Edinburgh International Festival

[Master Jacques]

All too often I've striven to give a fair hearing to one of the many pieces by Weir or Bingham broadcast, and always I feel I was wasting my time. They're clearly very knowledgeable about music, skilful and well-educated, they know how to compose, but their music seems to say nothing to me, other than that it's bland and correct.

While I agree with you very strongly that it's not always the most interesting female composers who grace the R3 airwaves, with socio-political bandwagons dictating the choice far more than musical quality, I must register my strong personal delight in the work of our Master of the King's Music.

Judith Weir's consistent quality, individuality of voice (compounded of wit, light and air) and compositional mastery never fail to dazzle me: as an opera person, I'd add that she's one of the very best composers writing for the stage today - though she's been singularly unlucky in her stage directors at Covent Garden and ENO - and has a terrific, quirky and personal sense of theatre to which I at least respond enthusiastically. Bravo Judith Weir!

[smittims]

Strong praise there , Master Jaques; clearly you've found something in her music that eludes me.

As I've said before, my argument is not with these composers themselves, but with R3's policy. I suspect word went out to 'find more women, regardless of quaility'.

If we agree that (to put it crudely) it's wrong to ban good music just because it was written by a woman, then I think we should agree that it's also wrong to play so often bad music just because it was written by a woman. a few years ago music by Judith Bingham was played at least once every week, which I felt was not justified by its quality.

I think that if Arnold Cooke had been a woman, he'd be Composer of the Week and his symphonies would be played at the Proms.

[Pulcinella]

Sunday Times article about Judith Weir here:

https://www.thetimes.co.uk/article/meet-the-royal-composer-who-has-written-music-for-the-queens-funeral-znr9fsk0h?shareToken=d93071bd8dae36513cfdff692398e971

PS: Not sure that the link will work.
I can only see the first page in my iPad edition.

PPS: Looks completely different (and all there) in what appears on clicking on the link.

[Ein Heldenleben]

Strong praise there , Master Jaques; clearly you've found something in her music that eludes me.

As I've said before, my argument is not with these composers themselves, but with R3's policy. I suspect word went out to 'find more women, regardless of quaility'.

If we agree that (to put it crudely) it's wrong to ban good music just because it was written by a woman, then I think we should agree that it's also wrong to play so often bad music just because it was written by a woman. a few years ago music by Judith Bingham was played at least once every week, which I felt was not justified by its quality.

I think that if Arnold Cooke had been a woman, he'd be Composer of the Week and his symphonies would be played at the Proms.

Where your argument falls down slightly is that Composer Of The Week now regularly features very average composers of either sex. And by very average I mean poor really. The same could also be said of a lot of pre- noon material on R3 where the whole notion of a classical music canon has been discarded. The cynic in me thinks how very convenient that any notion of a ‘canon ‘ is now considered western elitist, colonialist etc etc as it allows all sorts of non -classical music to be played . Very handy because it’s usually under ten minutes in length allowing more time for blather. But it’s all sugar rush stuff - predictable harmonies and textures - Radio 2 fodder.

[smittims]

Well, Cooke has yet to be CoTW or his symphonies broadcast. But I agree strongly with your remarks abot the quality of many CoTWs; I think they're scraping the barrel, and the programme is overdue for a change.

I'd prefer a less rigid timescale: 'The music of...' featuring only complete works, and not necessrily only five programmes of one hour each.

The decline of Morning Radio 3 into CFM imitation has been much-condemned here, and I agree again. The coming of CFM should have freed Radio 3 to do something more stimulating, not less.

[smittims]

Thanks, Pulcinella; I was able to read it all on a laptop; often they won't let me do that unless I agree to a 'free trial' (Free? Ha!)

I was interested to see that the Master is paid £15,000 a year. That may be an innovation; I remember Arthur Bliss saying it was unpaid.

