English Musical Life—A Symposium (IV)

Extract

In most parts of the world a foreigner's comments, even when invited, are apt to stir up resentment. This is not so in Britain where, as a friend recently remarked, the people pay foreigners for being rude, and, citing the case of George Bernard Shaw, make national heroes of them. Not that one could possibly aspire to the heroic heights of Shavian rudeness, nor, indeed, could present circumstances occasion it; for even the most hardened foreign observer cannot but be impressed by the extent and vitality of British Public music making.