The Nigel Debate, L.A. Style

At KUSC-FM (91.5), morning show host Bonnie Grice and programming vice president Tom Deacon recently took up the debate over violinist Nigel Kennedy, just days before airing their differences on the Saturday-morning “Counterpoint” show.

“What I like about this man is he is bringing serious concert to a younger audience,” said Grice. “You could tell by looking at the (Brahms CD) cover that this is for people who are listening to M.C. Hammer perhaps. What I’m doing with the morning (radio) audience is not alienate audiences who love classical music, but in a straightforward way, get younger audiences who walk by the classical section to stop and listen to Brahms.

“(Kennedy’s latest recording) is radically different. It’s controversial and it appeals to me and my generation. It’s not everybody’s taste in Brahms, but I love it.”

But Kennedy’s unclassical couture and musical style give Deacon deep grief: “You look at his album cover and you say, ‘This is Bruce Willis playing Brahms.’ Classical music aficionados ask, ‘Is the image to conceal weaknesses in his music?’ It is not going to make his concertos better. It can be done without the gimmickry.

“If it’s all bandannas and dark looks into the camera--that has nothing to do with Brahms Fifth. Can you imagine Jascha Heifetz with a three-day-old beard and a bandanna?

“The Brahms Concerto is an outlandishly, lavishly, slow performance. The music just doesn’t have the momentum.”

Kennedy’s latest, the Brahms Concerto in D, debuted two weeks ago at No. 13 on Billboard’s classical music chart. It has since moved to an even more respectable No. 7.

At Tower Records Classical Annex in West Hollywood, manager Charlie Richards says: “I believe artists like Kennedy and Nadja Salerno-Sonnenberg sell to younger listeners. I’ve been finding that we’re getting (buyers) under 30 whereas it was people 40 and up three years ago.”