Fantastic, fantastic, incredible, fantastic

[Rcartes]

I'm sure this must have been raised before (and my apologies if it has), but I'm getting really steamed up about the ludicrously over-the-top language used by some presenters - well, one in particular (no names, of course, as it's not allowed here). Everything is "fantastic": the performers, the performance, the music itself, and all completely overstated. In reality, sometimes things are good, sometimes very good, sometimes even wonderful, but the same set words (fantastic, incredible, etc) are used again and bloody again, to the extent that I'm reduced to wanting to go out and commit serious violence on something, even a dog (especially a dog).

If only we could get a bit of measured differentiation between performers and performances, because if everything is "fantastic," there's no scope for accepting that some things are better than others, or of learning what it is that makes them so.

Aren't other people as infuriated by this ridiculous enthusiasm for everything as I am?

[french frank]

Aren't other people as infuriated by this ridiculous enthusiasm for everything as I am?

Yes, the unimaginative hyperbole has been commented on not infrequently.

[Barbirollians]

Not allowed ? Surely we cannot be talking about the star of Strictly .

I think that they should not be allowed to make such comments . If I think that I have just heard a very bland account of Bruckner 7 I do not want the presenter to tell me it was fantastic when I do not think that it was . I do not mind the presenter saying they enjoyed it but I do not want to be told what to think .

[pastoralguy]

And please don't threaten to take your temper out on dumb animals. Writing to the controller of Radio 3 may be more constructive. (Then again...)

[Nick Armstrong]

Aren't other people as infuriated by this ridiculous enthusiasm for everything as I am?

Depending of course on just how infuriated you are (I'm guessing: fantastically infuriated), I am, yes.

And I think you're fabulous and totally mind-blowing for raising it

[teamsaint]

Re Pasty's quite justifiesd animal treatment indignation,as somebody said after a particularly dreadful performance by their football team " it was so bad the cat kicked me !!"

[Rcartes]

And I think you're fabulous and totally mind-blowing for raising it

That's FANTASTIC!!!

[Flosshilde]

And then there's a certain presenter's enthusiasm for any recording because it's old, like the Leningrad Phil's recording of Siegfried's Rhine Journey he played yesterday morning. Wonderful etc etc - well, if you like very brassy brass (except for Siegfried's horn, which was almost inaudible), & lots of audience coughs & surface noise (or feet shuffling), but otherwise I couldn't see how it was any more wonderful than lots of other recordings.

[Dave2002]

Fantastic, fabulous, amazing - these are all incredibly over [mis-]used words. Mustn't forget legendary also!

[Alain Maréchal]

This has probably been mentioned before, but a couple of years ago a Prom was being relayed by France Musique, and she who shall not be named (because I cannot recall who it was) said after about two seconds "what an amazing performance..." The France Musique presenter, presumably unaware that he was live, was heard remarking "Amazing? Elle est devenue critique hein?"

[ahinton]

Yes, such instances are indeed both nauseating and nauseatingly frequent. Like most of us here, I imagine, I wouldn't even want to hear a presenter tell us that " a very bland account of Bruckner 7" was " a very bland account", even if that's exactly what it was; I would also prefer a presenter simply to tell us that we've just heard Szymanowski' Violin Concerto No. 1 played by Alina Ibragimova with the ×××SO conducted by ×××× ××××× even if the performance actually did merit all those superlatives and more. Why? Quite simply, for two reasons: (1) as has been mentioned above, it's just not the presenter's job to relay her (or his) personal opinions and (2) if such expressions are always OTT in the ways described, they're quite obviously not even genuine "opinions" in the first place. Funny how Donald Macleod, for example, never does this kind of thing on CotW, proving thereby that it's even possible for a Radio 3 presenter to eschew such nonsense!

[underthecountertenor]

This has probably been mentioned before, but a couple of years ago a Prom was being relayed by France Musique, and she who shall not be named (because I cannot recall who it was) said after about two seconds "what an amazing performance..." The France Musique presenter, presumably unaware that he was live, was heard remarking "Amazing? Elle est devenue critique hein?"

I'd never heard that before - FANTASTIQUE! Thanks, Alain. Yet another reason to love France Musique.

[Rcartes]

Yes, such instances are indeed both nauseating and nauseatingly frequent. Like most of us here, I imagine, I wouldn't even want to hear a presenter tell us that " a very bland account of Bruckner 7" was " a very bland account", even if that's exactly what it was; I would also prefer a presenter simply to tell us that we've just heard Szymanowski' Violin Concerto No. 1 played by Alina Ibragimova with the ×××SO conducted by ×××× ××××× even if the performance actually did merit all those superlatives and more. Why? Quite simply, for two reasons: (1) as has been mentioned above, it's just not the presenter's job to relay her (or his) personal opinions and (2) if such expressions are always OTT in the ways described, they're quite obviously not even genuine "opinions" in the first place. Funny how Donald Macleod, for example, never does this kind of thing on CotW, proving thereby that it's even possible for a Radio 3 presenter to eschew such nonsense!

Ah, Donald MacLeod: now he really is, er, fantastic, even legendary. Well, actually very good.

Compare all this slop with presentations on Radio New Zealand Concert: exactly as ahinton describes what R3 should be. If only we could tie down She Who Cannot Be Named for 24 hours, blindfolded and able only to listen to RNZ Concert: she might even learn something. But then again, probably not.

PS for dog lovers: although I loathe the stupid, mindless barking morons, I have never kicked one. Well, only once when a brute attacked me when I had the temerity to cycle past it.

[greenilex]

Not much available from the other side of La Manche this morning, alas.

Venezuela even worse.

Feeling very slightly less than hyperbolical about it all, I must admit.

[ahinton]

If only we could tie down She Who Cannot Be Named for 24 hours

Whilst it's clear that you have in mind "one egregious and notorious specimen in particular" (as Sorabji once put it, albeit in the context of lexicographers rather than R3 presenters), it is a sad fact that such gushing expressions are by no means the province of only one such falling star in the R3 firmament; if it were, three strikes and a P45 might just be on the cards as a solution but, as it is, there are times when it seems that acceptable ways of doing this kind of thing threaten to seem like the exception there. It's also such a pity because, when handled appropriately, presenters' contributions can be unintrusive, informative and interesting without ever leaning towards getting in the way of the music presented.