Fayrfax 500

[AuntDaisy]

...
Says something about the weird and wonderful things people get up to that I didn't at first realise this was an Amazon mistake and it wasn't until I tried to find out more that the penny dropped...

Apologies, it needed a smiley face or two.

From the Amazon review below, this has been a problem for 10 years. (It's also available on CD)

William Burn
A fine album of Early Music, not Donna Summer
Reviewed in the United Kingdom on 20 October 2011
The three other reviews of this disc all seem to think it's one of Donna Summer's later albums, and disagree on its quality. I can state with some certainty (I'm listening to it now) that it is in fact a fine recording of an early English masterpiece, with plenty of real music and not too much tedious plainsong stuffed in as filler. This is the Cardinall's Music at what was probably the height of their powers, with none of the occasional infelicities of tone or tuning which have been detected in more recent recordings. Well worth acquiring.

[oddoneout]

Apologies, it needed a smiley face or two.

From the Amazon review below, this has been a problem for 10 years. (It's also available on CD)

Well I must admit a brief passing thought when I first saw your post was " Donna Summers singing Schubert - really?".

[AuntDaisy]

Well I must admit a brief passing thought when I first saw your post was " Donna Summers singing Schubert - really?".

Her Winterreise cycle could also be one to avoid

There was a TTN earlier this year with Juliane Banse (soprano) doing Winterreise, I dug out DFD instead.

[Nick Armstrong]

Even more worrying is the trend for cross-over music... soon to appear heavily on TearJerker.

I noticed in passing (rapidly) that the listings indicated that an episode of Music Matters recently was devoted to André Rieu…

Double-checked, it wasn’t April 1

[MickyD]

Yes it got on my whatsits in the Earth/Water &c. episodes but I hoped it was because of the more pictorial / impressionistic nature of those programmes. Annoying that it seems permanent now. How can they possibly justify talking over the music we’re supposed to be listening to?

Another nail in the coffin.

It was the first time I had heard the EMS in a while and was dismayed to hear that one of the few decent programmes left on R3 had descended to this practice. I wonder if Lucie Skeaping would do the same.

[oddoneout]

It was the first time I had heard the EMS in a while and was dismayed to hear that one of the few decent programmes left on R3 had descended to this practice. I wonder if Lucie Skeaping would do the same.

Sadly she did (or rather the programme displayed the same problem - I doubt it would be her choice?) hence the comments.

[ardcarp]

Why don't we all (well, we who feel strongly about it) email the programme? Along the lines that talking over the music and fading bits in and out belittles the Early Music itself....which the programme is all about? I'll do it right now.

theearlymusicshow@bbc.co.uk

[Nick Armstrong]

Why don't we all (well, we who feel strongly about it) email the programme? Along the lines that talking over the music and fading bits in and out belittles the Early Music itself....which the programme is all about? I'll do it right now.

theearlymusicshow@bbc.co.uk

Good plan, Stan

[AuntDaisy]

Why don't we all (well, we who feel strongly about it) email the programme? Along the lines that talking over the music and fading bits in and out belittles the Early Music itself....which the programme is all about? I'll do it right now.

theearlymusicshow@bbc.co.uk

Good idea. Fewer / longer pieces would help.

(I haven't contacted EMS for years, not since asking for a Catherine Bott signed photo in 2008 )

[oddoneout]

Good idea. Fewer / longer pieces would help.

(I haven't contacted EMS for years, not since asking for a Catherine Bott signed photo in 2008 )

It's on my to-do list (along with Afternoon Concert - again). The length/number of pieces will depend on the subject being discussed I would have thought, but however that turns out it is the allowing it to be heard which matters. I don't have too much of a problem with a piece being competently truncated on occasion, if inclusion of the full length version isn't possible but complete exclusion would be to the detriment of the subject content, it's the scrappy default "editing" that talking over the beginning of a piece causes that really irritates. I did feel that on Sunday's programme some of Lucie S's info(piece/performers etc) after the pieces had been played could have been shortened which might have allowed time to start the piece without clutter.

[AuntDaisy]

It's on my to-do list (along with Afternoon Concert - again). The length/number of pieces will depend on the subject being discussed I would have thought, but however that turns out it is the allowing it to be heard which matters. I don't have too much of a problem with a piece being competently truncated on occasion, if inclusion of the full length version isn't possible but complete exclusion would be to the detriment of the subject content, it's the scrappy default "editing" that talking over the beginning of a piece causes that really irritates. I did feel that on Sunday's programme some of Lucie S's info(piece/performers etc) after the pieces had been played could have been shortened which might have allowed time to start the piece without clutter.

Yes - you have a point about removing pieces & I agree "about the scrappy default "editing"" + info shortening.

