The Eternal Breakfast Debate in a New Place

[antongould]

Early start today, and I was glad (cue music...): I agree muzzer, Georgia Mann is excellent. If I may quote anton, IMVVVHO. From my first hour or so of hearing her, an ideal pitch of voice for radio, no intrusive tics or self-regarding mannerisms, and sounds entirely on top of her subject and her script.

Look forward to more.

Yes she is doing well IMVVHO ....... and she may even, unlike #TheSquire, have a sense of humour .....

[french frank]

and she may even, unlike #TheSquire, have a sense of humour .....

Wash your mouth with soap and water, that man! Mmm, yes - get that 'g' in 'gentilhombre'. This is someone for whom Aranjuez would hold no fears …

[Nick Armstrong]

Mmm, yes - get that 'g' in 'gentilhombre'. This is someone for whom Aranjuez would hold no fears …

I was impressed too that we got Jean-Louis Barrault reading Baudelaire (Recueillement from Les Fleurs du mal)

[Richard Tarleton]

Wash your mouth with soap and water, that man! Mmm, yes - get that 'g' in 'gentilhombre'. This is someone for whom Aranjuez would hold no fears …

[french frank]

I was impressed too that we got Jean-Louis Barrault reading Baudelaire (Recueillement from Les Fleurs du mal)

Followed by Debussy, Le Livre de Baudelaire - and the Chinese poem followed by a traditional(?) Chinese piece, I see.

I switched off Monday's prog before Serge Gainsbourg's Le Poinçonneur des Lilas came on, however.

[Zucchini]

I was impressed too that we got Jean-Louis Barrault reading Baudelaire ...

It was for World Poetry Day. One off. Big deal.

(comment applies equally to ff's contribution)

[french frank]

It was for World Poetry Day. One off. Big deal.

(comment applies equally to ff's contribution)

But how often have they marked WPD on Breakfast in the past? With French poetry?

I hope you noted that the request came from François Français …

[antongould]

But how often have they marked WPD on Breakfast in the past? With French poetry?

I hope you noted that the request came from François Français …

The bar seems set high let's hope Manners can maintain the standard .....

[french frank]

The bar seems set high let's hope Manners can maintain the standard .....

Is that as in Manners makyth woman?

[Old Grumpy]

Skellers, Manners, Alkers...

Goulders, steady on old chap - this is beginning to sound like a cricketing thread!

Grumpers

[muzzer]

I also note that GM has followed the trad route of production then presenting, wot seems to have gone out of fashion in recent years. Anyway, am greatly enjoying Breakfast this week, and she's clearly a hit on this board, which is no mean achievement...bravo.

[DaisyDog]

Georgia Mann is the new favourite but she has a voice that is too ‘dark’ for me, deep and sonorous and without the clarity, wit and lightness of touch of Ian Skelly and Penny Gore, my current favourites. And GM does play some rather odd music, French chanson, MoR, Sondheim, and other lightweight fillers that seem somewhat incongruous on Radio 3. Still, she is an enormous improvement on the Cornishman. Where has he disappeared to? Gone fishin'?

[Cockney Sparrow]

..... the Cornishman. Where has he disappeared to? Gone fishin'?

Off doing something for Comic Relief?

(BTW, channel hopped on to Katie D doing the Vera Lynn tribute programme late last night. (Don't worry, she was involved in linking and "out and about" segments - didn't seem she was allowed near Vera herself)). And OK .... I'll admit it, I dropped my resistance, ("...its 71 years since the end of WWII.... is it not time to move on.....") and watched it for a while I have to say, and was struck with what I supposed I knew from all those 1960's radio programmes that she was a very good vocal artist - I'm sure that is no news).

[antongould]

Georgia Mann is the new favourite but she has a voice that is too ‘dark’ for me, deep and sonorous and without the clarity, wit and lightness of touch of Ian Skelly and Penny Gore, my current favourites. And GM does play some rather odd music, French chanson, MoR, Sondheim, and other lightweight fillers that seem somewhat incongruous on Radio 3. Still, she is an enormous improvement on the Cornishman. Where has he disappeared to? Gone fishin'?

Yes her choice of music is beginning to worry me just a little. #TheSquire has seemingly taken the Proms to Dubai ....

[french frank]

Yes her choice of music is beginning to worry me just a little.

Reactions will be entirely personal to the "interventions": if I can see from a playlist, or if I'm listening and Sondheim/Gainsbourg & al come on, it would be enough to make me switch off instantly, go away and not come back (not leaving the country, just going away and doing something else).

But, and it's only intended as a comment on my own listening, I find the constant changes in style every 6 minutes or so (on average) also disruptive; as are trails. Let's not go down the road of emails or tweets - or even hearing about who requested the Bach Before 7 piece. Not my kind of listening these days. I want substantial pieces that I can get absorbed in - and I don't really understand why anyone who is rushing to go to work needs to listen more than superficially to longer works, given that they're apparently doing that anyway

And if R3 needs listeners to suggest pieces, I don't see the need to tell everyone on air who that person was. Stuff a fiver in an envelope to them with a thank-you note.