BBC4 re-run of 2003 Kathleen Ferrier documentary

[Barbirollians]

I don't really understand this concept of 'dated' performance. Of course performances from the past sound different from those of today - each generation re-interprets the music in different idioms and with different performance practice. You could just as well say that Kreisler or Cortot, and many singers, sound 'dated' in that people do not perform in that way today. But to me it is simply a different musical generation and the important thing is the musical contribution, not whether or not it sounds like the performances of today. It's not dated - it's old, but we'd have to have a pretty narrow sort of imagination to confine ourselves to the performing styles of our own generation.

Well said - I am sure that to many extreme HIPPites - the English Concert and Pinnck sound dated

[Chris Newman]

Those of us who thought we might catch Kaff today aren't allowed as she does not seem to have got onto iPlayer.

[mercia]

getting a repeat repeat Friday 18 May 8pm BBC4

[ferneyhoughgeliebte]

getting a repeat repeat Friday 18 May 8pm BBC4

[salymap]

getting a repeat repeat Friday 18 May 8pm BBC4

Thanks for that mercia.

[salymap]

Heads up for the Ferrier film, tonight, 18th May at 8pm on BBC 4. I hope Chris Newman is around to catch it this time

[amateur51]

Heads up for the Ferrier film, tonight, 18th May at 8pm on BBC 4. I hope Chris Newman is around to catch it this time

Many thanks, salymap!

[Barbirollians]

If you miss or missed it at 8pm it is repeated at 3.05 a.m for recording purposes or insomniacs

[Ariosto]

People who don't like Ferrier have little understanding of music. She was one of the greatest. And to describe hers or any performances as "dated" proved a total lack of understanding of the basic musicality of the artist concerned. It comes down to sheer ignorance.

[LeMartinPecheur]

People who don't like Ferrier have little understanding of music. She was one of the greatest. And to describe hers or any performances as "dated" proved a total lack of understanding of the basic musicality of the artist concerned. It comes down to sheer ignorance.

Erm, people who don't like Ferrier just don't like Ferrier actually.

Most emphatically I am not of their number and feel sorry that they're missing out on so much (IMHO). But there really is no diputandum-ing de gustibus: that's human life. Nobody should raise a dispute de gustibus into a matter of moral right and wrong. That really is how wars start.

[salymap]

It was very sad to think that she may have known about the cancer but chose to ignore it.

In the early 1950s the BBC had two weeks of Winter Proms. I think that is where my memory comes from. She was at a rehearsal at the RAH, it was a snowy morning, she came in, wrapt in a big fur coat, sat on the ledge at the side of the platform, swinging her booted legs and chatting and laughing with the waiting
orchestra and other soloist[s] I can't remember the work or anything but her vivacity on that day.

With the help of the Proms Archive, I've tracked it down to either 1949 or 1952 Winter Proms. If so she was singing Brahms Four Serious Songs in the then new Sargent orchestration.Probably 1949 [I was very young ]

[Mary Chambers]

I managed to catch it this time. Very nostalgic. She obviously had immense powers of communication as well as the voice. Pity there aren't any good films of her - they would be very interesting to see, even though films don't really convey the reality of performance.

[Nick Armstrong]

It was very sad to think that she may have known about the cancer but chose to ignore it.

In the early 1950s the BBC had two weeks of Winter Proms. I think that is where my memory comes from. She was at a rehearsal at the RAH, it was a snowy morning, she came in, wrapt in a big fur coat, sat on the ledge at the side of the platform, swinging her booted legs and chatting and laughing with the waiting
orchestra and other soloist[s] I can't remember the work or anything but her vivacity on that day.

[Nick Armstrong]

People who don't like Ferrier have little understanding of music. .... And to describe hers or any performances as "dated" proved a total lack of understanding of the basic musicality of the artist concerned. It comes down to sheer ignorance.

Piffle

[amateur51]

Erm, people who don't like Ferrier just don't like Ferrier actually.

Most emphatically I am not of their number and feel sorry that they're missing out on so much (IMHO). But there really is no diputandum-ing de gustibus: that's human life. Nobody should raise a dispute de gustibus into a matter of moral right and wrong. That really is how wars start.