In the next six months in London there are only eight premieres by British composers. “That’s eight out of roughly 500 works being performed by the country’s symphony orchestras until the end of the season (not including repeat performances on tour). A minuscule proportion – about 1.6% of performed works, if you want to be pedantic about it. Why is new work so thinly represented? Largely, it is because orchestras are reluctant to take risks. Programming new work is expensive. You have to pay the composer…”