BBC Radio 3 Carol Competition

[DracoM]

Are R3 being serious? It's tenth rate junk! Crikey!

[oddoneout]

Are R3 being serious? It's tenth rate junk! Crikey!

It can't be serious these days, it has to be inclusive and accessible...

[Eine Alpensinfonie]

It can't be serious these days, it has to be inclusive and accessible...

According to rules it’s far from inclusive. Anyone remotely likely to produce a decent carol is either deterred or excluded.

Imagine the satisfaction of winning, in the knowledge that someone else did most of the donkey work.

[cloughie]

It can't be serious these days, it has to be inclusive and accessible...

…and Heaven forbid there should be any reference to Christmas!

[Simon Biazeck]

I wouldn't want to enter any competition to be judged by members of the BBC Singers.

Why not? And in any case it's Radio 3 listeners who decide the winner - that's you.

[Pulcinella]

Why not? And in any case it's Radio 3 listeners who decide the winner - that's you.

But they are part of the selection process.
Sorry if you're associated with them, but I don't hold them in high regard.
I had the misfortune to be invited to sing in a chamber choir which had a member of the BBCS as a fellow singer; his arrogance was truly reprehensible.
Interestingly, I was given a solo, not him, but that was perhaps as a sort of test of my ability.
One concert was enough.

[Dave2002]

You know summer's well and truly gone when the Carol Comp. rears its head...
I thought it might have been a child's pome - Blue Peter competition winner p'raps, alternatively a rather primitive AI effort.
Apparently this chap is writing an opera for the BBC Philharmonic, correction has written. https://www.bbc.co.uk/events/er2bc8

I’m not sure how writing an opera could form part of doctoral research. Presumably not a proof of concept test.

Only one clear bit of fluff jargon in that article - “ground-breaking”.

[Eine Alpensinfonie]

Why not? And in any case it's Radio 3 listeners who decide the winner - that's you.

… after already being sifted by a strange mixture of judges, had the music mangled by a highly judgemental judge (an imposed “friend”, before being thrown to the lions, where the semi-composers with the largest circle of friends will be able to exploit their advantage.

The reason I might not want members of the BBC Singers on the judging panel is the way this unpredictable bunch has sung these carols in previous years - in a “can’t really be bothered” sort of way - no feeling or understanding.

[smittims]

I keep clear of competitions, especilly those where they pretend 'you, the public, choose', when it's from a highly massaged shortlist. Music that wins competitions is rarely any good, because the winners have learnt to write a special sort of 'competition -winning' music they know is expected.

[Simon Biazeck]

But they are part of the selection process.
Sorry if you're associated with them, but I don't hold them in high regard.
I had the misfortune to be invited to sing in a chamber choir which had a member of the BBCS as a fellow singer; his arrogance was truly reprehensible.
Interestingly, I was given a solo, not him, but that was perhaps as a sort of test of my ability.
One concert was enough.

I'm sorry to hear that. How long ago? I haven't sung with the Singers for a very long time and that is unlikely to change. I don't recognise your description of arrogance. I know many of the present group, and in no way could any of them be described in that way. I sang with one of their number in church yesterday, and all the antonyms of "arrogance" would apply to that experience - a sheer pleasure. The group has changed very much - I would say that.

[Simon Biazeck]

But they are part of the selection process.
Sorry if you're associated with them, but I don't hold them in high regard.
I had the misfortune to be invited to sing in a chamber choir which had a member of the BBCS as a fellow singer; his arrogance was truly reprehensible.
Interestingly, I was given a solo, not him, but that was perhaps as a sort of test of my ability.
One concert was enough.

Are they? How so? Are you suggesting that their opinions are invited? That won't happen. Totally professional. If you mean, just the fact that they are there... An amateur group might be part of the process and have the same effect.

[Simon Biazeck]

… after already being sifted by a strange mixture of judges, had the music mangled by a highly judgemental judge (an imposed “friend”, before being thrown to the lions, where the semi-composers with the largest circle of friends will be able to exploit their advantage.