[Master Jacques]

Well, Cooke has yet to be CoTW or his symphonies broadcast. But I agree strongly with your remarks about the quality of many CoTWs; I think they're scraping the barrel, and the programme is overdue for a change.

It's very long in the tooth now, like its pleasant and professional presenter, and - judging from my own areas of expertise - the biographical and musicological research has got lazy over the last few years.

When it comes to Hispanic composers, for example, I don't think the programme has ever gone beyond Falla, Granados and Albéniz, which is scandalous when there are so many excellent ones who thoroughly deserve a week's programming and whose music would go down well. I have suggested at various times (during centenaries and the like) Guridi, Donostia, Barbieri, Chapí, Sorozábal, Torroba, Lecuona, and the Halffters amongst others, without receiving any reply whatsoever.

Aside from being stuck in a rut, CotW is like the rest of R3's output in being obsessed with Americana, and placing social and political convenience above musical merit. If it wasn't for the fact that we'd probably end up with something far worse, I'd be all for refreshing the format!

[Master Jacques]

For what it's worth, two months on I finally got a (pro-forma brush off) reply from R3, concerning my complaint about using music to fill concert intervals, and my positive suggestion to quarry their magnificent talks archive instead:

The music to fill the intervals is curated in a way to complement the performance and we are sorry to hear that the music was not to your taste. Please be assured that your comments have been brought to the attention of the production team.

Of course the whole point has nothing to do with "liking" particular music or not - the usual inane response to any hint of criticism - and there is no response to my talks suggestion whatsoever from these "curators". The lack of R3's accountability to listeners is striking; and especially now that the Feedback management has sacked Roger Bolton, presumably in favour of someone more bland and compliant, mere licence payers who fund BBC's radio/tv network can't expect that situation to improve any time soon.

[smittims]

I preferred a talk rather than music; I don't want to hear music in a concert interval precisely because it clashes with the content of the concert. The desire to 'complement ' the performance seems specious to me. They seem to be afraid of a complete contrast, but I found it welcome.

[Master Jacques]

I preferred a talk rather than music; I don't want to hear music in a concert interval precisely because it clashes with the content of the concert. The desire to 'complement ' the performance seems specious to me. They seem to be afraid of a complete contrast, but I found it welcome.

Well put! Whether or not we listeners find it welcome, it is easier and quicker to "curate" random bits of music to fill the gap, for producers who have lost their sense of professionalism, and have little responsibility to do the job carefully. That's why nobody is prepared to come out and defend the indefensible in this matter - which in turn, makes it even more important for us listeners to call out their laziness, which devalues the concert experience.

[bluestateprommer]

A wonderful concert. The Lili Boulanger was something of a revelation (not least with Véronique Gens towering magisterially every time she got up to sing - and singing rather well, too). The Rite is a Les Siècles party piece but played by the orchestra as if their collective lives depended on it. No encore - as F-X R said - I paraphrase - “We don’t do an encore after the Rite but thank you, Edinburgh”.

I finally caught up with the EIF concert by Les Siecles and F-XR of Lili B. & Igor S.. Lili B.'s Faust et Helene was a total revelation to me, as I'd never heard it before, not even the Chandos recording by Yan Pascal Tortelier (whose pdf booklet I used to follow the text - thanks to the Chandos website there). F&H is a d-mn fine work, and well deserves revival and many more performances, IMHO, any sort of concerns about "PC" aside. Hearing the original 1913 orchestration of Le sacre, I'd forgotten that Les Siecles & F-XR had performed the original 1913 version at the Proms back in 2013 (good grief, how time flies). So the differences hit me fresh once again (and reminded me that I've never gotten hold of their commercial recording). Some fractional ensemble slips, but that's the price of live performance, and no worries.

