The Eternal Breakfast Debate in a New Place

[antongould]

As a regular early morning listener - I'm just listening to the Skellers/Hendrix "show" as I type - I feel, like ff, it is moving in, what we see as the right direction.
On tweets etc. I, as I've said before, have no problem with them - in fact IS invited some suggesting pieces by composers that contain elements felt to be before their time and I found the responses interesting. As to the number they get he did say he had had "lots" from Hendrix fans asking for specific tracks - they got the put down I'm sure we feel they deserved - compare and contrast CBH's response to Ferry Across The Mersey.
As to short pieces I feel we are getting more and longer pieces of music and I think ff's regiment of statisticians proved this.
Taking the Skellers week he played a complete symphony, not Bruckner 8 but the full work and on Thursday I have just heard a Josef Suk piece running over 15 minutes ..... so a space to be watched in hope ....

[french frank]

Twitter's fine for those who wish to use it, but there's no need whatever to subject the entire broadcasting public to their ramblings.

Not much 'rambling' in 140 characters! Perhaps I was just lucky with my Friday 150-minute stint but whereas I did, mentally, note the tweets &c. I didn't find they grated. Can't remember if Monica McCabe tweeted - emailed probably since she had something interesting to say about her late husband - but THAT (and I admit it would be unusual) was quite a satisfying contribution.

I think there's not a lot of interest in hearing who, from where, has suggested Piece A for the Breakfast Music Box: if it's a good suggestion, just play it with minimal/no reference to the requester. As for Mrs Trellis of North Wales texting in to mention a piece which 'blew her away' (if only) when she first heard it …

ag - the comparison between IS on Hendrix and CBH on Gerry and the Pacemakers is indeed telling. Gerry's nasal wailings and Hendrix's wizardry on the electric guitar would both have made me turn off and go away to do something else - not least because I knew exactly what to expect from both. On the other hand, Scarlatti on the mandolin and banjo kept me listening - and I enjoyed it (less enamoured of pop music played by classical musicians, but that's just me ).

[cloughie]

Not much 'rambling' in 140 characters! Perhaps I was just lucky with my Friday 150-minute stint but whereas I did, mentally, note the tweets &c. I didn't find they grated. Can't remember if Monica McCabe tweeted - emailed probably since she had something interesting to say about her late husband - but THAT (and I admit it would be unusual) was quite a satisfying contribution.

I think there's not a lot of interest in hearing who, from where, has suggested Piece A for the Breakfast Music Box: if it's a good suggestion, just play it with minimal/no reference to the requester. As for Mrs Trellis of North Wales texting in to mention a piece which 'blew her away' (if only) when she first heard it …

ag - the comparison between IS on Hendrix and CBH on Gerry and the Pacemakers is indeed telling. Gerry's nasal wailings and Hendrix's wizardry on the electric guitar would both have made me turn off and go away to do something else - not least because I knew exactly what to expect from both. On the other hand, Scarlatti on the mandolin and banjo kept me listening - and I enjoyed it (less enamoured of pop music played by classical musicians, but that's just me ).

Never realised Jimi played Scarlatti - I bet he enjoyed playing mandolin but maybe the banjo wasn't his bag!

[french frank]

Never realised Jimi played Scarlatti - I bet he enjoyed playing mandolin but maybe the banjo wasn't his bag!

Kept it secret and recorded under the name of Chris Thile (correctly pronounced by Mr S - tealeaf without the f at the end). The banjo player had been given the names Béla Anton Leoš after Bartók, Webern and Janáček - so perhaps he wasn't typical of banjoists in general (info courtesy Wikipedia). Though he was inspired by Earl Scruggs - the only banjo player I would have been able to name. Now I can name Béla Anton Leoš Fleck too.

[Richard Tarleton]

Though he was inspired by Earl Scruggs - the only banjo player I would have been able to name.

Pete Seeger? I have some lovely banjo cartoons, sorry drawings, from the New Yorker, but I fear their copyright lawyers might be onto us if I post them. The NYer seems to have a decided editorial position on banjos.

I met a mandolin player who had played with Lester Flatt and Earl Scruggs - 2 degrees of separation

[french frank]

Pete Seeger?

Had forgotten - if I ever took it in - that he played the banjo. I just remember Ticky-Tacky Boxes where he sang.

[oddoneout]

First venture into this strange world, so hope I don't upset anyone or get something wrong

Still missing the advance playlist to entice people to listen.

Doesn't that rather assume that there is something worth listening to? I am not bothered about the lack of a playlist, and am happy enough with short pieces I can tune into or out of at the beginning of the day, but I am fed up with the same items appearing time and again. Did someone lose the key to the archive?

[french frank]

First venture into this strange world, so hope I don't upset anyone or get something wrong

Doesn't that rather assume that there is something worth listening to? I am not bothered about the lack of a playlist, and am happy enough with short pieces I can tune into or out of at the beginning of the day, but I am fed up with the same items appearing time and again. Did someone lose the key to the archive?

Hello, oddeoneout - welcome.

I've just finished listening to today's edition, much encouraged by last Friday's listen.

