Emma Kirkby presents…

[french frank]

Perhaps the larger, Radio 3 'script', in being a well-known music professional choosing pieces of music that mean something to them. That is the Saturday Classics brief (rather than looking more closely at a particular theme, circle or individual, which EK would certainly have been qualified to do).

[Frances_iom]

I reckon it was personal - she probably scripted it herself as at times I thought she was reading a script but it didn't sound like a BBC prepared item but as others point out it could have readily slotted into any playlist programme and could easily be sold to a non-R3 type network even having the obligatory American item for sale there.

[Old Grumpy]

I found it an interesting personal selection that was a pleasure to listen to - I have now listened to it all the way through, twice.

[jean]

She has an Oxford Greats degree...

That is why she was President of the Classical Association in (I think) 2000.

Instead of the usual presidential address, she presented a recital of settings by English composers of Classical texts, some in the original languages.

I understood she did much of the research for the programme herself.

[doversoul1]

I don't think we need assume that! She is quite an intelligent and thoughtful person in her own right.

Did it sound as if it was written by a person who was not only intelligent but also someone who had been at the very frontline of early music for forty years? Emma Kirkby is almost the personification of early music to many early music enthusiasts. And this is Early Music Show. Yes, the reference to Montserrat Figueras had a slight personal feel to it but you can hardly say it was especially unique knowledge.

(jean: this is not any kind of an attack on you/your post. I have quoted your post because it is a good starting point)

EK was definitely reading. We know Catherine Bott and Lucie Skeaping both ‘read’ their scripts but they read what they mean to tell the listeners as if they were talking to them/us. There was no heart in Emma Kirkby’s voice in the same way as there were no emotions in the voice of a singer who sings all the right notes. She does not talk like that when she talks about music.

As has been said, this is not Saturday Classics. This is Early Music Show, and it was Emma Kirkby. I had expected to hear knowledge, experience, anecdotes, and insight of a musician who was there when it all started and has been right in it for forty years.

This programme would have been no difference if it had been presented by any stand-in presenter. What on earth did they bother Emma Kirkby for?

[MickyD]

I'm listening to the programme right now and it is what the blurb says, a personal selection of seasonal music. I don't think the programme was intended as any sort of retrospective of EK's career, just her choice of music for Christmas, which she seems to me to be enjoying. And I applaud her for including the Daquin organ piece - one of my personal Christmas favourites!

[doversoul1]

Early Music Show is one of a very few programmes that offer more than just pleasant listening sill surviving on Radio 3. I found it very sad to see that this programme was little more than yet another celebrity guest’s personal selection. Radio3’s producers should be able to or should be allowed to create a special Christmas programme without having to depend on famous names, and if a well known musician is to be invited, I expect the programme to offer the listeners the guest’s unique musical insights, as Early Music Show usually does.

Still, it is Christmas so I shan’t go on about it.

[ardcarp]

I've not heard this EMS yet...and may not be able to. But I just hope Lucie's brief for next year will not be 'make the Show less academic'. Not that it's been over academic anyway, but it always sought to inform (a Reithian word) and it did so lightly and often with humour. Please don't let EMS become Breakfast. eg 'Tweet and let us know if you like Walther von der Vogelweider' etc etc.

[jean]

My original objection was only to the idea that EK needed to be given something to read.

I certainly agree that if the format of the programme were to change into sort of Early Music version of with Great Pleasure/DID it would be very regrettable.

That said, I am enjoying her choices which I am only now hearing on LA.

[doversoul1]

One more gripe: what kind of a playlist is this? Or is there a full list somewhere else?

http://www.bbc.co.uk/programmes/b03lzsbm

[ed] 20.10 pm. The playlist is now complete.

[ardcarp]

I heard it today. Enjoyable listening, but as the gist of this thread suggests, we expect more from EMS than a mere wander through a CD collection.