A la recherche du Third Programme perdu

[Eine Alpensinfonie]

Alps, I've been emailed and asked to post this talk by Hans Keller in response to your 'dalek in auto mode' comment

Wow! Thank's for that. I really enjoyed it. What nostalgia!

[PJPJ]

Actually, the FLVs for M2 and M4 have their audio in aac format. Only M1 uses mp3. You would need to use something like HiDownload Platinum Edition to grab the FLV, then FLVExtract.exe to extract the aac file. That can then be transcoded to mp3 with Free M4a to MP3 Converter.

PM me if that all seems too much.

Many thanks, Bryn - I'll have a go and PM you if I fail!

[vinteuil]

Alps, I've been emailed and asked to post this talk by Hans Keller in response to your 'dalek in auto mode' comment

ahh, Hans Keller. That voice - along with those of Isaiah Berlin and Basil Lam - is my memory of listening to the Third as a child. I saw them as my rôle models; theirs was the world I wanted to inhabit. Is there, I wonder, anyone currently on R3 who a young me wd look up to in such a way?

[Steerpike]

Lastly, Cooke does a comparison of performances of Mahler Symphony No 4' in an attempt to divine an authentically Mahlerian performing tradition.' There is no date given for this 49 minute talk but Deryck Cooke died sadly young at 57 in 1976 and the performances available for his comparison will give listeners a clue or two.

http://www.viddler.com/explore/DeryckCookeWeb/videos/2/

Many thanks for this link, amateur 51.

As a clue to the date of Cooke's talk, he mentions round about the 2 minute mark that the Klemperer recording with the Philharmonia was issued 'a few months ago'. The recording was made in April 1961, though I don't know when it was first issued, but I imagine that puts the talk in the early 60s.

[Sydney Grew]

HERE is a recording I made in 1966 of the Leamington man Wilfrid Mellars, in a discussion with a northern American named Earle [sic] Brown, said to be a "sidekick of Cage." I have always loved the sound of Mellers's opening phrase: "Well Earle Brown . . ."

Indeed for the worldly-wise there are many chuckles in this programme, which lasts forty minutes.

I had not until recently been aware of Mr. Mellers's having himself been a composer with a considerable number of works of all kinds to his name. He wrote, for example, two symphonies. But they are both marked "withdrawn" in the Grove list; indeed something like nine of what appear to be major works from his pen are thus marked, and that includes late works as well as early ones - a fact I find curious since most composers continue do they not to find some value in the works they issue at the various stages in life.

Mellers also wrote prolifically (or prolificly if you prefer) on music, both in book form and in journals. He was in fact rather influential as an arbiter of taste, and here we must take issue with him, since he encouraged the introduction and increasing acceptance of "popular music" into hitherto serious circles - groups of youths ululating and thwacking their "guitars," that sort of carry-on. One knows in one's heart that behaviour of that kind is unacceptable does one not.

Indeed the fact that so many British schools of to-day are more like prisons than schools is in the end largely due to Mellers's activities. He misguidedly attempted to "bridge a gap" but in fact permitted cultural standards to slide. Another result of that is the present lamentable and squalid condition of the B.B.C.

[Sydney Grew]

Here:

http://www.sendspace.com/file/809kw5

is the last recording of old broadcast talks we have readily available. This one, which we recorded in 1966, goes on for thirty-two minutes. It is given by the talented pianiste Susan Bradshaw, who presents her own most interesting illustrated exposition of all the compositions of M. Boulez. (And the announcer introduces her very correctly as "Miss Bradshaw," which would regrettably not be done to-day.)

[Bryn]

Here:

http://www.sendspace.com/file/809kw5

is the last recording of old broadcast talks we have readily available. This one, which we recorded in 1966, goes on for thirty-two minutes. It is given by the talented pianiste Susan Bradshaw, who presents her own most interesting illustrated exposition of all the compositions of M. Boulez. (And the announcer introduces her very correctly as "Miss Bradshaw," which would regrettably not be done to-day.)

Sadly, today she might more politely be refered to as "the late Susan Bradshaw". She and John Tilbury gave the first performance of Cardew's Boulavogue at Wigmore Hall, some 9 months before the composer's untimely death at the hands of a hit and run driver. On June 23rd 1984 she took part in a relay perfomance of Satie's Vexations at the Almeida Theatre. After doing her one hour stint she repared to the bar and ventured that she did not much lie the piece, but it was for charity, so she had agreed to particpate.

[Mark Sealey]

Bryn,

Have you been (has anyone been) to, has there ever been, a complete performance of Vexations?

…took part in a relay perfomance of Satie's Vexations…

[MrGongGong]

I've been to a couple

its lightweight stuff compared to what La Monte Young demands !

[Bryn]

I've been to a couple

its lightweight stuff compared to what La Monte Young demands !

La Monte Young demanding? In what way?

[Bryn]

Bryn,

Have you been (has anyone been) to, has there ever been, a complete performance of Vexations?

Only of the relay variety, and I've attended three of those, including the Almeida one already referred to (which I also recorded to a series of cassettes, though unfortunately only a few stretches remain).

[MrGongGong]

I think (and i'll have to check ) that there have been a couple of non relay performances with a single player
as to La Monte Young
a piece like "Dream House" (is it a piece or a place to be ?) had a version that lasted from September 1966 to January 1970. Composition 1960 #7 could be seen to be much more or a marathon for the audience (but ultimately very satisfying)

[Bryn]

Came to think of it, two of the performances if Vexations I attended were not so much relays and shared. Both were given by Christopher Hobbs and Gavin Bryars. This was around four decades ago.

[Alf-Prufrock]

... which I also recorded to a series of cassettes, though unfortunately only a few stretches remain

Why on earth would you want a complete recording of Vexations? It would seem a waste of, what, a dozen cassettes or more. (How many did it take?)

Surely you were not intending to listen to the composition all over again?

[Bryn]

Firstly because there were some 20 pianists involved (some played two stints) and their different approaches to the piece were of interest to me (from John TIlbury's highly consistent performance without pedalling, so relying totally upon finger legato technique, via John White's exquisitely 'salon' approach, to Michael Nyman's attempt at playing each repetition differently) and secondly as raw material for a project I was working on at the time which involved multi-tracking the 840 cycles as one (with, effectively, 840 simultaneous performances of a single cycle.