Also heard the Bergen PO / Gardner concert and the Helsinki PO / Malkki concert; both of them solid offerings. Maybe the one quibble with Edward G.'s choice of encore is that he might have chosen a quieter and slower selection from Peer Gynt after SR's Symphonic Dances first, but then tossed in "In the Hall of the Mountain King" as a second encore. (Probably too much to ask.) Interesting coincidence that both orchestras will lose their current chief conductors in the next year or two, although Helsinki has lined up Susanna M.'s replacement. Bergen needs to get going on that, if they're not already doing so ;) .

PS: For pastoralguy, I hope that you communicated to the EIF's (or Usher Hall's) customer service group your dissatisfaction. I've worked in a call center in a past life, so I know about dealing with customer service, from both sides, so to speak.

[pastoralguy]

I finally caught up with the EIF concert by Les Siecles and F-XR of Lili B. & Igor S.. Lili B.'s Faust et Helene was a total revelation to me, as I'd never heard it before, not even the Chandos recording by Yan Pascal Tortelier (whose pdf booklet I used to follow the text - thanks to the Chandos website there). F&H is a d-mn fine work, and well deserves revival and many more performances, IMHO, any sort of concerns about "PC" aside. Hearing the original 1913 orchestration of Le sacre, I'd forgotten that Les Siecles & F-XR had performed the original 1913 version at the Proms back in 2013 (good grief, how time flies). So the differences hit me fresh once again (and reminded me that I've never gotten hold of their commercial recording). Some fractional ensemble slips, but that's the price of live performance, and no worries.

Also heard the Bergen PO / Gardner concert and the Helsinki PO / Malkki concert; both of them solid offerings. Maybe the one quibble with Edward G.'s choice of encore is that he might have chosen a quieter and slower selection from Peer Gynt after SR's Symphonic Dances first, but then tossed in "In the Hall of the Mountain King" as a second encore. (Probably too much to ask.) Interesting coincidence that both orchestras will lose their current chief conductors in the next year or two, although Helsinki has lined up Susanna M.'s replacement. Bergen needs to get going on that, if they're not already doing so ;) .

PS: For pastoralguy, I hope that you communicated to the EIF's (or Usher Hall's) customer service group your dissatisfaction. I've worked in a call center in a past life, so I know about dealing with customer service, from both sides, so to speak.

We were at that concert, BSP, and really enjoyed it. The Boulanger was quite a piece although I’ve resigned myself to that sad fact that I’m very unlikely ever to hear it performed live again. Oddly enough, despite featuring Le Sacre, the tickets sold very poorly. We got promoted to the posh seats since the cheap seats were closed due to poor sales. Very surprising. Mind you, the Philadelphia Orchestra suffered the same fate which was probably due to the inclusion of Florence Price’s Second Symphony. Very sad since hearing the Philadelphia play ANYTHING is a real treat. (I’d even have gone had they been playing Bruckner! )

Yes, we complained bitterly to the RSNO and the Edinburgh Festival both of whom offered apologies and free tickets to a season concert and a refund of our tickets respectively. The Usher Hall stuck to the ‘we were only following orders’ line and gave us… nothing.

Bearing in mind the literally hundreds of concerts I’ve been to at the Usher Hall I’m pretty disgusted that they didn’t offer reparation of some description. One day, I will get revenge…

[bluestateprommer]

Link specifically to the classical music filtered page on this year's EIF offerings (the first with Nicola Benedetti at the EIF helm, needless to say [so, of course, bsp says it]):

https://www.eif.co.uk/whats-on/category/classical-music

[pastoralguy]

Link specifically to the classical music filtered page on this year's EIF offerings (the first with Nicola Benedetti at the EIF helm, needless to say [so, of course, bsp says it]):

https://www.eif.co.uk/whats-on/category/classical-music

To be honest, I’ve been rather underwhelmed by this year’s offerings.

[Petrushka]

To be honest, I’ve been rather underwhelmed by this year’s offerings.

Why does the Usher Hall have so many seats with a 'restricted view'? Had a look at the seating plan and couldn't quite believe it.