R3 in Concert one-stop shop

[oddoneout]

Interestingly, in the February 2024 issue that's just dropped through the letter box, a letter (not mine) has been printed which similarly deplores the single-movement aspect of the January release, and elicited a response:

We have received a number of similar letters about our January cover CD featuring only single movements and not whole works. Please rest assured that it was a one-off — intended to celebrate the 50th anniversary of the Scottish Chamber Orchestra with various performances from across the years — and that normal service resumes this month.

So carelessness and lack of joined up thinking(re: cover details) rather than start of a worrying trend ... possibly.

[Pulcinella]

So carelessness and lack of joined up thinking(re: cover details) rather than start of a worrying trend ... possibly.

This month we have two complete works:

Gershwin: Rhapsody in blue
Adams: Harmonielehre

[silvestrione]

Did anyone else try the Haydn/Mozart concert from last Friday? I had had one glass, but I'm sure , when the Mozart two-piano concerto was announced, that we heard, first...the opening cadenza from Beethoven's 'Emperor'?

It then went straight into the orchestral opening of the Mozart, but by then I just wanted to hear the rest of the Beethoven!

This was Maxim Emelyanychev and the SCO.

[oddoneout]

Did anyone else try the Haydn/Mozart concert from last Friday? I had had one glass, but I'm sure , when the Mozart two-piano concerto was announced, that we heard, first...the opening cadenza from Beethoven's 'Emperor'?

It then went straight into the orchestral opening of the Mozart, but by then I just wanted to hear the rest of the Beethoven!

It wasn't the Emily Langer piece was it - although reading the blurb it shouldn't have included LvB I would have thought? I didn't hear the beginning of it, not entirely accidentally, and wasn't listening properly to the rest, just thinking when is this going to finish so I can hear the Classical music the ads are always banging on about - and which we hear all too little of on R3 concerts.

[kernelbogey]

Did anyone else try the Haydn/Mozart concert from last Friday? I had had one glass, but I'm sure , when the Mozart two-piano concerto was announced, that we heard, first...the opening cadenza from Beethoven's 'Emperor'?

It then went straight into the orchestral opening of the Mozart, but by then I just wanted to hear the rest of the Beethoven!

This was Maxim Emelyanychev and the SCO.

Yes you're right - the presenter referred to it in the back announcement.

[Pulcinella]

Tonight's concert blurb:

The words of Kurt Vonnegut blasted American composer Andrew Norman out of his creative block: an explosive opening to a concert that celebrates Stravinsky at his most witty. The superb Norwegian violinist Vilde Frang makes a very welcome return as soloist in a concerto that Stravinsky designed to be unplayable!

Er, not quite.

[silvestrione]

Yes you're right - the presenter referred to it in the back announcement.

I'm an admirer of Maxim Emelyanychev (great Mozart concert available on BPO's Digital Concert Hall archive), he's a live-wire, and does such old-school things as improvising a link between two works...so I guess this was somehow similar (?)

[oddoneout]

Tonight's concert blurb:

The words of Kurt Vonnegut blasted American composer Andrew Norman out of his creative block: an explosive opening to a concert that celebrates Stravinsky at his most witty. The superb Norwegian violinist Vilde Frang makes a very welcome return as soloist in a concerto that Stravinsky designed to be unplayable!

Er, not quite.

And the blurb has left the presenter's name blank, which seems a bit odd as it's a recording.

[Ein Heldenleben]

This Simon Trpčeski Brahms Second Piano Concerto with the LSO on at the moment is wonderful. Such variety of touch , dynamic grading , nobility of phrasing . He is an absolute master.

[RobP]

Ages since I listened to Radio 3 in Concert and leaving aside a hopelessly lightweight performance of Beethoven 1 with Jonathan Biss I was amazed at what happened during the interval.

First we had a movement from the Dvorak Piano Quintet with Biss followed by him burbling about playfulness in music. Then we had the slow movement of a quartet by we were told the master of the form Haydn (strange I thought it was Beethoven, or is he out of favour at the BBC at present) followed by the Great Gate of Kiev.

Sorry, but what a jumbled joke. What happened to the time when you could expect an informed interval talk? Or would that be considered intellectually elitist?

[french frank]

Sorry, but what a jumbled joke. What happened to the time when you could expect an informed interval talk? Or would that be considered intellectually elitist?

It was some while ago that the message was conveyed to R3 management that 'people' didn't really like the concert interval taken up with bits of music, especially with little connection to the main concert works. But, as usual ...

[Roger Webb]

It was some while ago that the message was conveyed to R3 management that 'people' didn't really like the concert interval taken up with bits of music, especially with little connection to the main concert works. But, as usual ...

Yes, seems a different organisation from that which commissioned Bernard Levin to travel to 8 or 9 music festivals all expenses paid and to write articles on each to be read during the intervals of one of the Proms seasons. Some are hilarious, and have been collected together in his 'Conducted Tour'.

[french frank]

Yes, seems a different organisation from that which commissioned Bernard Levin to travel to 8 or 9 music festivals all expenses paid and to write articles on each to be read during the intervals of one of the Proms seasons. Some are hilarious, and have been collected together in his 'Conducted Tour'.

Which you can buy at silly prices in a number of places and at AbeBooks for 0.79p. Allegedly.

[Roger Webb]

Which you can buy at silly prices in a number of places and at AbeBooks for 0.79p. Allegedly.

And is even better value than you thought, as it covers 12 music festivals...incl. Adelaide, how much did that return flight cost! The BBC must have had a 'magic money-tree' back then.

[french frank]

The BBC must have had a 'magic money-tree' back then.

Yes, in those days the BBC did have something of a magic-money tree. Since then it has been considerably depleted, with the aggravating factor that Radio 3 has plummeted down the BBC's financial pecking order. By changing their published method of advertising relative costs, the BBC makes Radio 3 still look very expensive whereas Radio 1 and 2 are extraoordinarily cheap - even though they gobble up more of the BBC budget.