Essential Classics - The Continuing Debate

[Stanfordian]

Rob told us yesterday that Steven Kovacevich was a regular listener - SK suggested the comparison of Rachmaninov and Uchida playing a Schubert Impromptu....

Some years ago on a Christmas Radio Quiz I remember that Steven Kovacevich wasn’t able to recognise one of his own recordings. At the time I was quite shocked by that. Maybe that is not so unusual?

[peterthekeys]

Typos on R3 website

Don't know if it's something to do with spending 35 years working in software development - but I seem to have a knack for spotting typos. Recently, there's been a large number on the BBC web site (maybe the proofreading department has been a victim of the cuts.) I thought the latest offering was worth sharing (from the schedule for this morning's programme - Mendelssohn) :

Prelude and Fugure in E minor, Op 35 No 1

[BBMmk2]

A rather good performance of Josef Suk's Praga this morning, with Jiri Behlohlavek and Czech PO

[Pulcinella]

Mussorgsky Pictures alert: not the Ravel orchestration, according to RC in a trailer on Breakfast just now.

[Richard Tarleton]

Rob excelled himself this morning, kicking off with Dowland's Fantasia P1 for lute played on guitar by Sean Shibe. Diana Poulton devotes two pages to the evolution and analysis of this lovely piece in her magnum opus. It was on the first guitar LP I bought over 50 years ago, and I still play through it most days to keep the fingers moving....

More guitar to come. Work going on in the house today so ideal for listening with half an ear.

[BBMmk2]

Lovely organ music as well! never say no to a good work for organ.

[Nick Armstrong]

As mentioned elsewhere, I shall miss not being able to catch up on Sarah Walker's guest interview podcasts; but otherwise generally avoid 'Essential Classics' with its pop songs played backwards &c &c gimmicks, and poor old Rob Cowan hopelessly miscast.

Turned on the radio this morning out of curiosity to sample Suzy Klein's début - her ingratiating style tends to make the toes curl too much. Unfortunately I happened upon a new gimmick, billed I see as "Time Traveller. A quirky slice of cultural history".

"I love this" gushed Suzy. I didn't. But as long as she's having a good time...

[underthecountertenor]

As mentioned elsewhere, I shall miss not being able to catch up on Sarah Walker's guest interview podcasts; but otherwise generally avoid 'Essential Classics' with its pop songs played backwards &c &c gimmicks, and poor old Rob Cowan hopelessly miscast.

Turned on the radio this morning out of curiosity to sample Suzy Klein's début - her ingratiating style tends to make the toes curl too much. Unfortunately I happened upon a new gimmick, billed I see as "Time Traveller. A quirky slice of cultural history".

"I love this" gushed Suzy. I didn't. But as long as she's having a good time...

Oddly enough, i find SK's manner acceptable and SW's monotonous delivery (with the permanent smile in the voice) eminently switchoffable. The latter is, for me, a pale shadow of a replacement for Jolly and Swain on Sunday mornings, and i won't be listening.

More objectively, the 'brainteaser'/'quiz' was absent this morning, replaced by a feature in which listeners are asked to make 'what next' suggestions based on a given piece of music (today The Sea and Sinbad's Ship from Scheherazade). Whether this will be a daily feature, and whether the quiz has been permanently banished, remains to be seen. The new idea at least has the advantage of inviting listeners to do something constructive and imaginative, and is perhaps akin to a music club. Though when SK said that two listeners had suggested the Adagio from Spartacus because of its associations with the sea I found myself shouting 'no, it's all about an escape from a Roman orgy, not the Onedin bloody Line' at the radio.

As for the Time Traveller thing, well: I used to switch off at 10 am anyway, as the interviews were invariably pretty duff (even when conducted by the blessed SW, but especially in the cack-hands of dear old Rob). So no harm done here.

[Stanfordian]

As mentioned elsewhere, I shall miss not being able to catch up on Sarah Walker's guest interview podcasts; but otherwise generally avoid 'Essential Classics' with its pop songs played backwards &c &c gimmicks, and poor old Rob Cowan hopelessly miscast.

Turned on the radio this morning out of curiosity to sample Suzy Klein's début - her ingratiating style tends to make the toes curl too much. Unfortunately I happened upon a new gimmick, billed I see as "Time Traveller. A quirky slice of cultural history".

"I love this" gushed Suzy. I didn't. But as long as she's having a good time...

Hiya Caliban,

Suzy and many of her colleagues are recidivists of the superlatives but it could be much worse. For example Clare Teal on BBC R2, a very fine jazz singer, but insistent mindless wittering can drive one crazy!

[Serial_Apologist]

Hiya Caliban,

All those superlatives but it could be much worse. For example Clare Teal on BBC R2, a fine jazz singer, but insistent mindless wittering can drive one crazy!

I sometimes wonder if it's a kind of "does he take sugar?" over-compensation for former times, when a sort of lofty "Go away little boy, you're too culturally ignorant to know what we are talking about" was a widespread mindset among the academically hyperqualified, as I remember all too well - an "If you don't know the answer, don't ask, you're taking up our space" kind of attitude.

[Ein Heldenleben]

Sorry but I liked the brain teaser and when my name was occasionally read out summoned whatever members of the family were present to hear my spurious ( wikipedia -assisted ) triumph. I suppose it's gone and that the triple play ' in harmony' on Friday marked the remarkable Don's swan song . But its passing is as nothing compared to the loss of Jolly and Swain. The epithets "fantastic" or "iconic" never left their lips. Educated and intelligent without being showy - the essence of R3?

[underthecountertenor]

Sorry but I liked the brain teaser and when my name was occasionally read out summoned whatever members of the family were present to hear my spurious ( wikipedia -assisted ) triumph. I suppose it's gone and that the triple play ' in harmony' on Friday marked the remarkable Don's swan song . But it's passing is as nothing compared to the loss of Jolly and Swain. The epithets "fantastic" or "iconic" never left their lips. Educated and intelligent without being showy - the essence of R3?

'In perfect harmony/imperfect harmony' was easily the best of the brainteasers, thanks to Don's extraordinarily imaginative pairings (and, last Friday, more). The only entertainment I tended to get out of the others was laughing at the terrible answers people bothered to submit, which were frequently candidates for a Dumb Britain feature in a musically literate version of Private Eye.

Let us hope that Jolly and Swain are eventually given something new and worthwhile (i.e. not just recording links for TTN, a waste of Swain's talent).

[Ein Heldenleben]

I often wondered whether those early answers were just subtle extra clues rather than genuine submissions since many seemed so ludicrously wide of the mark. The problem with the 'what am I sequence ?' was the answer to the first very broad question could have been virtually anything in the known universe . Recording rewind worked better - showing how much music sounds pretty much the same one way or the other. The pop classic was uniformly excruciating with the exception of the odd ELP track . But Imperfect harmony was excellent and Don's triple play on Friday - couldn't get the folk song - was his ninth symphony really.

[ferneyhoughgeliebte]

Who is "Don"?

[Cherrytree]

Hello. This is my first post. We enjoy Essential Classics and unfashionably, loved the Brainteaser. However with the arrival of Suzy Klein it seems to be no more. I can cope with change, but I'm not stupid and would appreciate an explanation or even an announcement that it has disappeared. I had noticed! As for all that bit about listeners suggestions..