I listened last night to what I considered a very good Gotterdammerung. The problem, as usual, lay in the presenter. I have written many times on this topic, and I'm afraid that 'presenters' are the main reason I have given up on Radio 3. I gave it another try and enjoyed the opera. However, the whole evening was ruined by Tom Service who always has to show off his knowledge in the most ostentatious manner possible, and let us know exactly how we should feel about the performance. The worst aspect on this occasion was that he sounded like a sports commentator. Going to another room, hoping to get out of earshot, it was like hearing the excited shouting and breathless attempts to describe an on-going race in Doncaster.
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In his defence, at least he knows and enjoys his subject, even if the way he communicates his enthusiasm is excessive bordering on obnoxious. What's odd is that nobody has appeared to try to rein him in a bit, he's always been like this. There's something there that could be moulded anyway, in contrast to a presenter like K Derham, who is a fake from first to last.Originally posted by beacon View Post -
Originally posted by Darkbloom View Post
- he's a disaster as a continuity announcer/concert presenter; much better presenting discussions (in The Listening Service and on Music Matters); but best of all in his Guardian articles.
Well, no he hasn't - recordings from his early years on Music Matters from 2003 show a much calmer and more measured presenter.What's odd is that nobody has appeared to try to rein him in a bit, he's always been like this.
As he is now on TLS and MM, his enthusiasm and wide range of knowledge result in his trying to gabble out everything he wants to say in too limited a time span, so that nothing he says gets a chance to "sink in". Many an enthusiastic class teacher has felt the same enthusiasm to spread the word - TS hasn't had the good luck of seeing his "audience" switch off and start drawing rude pictures in their exercise books as a result of their mistimed eagerness![FONT=Comic Sans MS][I][B]Numquam Satis![/B][/I][/FONT]Comment
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I mostly agree with the above. But Lucy Winkett by his side was an interesting (and calmer) presence.
I enjoyed the opera, although I had missed Act I. I could have wished for better stage pictures on the website as I would have liked to know more about the visual aspects of the the end of the gods at the end. The notion of the solitary girl-child remaining intrigued me.Comment
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On another thread, we are on the topic of Thielemann. I saw Tom Service interview him at the RAM a couple of years ago. The questions were often longer, more effusive, and more consecutively claused, than the answers. I do like his enthusiasm, but he should not do live programmes, as he needs an editor. Or a coach.Comment
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TS's relentless commentary at the end of Act III was rather like listening to someone playing a piano with the sustaining pedal stuck down. It was unbearable. Less would have been much, much more.Comment
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It's particularly irritating when presenters feel that they have to give their opinion about what they're hearing too, as if we can't make up our own minds. I find the Met broadcasts unbearable these days. Peter Allen might have sounded like he was dozing off sometimes but he was wise enough to let the performance speak for itself without editorialising. That modest approach is very unfashionable now.Originally posted by Vile Consort View PostComment
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