Music from the Habsburg Court - Part 1 -The Musicians of Maximilian I - 10.07.11

[Guest]

I've never knowingly heard The Early Music Show and came to it by accident after a fine edition of Hear and Now at midnight on Sunday.

What an enjoyable programme with a gorgeous selection of music. Lucie Skeaping, the presenter, perhaps lays the cheery tone a little thick but she is pleasing and I found her directive comments very useful; Skeaping seems equal to Ivan Hewitt in giving straightforward guidance to listeners unfamiliar with the pieces played.

Slightly sorry to see her pictured on the R3 website in a short and low-cut black dress, made-up as if for an anniversary dinner with her partner. Perhaps she's pleased to be done-up and postured like a 'hostess' but she doesn't quite look it to me. Am I imagining that she looks affronted?

http://www.bbc.co.uk/programmes/b00zlgxz

[ardcarp]

Welcome to the EMS! It's a gem of a programme, so I hope you'll be a regular from now on. Both presenters, Lucy Skeaping and Catherine Bott, are superb (what they look like ireally doesn't matter on steam radio) and the quality of their work and of the programme content is consistently high. See you next weekend!

[hackneyvi]

Welcome to the EMS! It's a gem of a programme, so I hope you'll be a regular from now on. Both presenters, Lucy Skeaping and Catherine Bott, are superb (what they look like ireally doesn't matter on steam radio) and the quality of their work and of the programme content is consistently high. See you next weekend!

Thanks for the welcome, adcarp. EMS is another of the growing list of shows for iplayer listens. I have listened to early music on occasions but the surprise was the full-hearted presentation of the show itself which somehow bundled the range of music into such an enjoyable and intriguing whole.

I wasn't meaning to criticize Lucy Skeaping. On the contrary, I liked her style in the show and she made a very welcoming and informative companion to the programme.

In commenting on her dress, I intended to remark on a slightly disappointing sign of the times; a female presenter being photographed in such a way and thought she looked a little uncomfortable. But I just took a peep at her own website, and the self-same photo's on the front page beside the heading, 'The Bawdy Babe of Radio 3'!

So, that shows me!

[doversoul1]

Phil
Welcome from me too!

As for the programme, ardcarp says it all. I love the ways in which Catherine Bott and Lucy Skeaping go about digging up odd corners of history and manage to link the facts and figures to music and (sorry about the cliché) make it all come alive.

And if you missed the Early Travel (see ardcarp’s thread) programme, it looks as if you can still listen to it.

http://www.bbc.co.uk/podcasts/series/earlymusic