Music Nation

[salymap]

Wow, what would Sir Adrian, Sir Malcolm and others make of that? Seriously, is it progress?

[french frank]

Wow, what would Sir Adrian, Sir Malcolm and others make of that? Seriously, is it progress?

Looking at a video of the producer at work, it seems to me that it's to expand the horizons of the pop musicians (and possibly also the orchestra) but not in the direction of an appreciation of, or knowledge of, classical music. Which all makes work for the working men/musicians to do. But. I'd say pop music gets more out of the experiment than classical music.

[Serial_Apologist]

Looking at a video of the producer at work, it seems to me that it's to expand the horizons of the pop musicians (and possibly also the orchestra) but not in the direction of an appreciation of, or knowledge of, classical music. Which all makes work for the working men/musicians to do. But. I'd say pop music gets more out of the experiment than classical music.

Like Deep Purple did from working with Malcolm Arnold?

[salymap]

Looking at a video of the producer at work, it seems to me that it's to expand the horizons of the pop musicians (and possibly also the orchestra) but not in the direction of an appreciation of, or knowledge of, classical music. Which all makes work for the working men/musicians to do. But. I'd say pop music gets more out of the experiment than classical music.

I'm glad to see that you remember Flanders & Swann ff. Now Donald Swann was a real all-rounder in music.

[Chris Newman]

I quite enjoyed the new Joubert cello concerto. The orchestra was announced on air as the 'National Chamber Orchestra', but in the Radio Times it's the 'Northern Chamber Orchestra', which I believe is correct. Perhaps DM was too distrracted by the vexed question of how to pronounce Shrewsbury.

Yes, I too liked the Joubert Cello Concerto. I was interested to hear the City of London Sinfonia under Stephen Layton playing Vaughan Williams's music for the film Scott of the Antarctic with readings from Scott's tragic diaries and the Cecilia MacDowell song cycle on a similar theme sung by the excellent Robert Murray. I also heard the Shakespeare Sonnets Cycle written and sung by Rufus Wainwright with the BBCSO. It was fascinating to hear two composers both writing slow melismatic vocal lines. As so much modern music tends towards angular writing this was refreshing. I would say that Wainwright has a more individual sound. This is my first hearing of music by MacDowell and it sounded stylistically somewhere between Britten and Tippett.

Otherwise I have caught two loads of Bernstein: the excellent On the Waterfront from Northern Ireland and the less original West Side Story Symphonic Dances from the BBCSO.

[EdgeleyRob]

The ASMF concert of the two Brahms sextets on Saturday afternoon was very good, prefacing each work with readings from extracts of Brahms' letters to Clara Schumann.

This was the best thing on the radio this weekend IMHO.

[Chris Newman]

I see some of us praise the weekend faintheartedly. Yes, the announcers were all bouncy and there were lots of bleeding gobbets played live but listening to young performers who have been lucky enough to take part it has been the biggest thrill of their lives. Hear the excitement of 9 year olds who got a chance to sing or play in their own choir or orchestra together with the BBCSSO or the BSO. OK, it was only the opening of Carmina Burana or a mangled abbreviation of the Ode to Joy but to those youngsters it was seventh heaven and were we still kids we would think the same. Occasionally the BBC has a duty to cater for future audiences. I am quite happy to step aside and let them do something like this if it is for the right reason.

[Norfolk Born]

Well said, sir!

[Frances_iom]

.. Occasionally the BBC has a duty to cater for future audiences. ..

the catch is that 6 days a week pre noon is already devoted to this - I know 'think of the children' is a mantra difficult to argue against but the weekend was a right mess - a few excellent sections lost in a welter of schmaltz - I understand the attractions of a live concert - it is one of the key attractions of R3 but not the generally disorganised mishmash that seemed to rule here.

[Flosshilde]

the catch is that 6 days a week pre noon is already devoted to this - I know 'think of the children' is a mantra difficult to argue against but the weekend was a right mess - a few excellent sections lost in a welter of schmaltz - I understand the attractions of a live concert - it is one of the key attractions of R3 but not the generally disorganised mishmash that seemed to rule here.

It probably was a very good & exciting event if you happened to be at one of the concerts or events, with some originality. But it also made inevitably poor, & frustrating, radio, with brief visits to the events & reliance on presenters talking to participants. But, as has been mentioned, the childrfen involved were enthusiastic & excited - I heard the Big Noise in Stirling, & they were obviously thrilled (& also some rather middle class children in a choir who were also presumably excited but rather more constrained about it expressing it - loosen up, kids!). Some of the perfromers I heard were also enthusiastic & excxited doing something outside their usual environment.

[DracoM]

Absolutely agree with flosshilde about the mash-up on live radio whatever the quality of individual concerts within that jigsaw. I gave up listening after a while because so much grade A dross followed good bits and you simply never knew what was coming next, and too often it turned out to be meretricious disappointment laced together by interminable, relentlessly interminable chat and flapdoodle, silly snatches of interviewettes, self-congratulatory BBC stuff - aren't we clever to have links with all these different places? Playlists were almost entirely redundant. I mean, who was this aimed at?? Or did we merely hear a day being carefully stored for week after week of re-hears of all the stuff we heard and stuff that we didn't but were told about?

Real mess.

[Norfolk Born]

I'm sure the looming 9-day Schubertiade will be neat and tidy (not that I'll be listening).

[amateur51]

I see some of us praise the weekend faintheartedly. Yes, the announcers were all bouncy and there were lots of bleeding gobbets played live but listening to young performers who have been lucky enough to take part it has been the biggest thrill of their lives. Hear the excitement of 9 year olds who got a chance to sing or play in their own choir or orchestra together with the BBCSSO or the BSO. OK, it was only the opening of Carmina Burana or a mangled abbreviation of the Ode to Joy but to those youngsters it was seventh heaven and were we still kids we would think the same. Occasionally the BBC has a duty to cater for future audiences. I am quite happy to step aside and let them do something like this if it is for the right reason.

Completely agree, Chris!

[Flosshilde]

I hadn't actually realised the weekend was happening until I switched on for the EMS & was rather puzzled by what I heard (I noted later that Jazz Record Requests had kept it's slot - perhaps as payoff for being shunted when the opera starts earlier than usual ), & even more so by the continual introduction of sport, & comparisons between musicians & athletes. I just thought that it was a gratuitous attempt to appeal to the masses, which it wasn't, of course

[doversoul1]

Chris
I see your point and it does sound heartless to say this but quite honestly, I don’t listen to Radio3 to be feeling generous about other people’s children. And I’d even say, (to the BBC not to you!) don’t use children for yet another attempt of mass-pleasing event. Yes, the BBC has a duty to cater for future audiences but that can be much better achieved by broadcasting intelligent and challenging programmes.

One programme I was looking forward to was the Academy of Ancient Music’s concert scheduled at 9.45 on Saturday. I turned it on at 9.44. Some mass audience event was still going on. I waited. No sign of the end of this. There was even an interview with Andy somebody which I wasn’t sure if it meant to be real or a joke. I turned it off. Turned it back on after a few minuets. Still the same. Did this three times and on the third occasion I heard the presenter saying something about Brazilian music. This was well past 10.00 pm. By then I was more or less convinced that the programme had been cancelled. With no real hope, I turned the radio on once more at 10.15pm and found that I had missed half of the Biber. It was a good concert but I wonder how many listeners gave up. If this was anything to go by, the event was a complete mess.