BBC 4: Chamber Music at the BBC + Heimat prequel, 19 March '17

[Stanley Stewart]

Belatedly, two programmes I intended to highlight and almost forgot to set the recorder until a few moments before they started earlier;

Chamber Music at the BBC, BBC 4, 20.00-21.00hrs. A delightful compilation with colour and monochrome sequences performed by the Amadeus Chilingarian, Borodin and Kronos quartets playing Mozart, Schubert, Beethoven - and even Stockhausen in helicopters! - wish we'd seen more complete performances from the 50s onwards. A particular thrill for me was to see the performance at the Victoria Theatre, Stoke in Trent, 1964, a year after I'd done a rep season there and my first experience of Theatre in the Round, and its communal Dressing Room which I shared with Alan Ayckbourn, Heather Stoney (later to become Lady Ayckbourn) and Elizabeth Bell.

The next programme tonight, now being transmitted, was a prequel to Heimat which forumites may recall in the early 90s and first recorded by me on video. The present programme, almost four hours, Home from Home, Chronicle of a Vision, continues until 00.40 hrs. I anticipate an early repeat screening.

[pastoralguy]

Yes, I enjoyed the Quartet programme too. Alas, it highlights the fact that there is do little of this type of music broadcast today. I would love to see the full works as the snippets did little more than whet our appetites.

I remember reading that Irvine Arditti was really annoyed with Stockhausen re. the 'Helicopter Quartet'. "For years, we'd asked Stockhausen for a string quartet we could play everywhere. What we got was a quartet we could play NOWHERE!"

Poor chap, I think he was quite upset.

[EdgeleyRob]

It's criminal that they have all this stuff in the archives and yet they just tease us with snippets (snippets of snippets in some cases e.g. Ravel).
Still,an enjoyable programme,loved the Kronos Quartet doing The Who.

[Richard Tarleton]

I recorded this to watch later, maybe tonight.

Yes indeed - for complete string quartet performances these days, I'm afraid Sky Arts is about it - those Belceas and Lindsays cycles come round from time to time. It's way beyond today's BBC.

[Richard Tarleton]

A treasureable hour...

But a question hung in the air.... As Clemmy said, SQs have been one of the bedrocks of classical music, today more ensembles than ever, more composers working with SQs in the last 50 years than ever before....

So why do we never see SQs on BBC TV these days? We did once upon a time.

Clemmy's dad introducing the Lindsays (the younger Peter Cropper bearing a startling resemblance to Mick Jagger circa 1964...)

That wasn't of course the Borodin line-up that worked with Shostakovich (as the commentary suggested), only 2 survivors from those days. The original Takács line-up, ditto the Allegri (much changed by the time I first saw them in 1970)....Norbert Brainin picking his nose.....

Let this be a prompt to the Beeb to bradcast another SQ concert soon. They're not so shy about pianists, orchestras, singers.....

[EdgeleyRob]

A treasureable hour...

But a question hung in the air.... As Clemmy said, SQs have been one of the bedrocks of classical music, today more ensembles than ever, more composers working with SQs in the last 50 years than ever before....

So why do we never see SQs on BBC TV these days? We did once upon a time.

Clemmy's dad introducing the Lindsays (the younger Peter Cropper bearing a startling resemblance to Mick Jagger circa 1964...)

That wasn't of course the Borodin line-up that worked with Shostakovich (as the commentary suggested), only 2 survivors from those days. The original Takács line-up, ditto the Allegri (much changed by the time I first saw them in 1970)....Norbert Brainin picking his nose.....

Let this be a prompt to the Beeb to bradcast another SQ concert soon. They're not so shy about pianists, orchestras, singers.....

[aeolium]

A treasureable hour...

But a question hung in the air.... As Clemmy said, SQs have been one of the bedrocks of classical music, today more ensembles than ever, more composers working with SQs in the last 50 years than ever before....

So why do we never see SQs on BBC TV these days? We did once upon a time.

Especially as the sound output on TVs, with soundbars etc, can be a lot better these days. Although it was good to see this archive material, I can't see the BBC recording string quartets for TV these days. I think the best that can be hoped for is direct live streaming to internet, e.g. from festivals, with smart TVs hopefully improved to the point where they can easily link in to this.

That wasn't of course the Borodin line-up that worked with Shostakovich (as the commentary suggested), only 2 survivors from those days. The original Takács line-up, ditto the Allegri (much changed by the time I first saw them in 1970)....Norbert Brainin picking his nose.....

