The Eternal Breakfast Debate in a New Place

[Flosshilde]

easier to recognise an attempt by the enemy to take over the airwaves. Nowadays it seems it's an attempt to create minor celebrities who are famous for nothing other than being on the radio.

I thought the general view here was that the enemy has taken over the airwaves?

[alycidon]

Oh no! Not Ravel's Bolero! But wait a minute. That's fourteen minutes without verbal interruption. Yippee!

[Sir Velo]

Oh no! Not Ravel's Bolero! But wait a minute. That's fourteen minutes without verbal interruption. Yippee!

Except there's no music in Bolero.

Anyway, if they play the Torvill & Dean mix it'll only be 4 mins.

[AndyJW]

Just heard 'Clemmy' refer to Bryn Terfel as "being on bass baritone" !!!

[Radio64]

Oh no! Not Ravel's Bolero! But wait a minute. That's fourteen minutes without verbal interruption. Yippee!

I like Bolero !! (never mind the Torville & Dean association)

[alycidon]

I like Bolero !!

I'm not surprised. Many people do. It's just too repetitive for my liking. But the point I was making was that ANY music is preferable to continual chit-chat.

[Domeyhead]

I'm not surprised. Many people do. It's just too repetitive for my liking. But the point I was making was that ANY music is preferable to continual chit-chat.

I am very fond of Ravel, though not of Bolero. What puzzles me listening to Bolero is that I would never in a hundred guesses associate it with Ravel. To my ears it doesn't fit with his style or musical interests. I detect a North African influence in the basic melody which would lead me to think more of a Spanish composer. I wonder if they have played it backwards yet on the Essential Classics "Brain Teaser"?

[Sir Velo]

I am very fond of Ravel, though not of Bolero. What puzzles me listening to Bolero is that I would never in a hundred guesses associate it with Ravel. To my ears it doesn't fit with his style or musical interests.

Ravel on Bolero: "It constitutes an experiment in a very special and limited direction, and should not be suspected of aiming at achieving anything different from, or anything more than, it actually does achieve. Before its first performance, I issued a warning to the effect that what I had written was a piece lasting seventeen minutes and consisting wholly of "orchestral tissue without music" — of one very long, gradual crescendo. There are no contrasts, and practically no invention except the plan and the manner of execution."

Its genesis came about as a result of his initial intention to orchestrate some of Albeniz's "Iberia". This was abandoned in favour of a new piece in the style of the Spanish dance, Bolero. One day at the piano he hit upon a theme which had a certain insistent quality. Thus, Bolero was born.

[Suffolkcoastal]

I'm trying to fathom what the fascination is with Ravel on R3, apart from clearly being one of the Dear Leader and his cronies favourite composers. We haven't even had the Ravel Day yet and the amount of his music broadcast on R3 is already well up on last and previous years and it isn't even an anniversary year or anything like that. He was already somewhat overplayed on R3 before this year and currently is the 10th most broadcast composer on R3 (the 9 ahead of him in order are Mozart, J S Bach, Schubert, Beethoven, Chopin, Brahms, R Strauss, F J Haydn, Schumann). As I've said before I quite like a lot of Ravel's music, but with an output that is by no means extensive, overplaying of his music doesn't do the composer any favours, as a limited number of works tend to be over-repeated.

[clive heath]

One of the most memorable Bolero's I've heard was a performance by the BBC Midland Light Orchestra who were a pretty broad-based group musically and they brought a swing to some of the solos that has never been matched in my experience tho' maybe not to everyone's taste.

[aeolium]

I'm trying to fathom what the fascination is with Ravel on R3, apart from clearly being one of the Dear Leader and his cronies favourite composers. We haven't even had the Ravel Day yet and the amount of his music broadcast on R3 is already well up on last and previous years and it isn't even an anniversary year or anything like that. He was already somewhat overplayed on R3 before this year and currently is the 10th most broadcast composer on R3 (the 9 ahead of him in order are Mozart, J S Bach, Schubert, Beethoven, Chopin, Brahms, R Strauss, F J Haydn, Schumann). As I've said before I quite like a lot of Ravel's music, but with an output that is by no means extensive, overplaying of his music doesn't do the composer any favours, as a limited number of works tend to be over-repeated.

It's been the case for quite a number of years, sc. I recall a survey conducted by one of your predecessors on the old BBC boards back in 2004 which showed Ravel topping the table which listed the works most frequently broadcast throughout the year (and with several other works near the top of that table).

[french frank]

It's been the case for quite a number of years, sc. I recall a survey conducted by one of your predecessors on the old BBC boards back in 2004 which showed Ravel topping the table which listed the works most frequently broadcast throughout the year (and with several other works near the top of that table).

Quickly going through, so E&OE, Ravel was represented in 2004 by 9 separate pieces, in total amounting to c. 130 airings, played at least 10 times each. (There may have been others works played less than that).

The exercise was undertaken for the same reason as sc has been doing it. And since this constitutes an unchanged situation, there is now a precedent which makes it allowable.

[Bax-of-Delights]

I hear that "Ravel Day" will have a programme entitled "Ravel Revealed". Did you see what they did there?

R3 has become a station where the presenter is king/queen, the verbiage is excessive and pumped up ("you'll be able to hear every second of this glorious opera on Radio 3") and the content is smothered under the empty shell of marketing.

[Frances_iom]

... and the content is smothered under the empty shell of marketing.

but that is all the UK produces these days - no real products as engineering + industry was killed off by Thatcher onwards - we see the same in Parliament as Gov ministers push out misleading figures + carefully crafted weasel words (eg current debate of medical records which did not point out just how many bodies can access them eg Police, big Pharma etc) - nearer home look at the exchange of posts between FF and one of the couple of BBC shills who post here re trails - carefully worded questions deliberately designed to mislead then quoted as valid research that these are positively desired by listeners.

[Serial_Apologist]

I hear that "Ravel Day" will have a programme entitled "Ravel Revealed". Did you see what they did there?

Not Ravel unravelled then! (It is us who have to do the unravelling).