Big mistake. Big, big, big mistake. Very big, big, big mistake. A depressing end to the day. Back come the tweeters saying ooh, what a lovely piece, more please, no, that was awful &c &c … And endless reading out of newspaper articles about this, that and the other. Please, please, don't do it.

Slavonic Dance not rendered any more welcome by being played as a piano duet
Andante from Mozart's 21st PC. Only surprise about that was there was no mention of Elvira Madigan
Movement from Bruch's G mi violin concerto (Finale)
Sibelius Karelia Suite intermezzo
Movement from Janáček's Sinfonietta
Britten's Simple Symphony (pizzicato movement)

And not a joke anywhere One thing about Skellers is that he was quite cheerful about people writing in to tell him about his mistakes, whereas others blunder through … oh, for goodness sake …

[teamsaint]

....but I imagine the time checks were accurate, so maybe this is god's way of getting us to the gym early.......

oh........


edit: i just clicked on the schedule for COTW,and it brought up the Breakfast home page. On second thoughts, Perhaps I should rephrase that..

[Stanfordian]

Hello, oddeoneout - welcome.

I've just finished listening to today's edition, much encouraged by last Friday's listen.

Big mistake. Big, big, big mistake. Very big, big, big mistake. A depressing end to the day. Back come the tweeters saying ooh, what a lovely piece, more please, no, that was awful &c &c … And endless reading out of newspaper articles about this, that and the other. Please, please, don't do it.

Slavonic Dance not rendered any more welcome by being played as a piano duet
Andante from Mozart's 21st PC. Only surprise about that was there was no mention of Elvira Madigan
Movement from Bruch's G mi violin concerto (Finale)
Sibelius Karelia Suite intermezzo
Movement from Janáček's Sinfonietta
Britten's Simple Symphony (pizzicato movement)

And not a joke anywhere One thing about Skellers is that he was quite cheerful about people writing in to tell him about his mistakes, whereas others blunder through … oh, for goodness sake …

Hiya French Frank,

All I want is for them to play the music and maybe tell us something about it or the recording. Clearly this is too much to ask!

[ahinton]

Hiya French Frank,

All I want is for them to play the music and maybe tell us something about it or the recording. Clearly this is too much to ask!

That's all that I would ask, too; I suspect, however, that this is "too much to ask" only because someone somewhere has decided that it is so...

[french frank]

That's all that I would ask, too; I suspect, however, that this is "too much to ask" only because someone somewhere has decided that it is so...

Well, folks, I still have hopes that there is going to be a move in that direction. I am quite happy to have some succinct information about the music played/to be played as well as the title and performance details. And a 'human' throwaway line now and again.

It's clearly becoming harder and harder to find knowledgeable people to be 'generalist' presenters: perhaps over the past 20 years it's become less and less likely that they could find someone who actually listens to Radio 3? and who at least has listened enough to know how to pronounce the names of performers who are heard with some frequency on the station - and whose names are usually pronounced correctly. They aren't all totally obscure musicians (like Boolay and Gobi) whose names are regular pitfalls for even the most knowledgeable :-(

Catriona Young, I'm fairly sure, has presented CotW in the past - before Donald M took over as a single permanent presenter - and she now presents TTN. Penny Gore is still around too. And Louise Fryer?

[Rolmill]

They aren't all totally obscure musicians (like Boolay and Gobi) whose names are regular pitfalls for even the most knowledgeable :-(

My tooth-brushing slowed momentarily this morning when I thought I heard CBH refer to "Arturo Michelangeli Benedetti" - I really hope that I misheard and she didn't mangle the name of one of the great pianists of the last century...

[doversoul1]

It's clearly becoming harder and harder to find knowledgeable people to be 'generalist' presenters: perhaps over the past 20 years it's become less and less likely that they could find someone who actually listens to Radio 3? and who at least has listened enough to know how to pronounce the names of performers who are heard with some frequency on the station - and whose names are usually pronounced correctly. They aren't all totally obscure musicians (like Boolay and Gobi) whose names are regular pitfalls for even the most knowledgeable :-(

Catriona Young, I'm fairly sure, has presented CotW in the past - before Donald M took over as a single permanent presenter - and she now presents TTN. Penny Gore is still around too. And Louise Fryer?

I’d have though Radio3 presenter would be still quite an attractive post for aspiring young people, both male and female, who are interested in broadcasting and classical music, like S M-P must have been. If only R3 or the BBC looked for genuine talent and gave them a proper training rather than recruiting presenters for wrong reasons, I’m sure we would have enough young Catriona Young, Ian Skelly or Jonathan Swain to fill the schedule.

The unfortunate thing about S M-P is that she was/is also good at the ‘RW generation’ R3 presentation.

[french frank]

My tooth-brushing slowed momentarily this morning when I thought I heard CBH refer to "Arturo Michelangeli Benedetti" - I really hope that I misheard and she didn't mangle the name of one of the great pianists of the last century...

Twice - at the beginning and the end. The great pianist - Nicola's dad.

You remember back in 1992 when the Classic FM presenters became laughing stocks?