The Eternal Breakfast Debate in a New Place

[doversoul1]

And they (whoever they may be) have the nerve to say

NB This playlist is subject to change during transmission. The final playlist will be put up by noon on the day of broadcast.

or have no manners to say ‘Sorry, this is not yet available’:
or don’t care or even have no idea what they are doing. All very sad.

[Suffolkcoastal]

It should be easy to put together a list in advance as at least half of the pieces will be from the Breakfast pool of standard classics. Perhaps they are now just too embarrassed to publish the lists in advance.

[Panjandrum]

Martin Handley gave that old canard about Buxtehude walking to Lübeck AGAIN!

[arcades]

Martin Handley gave that old canard about Buxtehude walking to Lübeck AGAIN!

I thought the story was Bach walking to Lübeck to hear Buxtehude play? Not Buxtehude walking to where Buxtehude already was ...?

[MickyD]

And isn't there also a story of Bach walking to Halle to hear Handel play, but he just missed him by a day or so as he had already set off for London?

[arcades]

And isn't there also a story of Bach walking to Halle to hear Handel play, but he just missed him by a day or so as he had already set off for London?

I don't know that one :): it's like Buñuel's Le charme discret de la bourgeoisie, where they never actually get to eat anything!

[ahinton]

I thought the story was Bach walking to Lübeck to hear Buxtehude play? Not Buxtehude walking to where Buxtehude already was ...?

You thought correctly. It seems that there's quite abit of confusion about walkers here - and Classical Collection isn't even the topic...

[french frank]

You thought correctly. It seems that there's quite abit of confusion about walkers here - and Classical Collection isn't even the topic...

Well, I'm confused. What's Classical Collection got to do with this muddly side topic? Martin Handley is indeed the presenter of Eternal Breakfast. Or is that another part of the confusion?

The excess of Buxtehude, correctly referred to by arcades, may speculatively be explained by the fact that the piece being introduced was by Buxtehude (Toccata in G major, Bux WV 165) rather than Bach.

[Re Bach, Halle and Handel I know nothing. Perhaps someone could do a bit of research and offer a little note on the subject?]

[mercia]

Schweitzer says that Bach longed to meet Handel. Handel visited his native Halle three times from England. On his first visit in 1719 Bach was only 4 miles away in Cothen and set out to meet Handel but the latter had left just before Bach's arrival. Ten years later Handel again was at Halle but Bach was ill and sent WF Bach to invite Handel to visit JSB at Leipzig. Handel was unable to make the trip. By the time of GFH's last visit to Halle, Bach had died having apparently always regretted never meeting Handel.

[MickyD]

Thank you, mercia, I am glad to think I hadn't imagined having heard this story.

[ahinton]

Well, I'm confused. What's Classical Collection got to do with this muddly side topic?

Nothing, actually; the reference was a mere aside about walkers, in view of the confusion about who is supposed to have walked where to listen to whom...

[Mr Pee]

Oh gawd. Adagio from Spartacus.......... I'm off to Radio 4.

[french frank]

It's interesting to look at the playlist and analyse why it could appeal to one set of listeners and not at all to another.

As I write, it hasn't (apparently) been updated yet, but looking at the list before the broadcast, I wonder why I would be expected to want to listen to it.


Maybe at 7.27am, when we're already on our fifth piece, Wolf's (Italian?) Serenade for String Quartet, which is only 6 minutes long, but with 13 mins of Brandenburg 3 following it would make, say, a 20 min interlude. Add Schumann's Traümerei to that and suddenly we have nearly half an hour of - mostly rather familiar stuff.

Later on there's one movement from a Haydn symphony (No 5), a song by Robert Stolz and a bit of Handel's Water Music.

From the end, possibly 13 minutes of Vivaldi's Nulla in mundo at approx 9.07, but it nestles uncomfortably between Voices of Spring and the Adagio from Spartacus.

Now, I can understand that there's an audience for such a selection (21 items on the playist now: I wonder how many more will be added?) but it doesn't have nearly enough interest for me to bother to tune in just to hear some 'classical music'.

[And Classical Collection offers Die Fledermaus, Carnival of the Animals and Mozart's piano sonata in C K 545]. Plus, admittedly unusually, half an hour of the 'essential light music' from BaL]

Hmmmm

[Osborn]

With the exception of some people here with spare time, do you really believe that R3 breakfast listeners look up the playlist the night before and decide whether to listen or when to listen and whether to skip walking the dog or catch a later train because there's a 6min clip at 7.22am to listen to? I don't.

I would guess that hardly anyone reads the whole playlist and it's just used to answer who played that and what was that. In the last 8 months I've only looked twice.

[vinteuil]

With the exception of some people here with spare time, do you really believe that R3 breakfast listeners look up the playlist the night before and decide whether to listen or when to listen and whether to skip walking the dog or catch a later train because there's a 6min clip at 7.22am to listen to? I don't.

I would guess that hardly anyone reads the whole playlist and it's just used to answer who played that and what was that. In the last 8 months I've only looked twice.

You speak here, I think, for yourself.
I look at the playlist in advance to see if there is anything which I might wish to listen to.
And decide on that basis when to be in or when to nip out for the bread or the newspaper.
Sadly, like Fr Fr, I often find the offerings not to be tempting.
In the last eight months you looked twice.
I probably looked about 240 times...