Vienna Philharmonic in Sarajevo June 28 2014

[Honoured Guest]

Presumably David Cameron is sending a joint UK-Hungary delegation to protest at the absence of UK composers and performers here. I despair. I suppose he could contribute in his preferred fashion by gathering a posse of his old Bullingdon chums to trash some Sarajevo restaurants. Yaroo!

I think I'd like to listen to this, in commemoration of the historic anniversary.

[BBMmk2]

Doesn't anyone get Radio Times anymore? This concert is Live on Radio 3... almost certainly in better sound than anywhere else in Europe - don't know what 3SAT's bitrates are, but 320kbps AAC is very rare anywhere now...

But - sorry but it seems a bit of a dogsdinner to me, oddly-chosen excerpts and weary overfamiliars... just ONE movement from Berg's OP.6?! Parsimonious doesn't begin to describe it, especially in this context. Spiritual, never mind musical, generosity anyone?

Listening to programmes like this - well, when I used to - I tended to find my concentration turning to jelly long before the end... so I don't feel like being generous about it.

Saves me from listening then!!

[DracoM]

Slightly off topic: this [Sat] a.m. inevitably trails. BUT mention of Sara Mohr-Pietsch's name twice, VPO twice, Sarajevo twice, but not a mention of the VPO's conductor's name. Not even once. So for the BBC, SM-P is manifestly more important than Franz Welser-Most. Ahem.

[french frank]

Presumably David Cameron is sending a joint UK-Hungary delegation to protest at the absence of UK composers and performers here. I despair.

Not to mention the irony of the concurrent Serb commemoration of Princip as the man who sought an end to the Austro-Hungarian 'occupation' of the Balkans, while the Serb aim was to establish a Greater Serbia, with Serbs taking rule over the all the other Balkan countries.

[richardfinegold]

"peace and international friendship"!!!! Serbia seems not to be invited, which is perhaps not surprising in the circumstances. This Library is the rebuilt City Hall, bombed to destruction by Serbia in 1992. Lest we forget ...

http://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/worl...ed-in-war.html

Not to mention Serbia's role in the assasination of the Archduke.
One sixth of Serbia's population perished during WW I, an awful price to pay for thumbing their nose at the Hapsbergs. They should have a representation at the Concert as well.

[french frank]

They should have a representation at the Concert as well.

I think that way lies madness. What about the Belgians?

[richardfinegold]

I think that way lies madness. What about the Belgians?

Madness is a very appropriate term to describe WWI.
Frank's Symphonic Variations would fit nicely on the program.

[amateur51]

I think that way lies madness. What about the Belgians?

Coming young Sir! ...

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ty7qO_RCnWA

[french frank]

Thanks be to all - though I wasn't suggesting the Belgians should be there, merely that if we have the UK, the Serbs, the Belgians and all the other nations whose people suffered greatly, it will be a rather long concert. Russia? Australia? Canada? The whole line of thinking risks another flare-up ...

[Flosshilde]

The 100th anniversary of this most notorious date in 20th century history is surely worthy of commemoration and this is the rationale behind the concert, and, to a degree, the programme. Perhaps few events in history has ever set in train such momentous consequences as the assassination of the Archduke Franz Ferdinand in Sarajevo that Sunday afternoon. The Archduke left the building where this concert takes place just before his murder.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=oQ4nyRtftiE

I hope we're not going to have similar commemorations of every significant date over the next four years - I think I'm suffering from WWI fatigue already.

I can only say "my dear; the noise, the people!"

[ferneyhoughgeliebte]

I hope we're not going to have similar commemorations of every significant date over the next four years

I doubt it somehow, Flossie - there wasn't much last week for the 700th anniversary of Bannockburn.

[Barbirollians]

I only caught La Valse a performance which if it had been considered in BAL would I suspect have been tailed off

[Petrushka]

Did no one else listen? A great pity that the BBC couldn't find room on television amongst all the sport and Glastonbury as this would have made a much better TV programme than radio. A slice of history thrown in with the music and there's an informative and interesting TV programme to be had.

While accepting the fact that the concert wasn't principally aimed at music lovers, the programme just about hung together if on the short side and was decently enough played. The sound wasn't especially noteworthy but acceptable enough. Perhaps the acoustic is a difficult one.

[Honoured Guest]

I listened to the twenty odd minutes of excellent introduction, including the contribution of Alan Little. I switched off a few minutes into the music - not my thing. It irritated and alienated me that this occasion was hijacked by the classical music minority mafia. It would have been more appropriate for a mass expression of world peace and fellowship to have featured popular music, in a Womad or Glastonbury style event.

[french frank]

Did no one else listen?

Well, you did say it was on at 5pm in the OP, but that didn't stop me being up a ladder, redecorating where the builders had replastered

Still, nearly seven days left on iPlayer (if lacking the symbolism of the exact date).