The Eternal Breakfast Debate in a New Place

[Serial_Apologist]

I put Breakfast on today just to see what was on while baking croissants: a somnolent piece for choir and cello, a Bach prelude without its fugue (presumably too intellectual) and after the news, Meditation from Thais . It really was starting to sound like 'your smoochiest adagios' or 'Classical Calm' so I switched off. I don't know how Petroc stays awake. Perhaps he doesn't listen.

He actually gave factual misinformation yesterday first thing, which I just managed to catch before realising I had woken up! A pity I didn't make a note of it.

[LMcD]

I put Breakfast on today just to see what was on while baking croissants: a somnolent piece for choir and cello, a Bach prelude without its fugue (presumably too intellectual) and after the news, Meditation from Thais . It really was starting to sound like 'your smoochiest adagios' or 'Classical Calm' so I switched off. I don't know how Petroc stays awake. Perhaps he doesn't listen.

Perhaps somebody will take pity on him and bring forward his move to In Tune.
There are quite a few candidates for the title 'Most Frequently Aired Bleeding Chunk', including the Adagietto from Mahler's 5th Symphony, the 2nd movement of Mozart's Piano Concerto No. 21 and the 1st movement of Beethoven's 'Moonlight' Sonata..

[smittims]

I put Breakfast on today just to see what was on while baking croissants: a somnolent piece for choir and cello, a Bach prelude without its fugue (presumably too intellectual) and after the news, Meditation from Thais . It really was starting to sound like 'your smoochiest adagios' or 'Classical Calm' so I switched off. I don't know how Petroc stays awake. Perhaps he doesn't listen.

[Serial_Apologist]

One of the problems with the pick'n'mix approach is that when something is heard that does arouse interest, following it up may prove more of a challenge than was assumed. Not because it is difficult these days to find such things but because for someone coming at it from the likes of pop albums has to face the fact that they won't get 'more of the same' in the way they might expect. Earlier this year I read something, in an article that was partly about such issues, about a lad who'd decided to find if there were any more tracks like Nessun Dorma, which he'd rather taken a shine to. He located the opera, but then was flummoxed by not being able to find either that track, or any similar ones, as he'd been expecting. It's a similar situation to those who refer to Katherine Jenkins as an opera singer...
There will be those who hear an isolated item who go on to find out more and may discover a world they knew nothing of and wish to continue exploring. There will also be others who hear the one movement of, eg a symphony, that catches their attention, listen to the rest( or some of perhaps) and then continue to listen to just the one movement they first heard, as that's the bit they like. I came across this when I was a student and one of my flatmates had watched the film 'A Touch of Class'; I had a recording of LvB 7, but I couldn't persuade her to finish listening to the other movements, she just wanted the 'film music'. Moving forward almost 50 years, a choir friend is another who will only listen to parts of works, hence her preference for CFM I suppose.

This really started in the 60s when LPs would be issue with titles such as "Purple Passages from Your Favourite Classics" - usually things like The Ride of the Valkyries and the slow movement from the Concierto de Aranjuez. They were cheap releases and would often turn up in the remainders racks outside record shops. Jazz labels released (and for all I know continue to release) composites consisting of different tracks available from current and past releases - but in that case the aim was curiosity about the LPs concerned, and often succeeded; but in such cases the tracks were not extrapolated excerpts arbitrarily divorced from complete artifacts, like a detail caught on camera from a film or painting, but unrepeatable moments to be succoured as they were experienced.

[oddoneout]

How likely is is that an array of single movements will encourage any newcomers to what has now become a Dim Sum of a breakfast programme to seek out any of the whole works and move on from there to discover more delights of the classical repertoire?

One of the problems with the pick'n'mix approach is that when something is heard that does arouse interest, following it up may prove more of a challenge than was assumed. Not because it is difficult these days to find such things but because for someone coming at it from the likes of pop albums has to face the fact that they won't get 'more of the same' in the way they might expect. Earlier this year I read something, in an article that was partly about such issues, about a lad who'd decided to find if there were any more tracks like Nessun Dorma, which he'd rather taken a shine to. He located the opera, but then was flummoxed by not being able to find either that track, or any similar ones, as he'd been expecting. It's a similar situation to those who refer to Katherine Jenkins as an opera singer...
There will be those who hear an isolated item who go on to find out more and may discover a world they knew nothing of and wish to continue exploring. There will also be others who hear the one movement of, eg a symphony, that catches their attention, listen to the rest( or some of perhaps) and then continue to listen to just the one movement they first heard, as that's the bit they like. I came across this when I was a student and one of my flatmates had watched the film 'A Touch of Class'; I had a recording of LvB 7, but I couldn't persuade her to finish listening to the other movements, she just wanted the 'film music'. Moving forward almost 50 years, a choir friend is another who will only listen to parts of works, hence her preference for CFM I suppose.

