Ever since the announcement last December that Jonathan Reekie was leaving his job as chief executive of Aldeburgh Music to become director of Somerset House in London, the speculation over his possible successor has ranged widely. Many names have been mentioned, but Roger Wright's was not among them, and his decision to step down from his job as controller of Radio 3 and director of the BBC Proms - what has to be UK classical music's most influential job - to move to Suffolk is a major surprise.
It could be, of course, that at the age of 57, Wright has decided that it's time for a quieter life down by the sea, though running Aldeburgh Music, which includes responsibility not only for the Aldeburgh festival every summer, but also for the year-round programme of the performing spaces at Snape Maltings Concert Hall, and the Britten-Pears School for Advanced Musical Studies, can't be straightforward either, with so many local interests involved, not to mention the non-negotiable connection with the whole Benjamin Britten industry. But it could also be a sign that Wright has finally tired of fighting a rear-guard action at Radio 3, where the compromises necessary to maintain the station's high-art profile against the constant pressure to popularise its output so as to compete for listeners more directly with Classic FM must be intense.
Who will succeed him at the BBC is hard to predict. Traditionally, running Radio 3 and the Proms have gone together, though both of Wright's immediate predecessors, John Drummond and Nicholas Kenyon, relinquished their radio role while continuing to run the summer concerts for several seasons. It remains to be seen whether the BBC will continue to combine what are effectively two very distinct though obviously connected jobs, or define them separately.
For each scenario the possible candidates would be very different. Taking charge of Radio 3 at present, having to fight the same battles and make the same accommodations that Wright has been obliged to do, would not necessarily be a particularly attractive prospect, and finding someone prepared to do that, while also bringing imagination and flair to running the Proms, something that Wright has done very well indeed, would be a tall order. Of those currently at the BBC, perhaps Paul Hughes, general manager of the Symphony Orchestra might be a possible candidate; among those with previous BBC experience, Stephen Maddock, who worked with Kenyon and is currently in charge of the City of Birmingham Symphony, could be another.
Both of those, though, would surely be much more interested were the Proms job to be considered separately. That must be one of the best jobs in the musical world - two months of concerts to plan, with not only a superb roster of BBC orchestras to call on, but the prestige and resources to attract the world's finest ensembles and soloists as well. Any number of high-profile festival administrators from around the world would surely be interested in doing that; who'd take on Radio 3 in those circumstances is harder to imagine.
