – it has a ring of the totalitarian state about it.

And Eleanor  in hers

And with wonderful symmetry, on Saturday evening we all sat down for a family meal together – Kate, Andrew, Sophie, Eleanor, Pat and me. And our meal? It was provided by Mrs Shah -  a friend of my daughter’s - who helps the local children’s hospice by cooking Indian cuisine and selling as take away meals and the like. So we enjoyed a wonderful selection of real, home made, genuine Indian curries and supported the local charity at the same time. But in doing so did we have these core British values? Should we have been eating roast beef and Yorkshire pudding?  Does Mrs Shah have these values? – I mean, perhaps she wears a Sari – indeed, I think that she does . My daughter tells me that she has run courses at the local school where my grandchildren attend on “how to wrap and wear a Sari”. She has run PTA meetings for parents on Indian cuisine and culture.

And Kate in hers!

And another Pakistani  friend of my daughter’s passed on two beautiful children’s Saris to my grandchildren – they wore them when we all went away to a hotel recently and attracted many compliments  from other guests. In giving the girls these Sari’s was the lady displaying “British” values? All very confusing who is British and who has these nebulous values. I think I’ll stick to the values I know – a bit of Hungarian mixed in with a bit of Indian and stirred with a bit of "British" prejudice! (but would it be Scottish? Welsh?  Irish? English prejudice?).

What I know is that I don’t  support the sort of values envisaged by Eric Pickles, Margaret Hodge, Michael Gove and David Cameron et al – they will be jingoistic, shallow and questionable – and certainly not “values” – and...... by attaching the word “British” they become pure prejudice, stark and simple.