[Ein Heldenleben]

Just imagine how much money those composers might have made today, had they agreed to have their works parcelled up in bits for broadcasting to listeners who clearly had a much greater appreciation of their music than they did!

That is a very good point. At one stage the composer of the first Channel 4 ident - a mere four notes - was rumoured to be earning between £40 and £70 per play. You wouldn’t believe the number of times that ident was played a day . On a note for note basis probably the most profitable short piece ever written - though the revenues would pale into insignificance compared to White Christmas , Candle In The Wind and Yesterday which must have earned £100 million plus each - probably more than all the classical composers who’ve ever lived (unless they wrote a pop / Broadway hit).

[Serial_Apologist]

... I wrote this on this forum back in November 2017 -

"I remember attending the launch party of Classic FM's move into producing CDs. I found myself standing next to the Music Critic of (of all things) The Reader's Digest. In idle conversation I mooted that praps doing an isolated movement - taking the over-used example of the Mahler 5 adagietto - might tempt an otherwise unsure audience into trying the whole thing : I instanced my brother, not a classical music follower, but who I knew did like 'some bits'. He replied with the weary voice of experience - no, what people want after the Adagietto is not the rest of the symphony - they want 'more of the same' Which might mean the Barber, that Albinoni, the b****y Gorecki, &c.

I retired, saddened but unsurprized... "

.

Just imagine how much money those composers might have made today, had they agreed to have their works parcelled up in bits for broadcasting to listeners who clearly had a much greater appreciation of their music than they did!

[vinteuil]

How likely is is that an array of single movements will encourage any newcomers to what has now become a Dim Sum of a breakfast programme to seek out any of the whole works and move on from there to discover more delights of the classical repertoire?

... I wrote this on this forum back in November 2017 -

"I remember attending the launch party of Classic FM's move into producing CDs. I found myself standing next to the Music Critic of (of all things) The Reader's Digest. In idle conversation I mooted that praps doing an isolated movement - taking the over-used example of the Mahler 5 adagietto - might tempt an otherwise unsure audience into trying the whole thing : I instanced my brother, not a classical music follower, but who I knew did like 'some bits'. He replied with the weary voice of experience - no, what people want after the Adagietto is not the rest of the symphony - they want 'more of the same' Which might mean the Barber, that Albinoni, the b****y Gorecki, &c.

I retired, saddened but unsurprized... "

.

[AuntDaisy]

How likely is is that an array of single movements will encourage any newcomers to what has now become a Dim Sum of a breakfast programme to seek out any of the whole works and move on from there to discover more delights of the classical repertoire?

Will R3 Unwind etc. slip in Blipverts (à la Max Headroom) to educate / hook listeners? Or has R3 already started?

[antongould]

... Eternal - or Unanswered?

Almost certainly both ……

[LMcD]

Ah the Eternal question ……..

... Eternal - or Unanswered?

[antongould]

How likely is is that an array of single movements will encourage any newcomers to what has now become a Dim Sum of a breakfast programme to seek out any of the whole works and move on from there to discover more delights of the classical repertoire?

Ah the Eternal question ……..

[LMcD]

How likely is is that an array of single movements will encourage any newcomers to what has now become a Dim Sum of a breakfast programme to seek out any of the whole works and move on from there to discover more delights of the classical repertoire?

[Pulcinella]

A shameless plug (which I'll duplicate in The Choir) for this piece, which featured in yesterday's Breakfast:
David McGregor
O Oriens
Choir: BBC Singers. Conductor: Toby Ward.

https://www.bbc.co.uk/programmes/m0025mxt

I think it starts at 2.02.20

David was originally told that the piece would be broadcast on 22 December, and found out about this broadcast at 22:30 last night.

I have mentioned David before, as he wrote the first of the pieces in A Quaker Trilogy that my partner commissioned for the choir I sing in; he recently won the Charles Wood Competition for his anthem O for a closer walk with God, and has launched his own Consort, Nova Consort, with a competition (results to be announced shortly).

[hmvman]

Unusually for me, I listened to a bit of Breakfast today , and was pleasantly surprised they played all three movements of a Bach concerto. Back to normal after the news ,though , with just the slow movement of the Grieg.

I too was listening for longer this morning and after the Grieg there was also a complete Tartini trumpet concerto (Alison Balsom in fine form, though not as exuberant as Maurice André imo).