ONE of Britain’s leading musicians claims that the government is so obsessed with widening access to cultural pursuits that it has turned artists into social workers.

Michael Berkeley, a composer and broadcaster, also revealed that he planned to quit as artistic director of the Cheltenham festival because his funding “has been castrated”.

At the annual Royal Philharmonic Society lecture next weekend, he will also accuse politicians and the arts establishment of favouring instant gratification over artistic merit. He will say concert halls have become the equivalent of “airport bookshops” offering “cheap thrills”.

Berkeley, a godson of Benjamin Britten and a member of the Royal Opera House board for eight years, also believes the government and Arts Council are spending too much money on “social engineering” — arts schemes aimed at groups such as ethnic minorities and the poor.

“People in the arts have become social workers rather than artists,” he said this weekend. “If you tick the right access box on the funding forms, you’ll be okay. There’s now too much emphasis on the social side rather than the arts themselves and practitioners.”

Since being set up more than 50 years ago, the Cheltenham festival has premiered works by Britten and, more recently, given breaks to contemporary composers such as Judith Weir and Thomas Adès. However, Arts Council funding for Cheltenham is now less than a third of what it was when Berkeley became artistic director in 1995.

“I’m less and less able to fulfil my role with integrity,” said Berkeley, who also presents Radio 3’s Private Passions.

Hilary Boulding, the Arts Council’s head of music, said: “He’s right about the difficulty of funding new music. We’re now looking at how we can support more new music and new composers.”

In recent years, the council has restructured in an attempt to put itself more closely in touch with artists. Its members include Deborah Bull, the ballet dancer, Joanna MacGregor, the pianist and, until last May, the artist Anish Kapoor. However, the changes at the council have been insufficient to satisfy Berkeley.

“New music and today’s composers simply find it very, very hard to get funding,” said Berkeley. “In Britain newer composers are labelled composers of ‘ugly music’. Wrong! “We’ve reached a position in Britain where, despite boasting one of the most gifted flocks of composers in the world, we’ve steadily eroded their support.”

Some of Berkeley’s concerns were echoed by Chris Smith, the culture secretary from 1997 to 2001. But he disagreed with Berkeley’s attack on social programmes. “That’s rubbish,” he said. “Excellence goes along with diversity and access.”

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