Safe for now: the Royal Philharmonic Orchestra will be funded for another three years at least.
As the Royal Philharmonic Orchestra pump out Mussorgsky's monumental Pictures at an Exhibition at New Wimbledon Theatre this Sunday, it will not be without a sense of relief.
Against the tide of recent Arts Council cuts, the 90-strong symphony orchestra has seen its funding renewed for another three years, where other (mainly chamber) ensembles such as the Croydon-based London Mozart Players have lost their entire grants.
"I was staggered by the LMP decision," says RPO's managing director Ian Maclay, who is a good friend of his LMP counterpart, Antony Lewis-Crosby.
"It's no coincidence that the theatres gets all the luvvies out. People like Judi Dench and Ian McKellen guarantee column inches and it helps to have those celebrities batting for you. But in the nicest possible way, classical music is not so sexy."
Maclay credits RPO's success to its combination of commerical know-how and educational outreach work. The Arts Council grant makes up just 14 percent of the orchestra's turnover, but there is nothing the current Government likes more than value-for-money.
"They want to see money well-spent," he says, "whether that's Arts Council funding or the money a member of the public spends on a ticket.
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"That's not to say you have to play Tchaikovsky every night. But if you want to do contemporary music and drama, you have to do commercial things to fund the more avant-garde.
"You're doing well if you just break even. Most arts organisations run on a knife edge - it's hard to build up any rainy day money."
Thus, this Sunday's Russian Gala in Wimbledon, part of the orchestra's second, successful season at the venue and unashamedly populist in its programme.
As well as the aforementioned Muggorgsky and its final trumphant Great Gates of Kiev movement, the concert will feature Borodin's folk-inspired Polovtsian Dances and yes, two doses of Tchaikovsky - the Capriccio Italien and the virtuosic Rococo Variations, performed by cellist Gautier Capuçon. Young Hungarian maestro Nicolae Moldoveanu conducts.
"The thing to remember is that Wimbledon is a proscenium arch theatre, not a concert hall," says Maclay, who puts together all the orchestra's programmes. "Doing anything too quiet would be a mistake acoustically - you need to project the sound with big symphonic pieces and there has to be a visual element tas well.
"Modovenau is a bit off the wall. He has this fantastic frizzy hair and is very gypsyish but he gets terrific results. It's big, it's loud, it's symphonic, it's exciting and it fills the space. If you don't have that, you might as well sit at home listening to the CD."
Royal Philharmonic Orchestra: Russian Gala, New Wimbledon Theatre, The Broadway, Wimbledon, Sunday, February 17, 7pm, £11-£28, call 0870 060 6646.
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