However, I remember the Halcyon days when a whole EMS weekend (two programmes!) would be on, say, Scarlatti (with Scar-lotto!), Buxtehude, Boccherini, Dufay, Early Music in Sweden, Double Dutch, Chaucer, Children of the Revolution... Not to mention The York / Brighton / Utrecht... Early Music Festivals.

Or even series of 8 programmes "Made in Britain", "Made in Britain" #2, "Versailles and Paris Month", "Art and Early Music Month".

The Powder Treason
Saturday 5 November 2005 13:00-14:00 (Radio 3)
Beginning a series of programmes dedicated to the music of Britain.
The Early Music Show is dedicating its eight programmes over the month of November to the music of Britain. From Edinburgh to Wales, from Lindisfarne to Canterbury, we'll be celebrating both well-known and more obscure gems from the depths of our nation's history.
There'll be music from Charles Avison's early 18th Century Newcastle; music from Westminster Abbey marking the 1000th anniversary of England's only Royal Saint, Edward the Confessor; and music from composers who were working during the Civil War.
Plus, music of Exeter Cathedral, the Scottish early music ensemble Concerto Caledonia; music from Canterbury; and a history of Early Music in Wales, from the harp to the little known Crwth! Each of the following seven programmes also include a feature about a related place in Britain.
On the anniversary of the Gunpowder plot, the programme explores the music which surrounded the plot and it's aftermath, while hearing the story of the Catholic treason from the viewpoint of William Byrd. Byrd understood the frustrations of the Catholics in England, and he was a composer who, though tolerated by the King for his musical talents, found that a man had been arrested for simply owning one of his own compositions.

(If the BBC's website / Genome had a proper database of broadcast programmes, it would be easy to do research. They've also lost chunks of the listings.)



A large part of the Fayrfax programme "promoted" the newly released "Music for Tudor Kings and Queens" - which, in my case, did result in a CD sale (even though The Cardinall's Musick are unsurpassable).
"An exciting new signing for Delphian, Ensemble Pro Victoria’s young professionals bring both freshness and individuality to Fayrfax’s music in the five hundredth anniversary year of his death."

[MickyD]

Why don't we all (well, we who feel strongly about it) email the programme? Along the lines that talking over the music and fading bits in and out belittles the Early Music itself....which the programme is all about? I'll do it right now.

theearlymusicshow@bbc.co.uk

Thank you - I only heard one of the programmes with Hannah French, didn't realise Lucie Skeaping had been subject to the same thing. A very good idea, I will write immediately.

PS - Duly done, received an automatic reply and wonder if that's all I'll get. Anyway, I didn't mince my words.

[AuntDaisy]

Thank you - I only heard one of the programmes with Hannah French, didn't realise Lucie Skeaping had been subject to the same thing. A very good idea, I will write immediately.
PS - Duly done, received an automatic reply and wonder if that's all I'll get. Anyway, I didn't mince my words.

Yes, I got the same.

Thank you for contacting The Early Music Show.
Your comments have now been forwarded on to the Production Team. You may find that the information you require is already on our website www.bbc.co.uk/radio3/earlymusicshow Under the programme page we publish details of the music played and any information relating to guests and subjects discussed.
Regards, The Early Music Show

At least it didn't advertise SOUNDS or recommend "Tearjerker" or "Gameplay with Baby Queen".

I found the "You may find that the information you require is already on our website" annoying - no it isn't!!!
Talking of their website - where are the details for the first EMS 20/9/2003 (and onwards)?

[oddoneout]

Yes, I got the same.

At least it didn't advertise SOUNDS or recommend "Tearjerker" or "Gameplay with Baby Queen".

I found the "You may find that the information you require is already on our website" annoying - no it isn't!!!
Talking of their website - where are the details for the first EMS 20/9/2003 (and onwards)?

At least it's easier to ignore in that form. When it is piped into your ear, sometimes repeatedly, during an attempt to establish contact by phone as the website does not provide the answers ... Such occurrences do nothing for my temper, self-control or blood pressure and it is sometimes a real struggle to depressurise sufficiently to talk in a civil fashion to the hapless call centre person if a human response is eventually forthcoming. Sometimes I explain that I have just spent a long time listening to such useless drivel and I'm feeling a bit wound up, but I know it isn't the fault of the person I'm talking to.
The auto-reply is probably all that any of us will receive; it ticks the box for "contact responded to" and so can now be ignored.

[Frances_iom]

...The auto-reply is probably all that any of us will receive; it ticks the box for "contact responded to" and so can now be ignored.

I was about to make the same point, once a commercial entity feels it is an unassailable 'monopoly' customer relations are merely box ticking so that failings are never brought to light until catastrophic failure occurs (eg Grenville) - as for speech over music I suspect it is a lost cause - even some news items are now accompanied by music in an attempt to arouse emotions.