And I remember seeing the Endellion with Louise Williams as second violin. They were superb, I thought. We are very lucky to have such a quantity of fine string quartet ensembles these days though as you say it's a shame that they are mostly heard and not seen (apart from by concertgoers).

[french frank]

SQs have been one of the bedrocks of classical music, today more ensembles than ever, more composers working with SQs in the last 50 years than ever before....

So why do we never see SQs on BBC TV these days?

I was enquiring a few years back about the feasibility of filming Wigmore Hall recitals, given that Radio 3 was already there recording them. I didn't get much encouragement and concluded that television doesn't want programmes that won't have good enough viewing figures when they have the option of broadcasting more popular programmes. I think that's why the BBC Two Proms were finally moved to BBC Four.

[Flay]

This is worth a watch to for the sake of nostalgia. Grappelli Menuhin etc:

Dazzling Duets at the BBC

http://www.bbc.co.uk/iplayer/episode/b08j8j2l/dazzling-duets-at-the-bbc

[ardcarp]

Norbert Brainin picking his nose.

I can forgive him that. (It was quite a discreet pick anyway). I just loved the Amadeus LP with Mozart's 'Dissonance' SQ on it. It was a set work of mine somewhere along the line...I hate to think when.....and their version outshone the (then) opposition by miles.

[Nick Armstrong]

prequel to Heimat which forumites may recall in the early 90s and first recorded by me on video. The present programme, almost four hours, Home from Home, Chronicle of a Vision, continues until 00.40 hrs. I anticipate an early repeat screening.

Haunting watch, this two-parter - currently part way through the second. The quality of the cinematography, largely monochrome with occasional flashes of rich but muted colour for significant objects, makes it a huge visual pleasure, quite apart from the story and atmosphere.

And a leading role for the Ophicleide in the November Fair sequence towards the end of part 1 !!

[Stanley Stewart]

Thanks, Cali, Home from Home is still resonating since I saw it last Sunday and Edgar Reitz's direction must by now be the glory of German television. Was it really the early 1990s when I first off-aired on video the early chapters of Heimat, followed by Heimat II, Heimat Fragments in 2006 and Home for Home in 2016? At the start, the village of Schabbach little more than a tiny community set at the top of a dirt track which became such a beguiling drama, the panoramic landscape in monochrome memorably caught on widescreen ratio with the grandeur of a John Ford western? Indeed, it was Sunday's transmission which alerted me to the possibility that the camera was, in fact, reflecting the thoughts of protagonist, Jakob Simon - such penetrating eyes witnessing life, love and heartbreak. During the week, I thought long and hard about programmes which have affected me so deeply and concluded with the Andrzej Wajda war trilogy; A Generation, Canal and Ashes & Diamonds from Poland and from Russia, The Maxim Gorky Trilogy; The Childhood of Maxim Gorki, Out in the World and My Universities. All touch the heart and the mind as they become indelible memories.

[pastoralguy]

[Braunschlag]

Thanks, Cali, Home from Home is still resonating since I saw it last Sunday and Edgar Reitz's direction must by now be the glory of German television. Was it really the early 1990s when I first off-aired on video the early chapters of Heimat, followed by Heimat II, Heimat Fragments in 2006 and Home for Home in 2016? At the start, the village of Schabbach little more than a tiny community set at the top of a dirt track which became such a beguiling drama, the panoramic landscape in monochrome memorably caught on widescreen ratio with the grandeur of a John Ford western? Indeed, it was Sunday's transmission which alerted me to the possibility that the camera was, in fact, reflecting the thoughts of protagonist, Jakob Simon - such penetrating eyes witnessing life, love and heartbreak. During the week, I thought long and hard about programmes which have affected me so deeply and concluded with the Andrzej Wajda war trilogy; A Generation, Canal and Ashes & Diamonds from Poland and from Russia, The Maxim Gorky Trilogy; The Childhood of Maxim Gorki, Out in the World and My Universities. All touch the heart and the mind as they become indelible memories.

I've been an avid Heimat fan ever since I sat there transfixed watching Heimat 1 with my mum in the 1980s.
Heimat 2 I would rate as one of, if not the, finest films about musicians I've ever seen. And so the saga unfolded eventually prompting a visit to Munich a couple of years ago and an impromptu tour around the Hochschule fûr Musik. It was rather magical to climb that staircase!
I even arranged a diversion on a school band tour to go to the Gunderode house at Oberwesl which is an integral part of Heimat 3, it's now a rather smart cafe.
I never tire of the entire series, somehow it means something.