Popular classics

[rauschwerk]

Talking of a hoedown, did anyone hear Il Giardino Armonico's take on Handel's Op. 6/11 yesterday? Somebody at R3 seems to like this particular version in which the players really dig their bows into the strings in the final Allegro and try to make it sound like a country dance. I hate it.

[old khayyam]

Aah... Concierto De Aranjuez! One of the greatest works of the twentieth century and, in my view, one of the most beautiful pieces of music known to man and his kind. Definitely one of my desert island discs.

So evocative is its power, i refuse myself the indulgence of playing it until every corner of my body demands it, until my soul is in exactly the right state of intoxication. Indeed, to listen to it i must have just the right red wine, in the right chair, by the right window, and that rare caress of a south-eastern breeze ~ ~ ~


Yet here we have it - on rotation every other week wether i want it or not.

[MickyD]

Talking of a hoedown, did anyone hear Il Giardino Armonico's take on Handel's Op. 6/11 yesterday? Somebody at R3 seems to like this particular version in which the players really dig their bows into the strings in the final Allegro and try to make it sound like a country dance. I hate it.

I didn't hear this, but am currently listening to another extract from the same set on Martin Handley's Breakfast programme. I'm a great HIP enthusiast, but like you, rauschwerk, I find this sort of jerky, spiky playing most unattractive. In my opinion, the AAM get it right by making the performances much less of a hair-shirt experience.

[mercia]

anyone unfamiliar with Rachmaninov's Symphonic Dances has been very well served this past week. Two live performances last week and another recorded one this afternoon. A case of overkill ..........?

[Bax-of-Delights]

anyone unfamiliar with Rachmaninov's Symphonic Dances has been very well served this past week. Two live performances last week and another recorded one this afternoon. A case of overkill ..........?

Try Four Sea Interludes for serious overkill. Every time I wander past the room in which the radio is on I either hear "Morning" or "Storm". Its a favourite of Sean Rafferty's - he plays it at least once a week and now its bled into other daytime programmes.

[Chris Newman]

Try Four Sea Interludes for serious overkill. Every time I wander past the room in which the radio is on I either hear "Morning" or "Storm". Its a favourite of Sean Rafferty's - he plays it at least once a week and now its bled into other daytime programmes.

Not only that bits of FSI creep into every documentary on BBC TV, whether travel, art, crises, you name it.

[Suffolkcoastal]

Actually the FSI's have been as prevelent this year as you may think, I'll check when I get home but I think there's been around 13 or 14 complete or partial broadcasts of them so far this year, well behind the Slavonic Dances on 49 and the Hungarian Dances on 45. Other considerably overplayed works so far this year off the top of my head are: 'The Four Seasons; complete or as individual concerti, already equal this year to the whole of last year, Alborado del Gracioso (which has taken over from La Valse this year), extracts from Carmen, extracts from The Barber of Seville, extracts particularly from Swan Lake but also the other two well known Tchaikovsky ballets, extracts from Debussy's Preludes, La Mer, Beethoven's Eroica Symphony, the Tallis Fantasia and Lark Ascending, The Planets (extracts/complete) and of course Rafferty's favourite, Prokofiev's Romeo & Juliet. I'll have to go back to my spreadsheet at home for the rest.

[Suffolkcoastal]

Was right with the FSI's the number of partial or complete broadcasts on R3 this year so far is 13. The other considerably overplayed works so far this year I forgot about are: extracts from Mendelssohn's A Midsummer Nights Dream, Ravel Piano Concerto in G (it and La Mer are having another outing next week I see), the Dvorak 'American Quartet', Shostakovich Festive Overture and movements from or complete broadcasts of Sibelius Karelia Suite.

[aeolium]

What about the 'Gypsy' piano trio, sc? Has that been on the air a lot this year?

With that piano trio and the 'American' quartet, I blame the performers as much as R3. They should know that there are many other fine Haydn piano trios that rarely get a hearing, as well as other C19 string quartets.

[Suffolkcoastal]

The 'Gypsy' Piano Trio, isn't one of the works that I've been directly monitoring this year, nor however has it caught my eye as being particularly overplayed ( I make an extra note of any work that I am not directly monitoring that also seems to be being overplayed). FJ Haydn seems to have had a reasonable broad spread across his instrumental compositions so far this year, however his choral works are not fairing so well.

[aeolium]

however his choral works are not fairing so well

No, hardly any broadcasts of his superb late Masses this year that I can remember - more's the pity as they are among the jewels of the choral repertoire. I'd much rather hear them than the frequently played Mozart Requiem, much of which is not by Mozart.

[Suffolkcoastal]

I agree entirely aeolium, I'm particularly fond of the magnificent Harmoniemesse and have never been much of a fan of Mozart et al's Requiem, the regrettably unfinished C Minor Mass is much more to my liking.

[old khayyam]

I can't pretend i wasn't expecting it. 11:00am today - the single most obvious piece they could play - Symphony #5, Beethoven.

[Suffolkcoastal]

And even worse the 25 occurence already this year of something from the b*%%$# Four Seasons!!!

[Don Petter]

Sc,

What does your analysis show this year for Dvorak? I've always liked him (up to now) but every time I switch on R3 in the morning he seems to be there, in some form or other, and I'm getting a bit tired of him. (Another habit copied from CFM?)