The reason I might not want members of the BBC Singers on the judging panel is the way this unpredictable bunch has sung these carols in previous years - in a “can’t really be bothered” sort of way - no feeling or understanding.

Is that an expression marking - 'quasi con indifferenzia'? Seriously though, I don't recognise that in what I've heard. They may have been asked not to sell any one piece, but I don't think that is the case.

[oddoneout]

I'm sorry to hear that. How long ago? I haven't sung with the Singers for a very long time and that is unlikely to change. I don't recognise your description of arrogance. I know many of the present group, and in no way could any of them be described in that way. I sang with one of their number in church yesterday, and all the antonyms of "arrogance" would apply to that experience - a sheer pleasure. The group has changed very much - I would say that.

Well anno domini means that the group will have changed over the many decades I have listened to them. What hasn't changed are the particular characteristics that mean they are immediately identifiable - and not in a good way - the house style.
In more recent times there have been some good concerts I have heard where the wobbly raucous sopranos have either not been present or have been leant on to tone things down and sing as part of a group, not soloists standing next to each other and doing their own diva thing. There are two abiding longstanding irritations for me; they can sing well - so why not do it all the time and, does no-one ever listen to what the listener at home hears. I am well aware that the "being there" experience is different from the sitting at home one, but where the broadcast is a studio one, whether live or recorded, I just don't understand how some of what I get as an "end-user" is considered acceptable. Matters of balance etc are one thing (although seemingly allowing the top line to dominate as a default setting puzzles me) but the wobble is nothing to do with that. Back in the day when I was listening as a child with my mother wobble was normal, but six decades later things have moved on - except for the BBCS it would seem. There are far too may occasions still where my love of the music means I will grit my teeth and listen to a concert despite, not because of. More recently I have sometimes been pleasantly surprised - but can't rely on that.
However to get back OT, my own view is that what the competition has now become does not belong on R3 (if indeed it ever did). Penning a simple toon for others to tart up is within the capabilities of a great many people these days, 99% of whom who don't even know R3 exists. As ever, the reason it stays here is that the airwaves can be disrupted to make space without causing mass rebellion (as with Dumbtime); we are too few to matter, and we are elite, exclusive, entitled, so need putting in our place and taking down a notch or several.

[Eine Alpensinfonie]

I had the misfortune to be invited to sing in a chamber choir which had a member of the BBCS as a fellow singer; his arrogance was truly reprehensible.

That’s interesting. I was luckier in that the BBCS singer I met was full of human warmth and humility. She was the former pupil of the choir’s MD, who had recently joined the BBCS, and was invited back as a soloist for the choir’s concert. It was ironic really, for in rehearsal, the MD would tell the sopranos to cut out the vibrato, citing the BBCS as an example.

The soloist had a wonderful voice. I looked for her on the recent TV Proms broadcast of Parry’s I was Glad, and she was still there. However, her body language suggested that she was not one of those who were aggressively trying to stand out, as some appeared to be. It only takes one or two mavericks to ruin a vocal ensemble.

[Pulcinella]

I'm sorry to hear that. How long ago? I haven't sung with the Singers for a very long time and that is unlikely to change. I don't recognise your description of arrogance. I know many of the present group, and in no way could any of them be described in that way. I sang with one of their number in church yesterday, and all the antonyms of "arrogance" would apply to that experience - a sheer pleasure. The group has changed very much - I would say that.

Thanks for your comment: I'm prepared to believe that things have changed.
It was a while ago, that's true.

I was invited to join a rehearsal to see how I got on; sight-reading with medieval French words (Debussy/Ravel: forget which now; the Orleans songs?) and the guy simply sneered at my attempts at pronunciation (no doubt he knew them well either from a previous rehearsal or more likely through the BBCS) but gave no hints or help. Totally off-putting.