Essential Classics - The Continuing Debate

[ahinton]

I don't know - it strikes me as a huge talent stretched beyond its means, and being commissioned far too often to enable him to "take stock" and contemplate how his skill might develop. He will, of course, be indifferent to criticism from a listener who does not share his general outlook - and he has admirers aplenty who are far more impressed with his work than I am (or have ever been); but I think that these very admirers have overburdened him, pressing his Music into a mould that does not allow movement into other ways of thinking; other means of expression.

I suspect that you've hit the nail on the head here; this kind of thing can happen, especially when a composer's work becomes widely exposed - but then perhaps I would say that on the gronds that I am only too conscious of the fact that it doesn't fall to all of us to be able to make each work better than its predecessor or even to be able at all times to produce something worthy...

[pastoralguy]

Hurrah for British light music but for heaven's sake, please get RC off the bloody station!

Oh no, NO! I really like Rob Cowan. I see a lot of myself in him except he's more knowledgable and gets paid to do a job he's enthusiastic about!

[french frank]

Hurrah for British light music but for heaven's sake, please get RC off the bloody station!

Or, alternatively: Down with British Light Music Let Rob do something more sensible .

No one can expect their own personal tastes to be accommodated throughout the entire schedule.

It was my opinion that the Radio 3 website was pushing it a bit by describing the very well-known latter-day piece 'Elizabethan Serenade' as a "musical treat", since it seems unlikely that all listeners, or even a majority, would consider it a 'treat'. If they do, can't they just whistle it and play something a bit less familiar on Radio 3?

[teamsaint]

Yes - I have previously thought quite highly of JMacM's early scores (in contrast to the dreary rewritings of them that has been his subsequent output) but hearing this this morning changed my attitude: a miss-mash of El Salon Mexico, the string writing from Phaedra and all the emotional intellect of a three-year-old throwing a strop. An inadequate response to the horrific events which "inspired" its composition, I felt.

Its probably just as well that the computer didn't pick out Alex Harvey's song Isobel Goudie by mistake.

That would have had a few folk emailing and tweeting.......

Actually on second thoughts.....

[peterthekeys]

Rob's interview style

In the interview with Jane Lapotaire today, they got to the point at which she had the devastating brain haemorrhage which interrupted her acting career for 13 years. I would have liked to listen to it - but unfortunately, Rob took the opportunity to turn on a great gush of treacly empathy, which revolted me so much that I switched off.

In a way, I felt guilty about doing so, as I have no doubt that the empathy was sincere. But - at least in my humble opinion - someone needs to tell Rob that what would work in the context of a counselling session or a call to the Samaritans doesn't necessarily work in the context of a radio interview - however agonizingly the interviewer relates to and empathises with the interviewee, he/she needs to remain objective, impartial and to some extent aloof.

I suppose that the ugly truth is just that the programme-makers are so obsessed with making the programme touchy-feely and keeping the "human interest" paramount that questions of taste don't figure on their radar at all.

[peterthekeys]

Yes - I have previously thought quite highly of JMacM's early scores (in contrast to the dreary rewritings of them that has been his subsequent output) but hearing this this morning changed my attitude: a miss-mash of El Salon Mexico, the string writing from Phaedra and all the emotional intellect of a three-year-old throwing a strop. An inadequate response to the horrific events which "inspired" its composition, I felt.

I've never got on with Macmillan's music, and I've never quite been able to fathom why. Somehow I can't get a sense of an underlying structure, and the music all-too-often seems to be just a sequence of arbitrary violent gestures (your comment about a "three-year-old throwing a strop" definitely rings a bell.) I'm sure there must be an underlying structure, given Macmillan's seriousness and erudition. I suppose I should get some CDs and scores, and sit down and study it for a while - then I might get to like it. But there is so much more music to which I am drawn instantly when I first hear it, and which seems almost to entice me to study and understand it. Like Dutilleux, for example. (I remember Beecham's comment that he found Delius' music as "alluring as a wayward woman." Bit misogynistic and politically-incorrect by today's standards - but I know what he meant.)

[Barbirollians]

For all his knowledge and enthusiasm about music- Cowan is a terrible interviewer . Walker is little better .

[ahinton]

In the interview with Jane Lapotaire today, they got to the point at which she had the devastating brain haemorrhage which interrupted her acting career for 13 years. I would have liked to listen to it - but unfortunately, Rob took the opportunity to turn on a great gush of treacly empathy, which revolted me so much that I switched off.

In a way, I felt guilty about doing so, as I have no doubt that the empathy was sincere. But - at least in my humble opinion - someone needs to tell Rob that what would work in the context of a counselling session or a call to the Samaritans doesn't necessarily work in the context of a radio interview - however agonizingly the interviewer relates to and empathises with the interviewee, he/she needs to remain objective, impartial and to some extent aloof.

I suppose that the ugly truth is just that the programme-makers are so obsessed with making the programme touchy-feely and keeping the "human interest" paramount that questions of taste don't figure on their radar at all.

Sadly, I could not agree more, although it is perhaps only one of the more heinous examples of presenters tastelessly, pruriently and sometimes also insensitively gushing in ways that include those to which you draw attention here; this is not how it's supposed to be done and is likely to have ever more people reaching for their off switches.

[antongould]

For all his knowledge and enthusiasm about music- Cowan is a terrible interviewer . Walker is little better .

Agreed - I find them both, at times, embarrassing .....

[Black Swan]

For all his knowledge and enthusiasm about music- Cowan is a terrible interviewer . Walker is little better .

I totally agree. I have never been a fan of RC. I find he is in love with his own voice and programs he presents could have more music if he gave less of his overly wordy comments pre and post playing.

[Nick Armstrong]

For all his knowledge and enthusiasm about music- Cowan is a terrible interviewer. Walker is little better.

I agree about RC, I avoid his interviews; but in contrast, I think Sarah Walker is a lot better. I make a point of downloading the podcast of most of her interviews. Those with John Lithgow, for example, and Sam Neill were delightful - she's got the knack imo, and establishes a rapport without sycophancy, and conveys interest / enthusiasm without gushing... and indeed, the interviews seem to proceed naturally, points leading on from one another without apparent reliance on a script. Very good car listening.

[ardcarp]

Both Rob and Sarah are hugely knowledgeable. I am certain that the BBC popularising machine has forced them into styles which do not come naturally to them.

[Barbirollians]

Good interviewing is a skill that neither have in my opinion - I should have thought it would have been a better idea to get an informed classical music aficionado with those skills in - naughtie for example though the us also too keen on the sound of his own voice .

[ahinton]

Both Rob and Sarah are hugely knowledgeable. I am certain that the BBC popularising machine has forced them into styles which do not come naturally to them.

I fear that you've hit the nail on the head here.

[french frank]

I should have thought it would have been a better idea to get an informed classical music aficionado with those skills in

Erm, Michael Berkeley?