Essential Classics - The Continuing Debate

[Eine Alpensinfonie]

Indeed Stan and quite amazingly there was a trail immediately after the programme itself imploring us to listen again on the web ......

I wonder which Radio 3 they want us NOT to listen to when we are listening again. (Yes, I know TS would expect us to listen to them both at the same time, but that isn't going to happen,.

[oddoneout]

I listened in yesterday and my abiding memory is one trail after another for the forthcoming Alfred Brendel 'Private Passions'.

For some reason this particular outbreak of 'traileritis' didn't just annoy me, it sickened me, to the point where I turned the radio off(didn't always go back on) or left the room. I think two things caused that extreme reaction. One was the fact that Private Passions is a particular kind of R3 offering - we know what it is and when it is, I doubt that it is something that a casual channel hopper/ happened to hear listener can be influenced to engage with by snippets. The other(and the one that really got to me) was what I felt to be the unforgiveable trivialisation of both the guest and the subject matter, by choosing to mention each time the war aspects.
How many new listeners did that blanket advertising(aversion therapy in my case) achieve and how many regulars did it annoy/irritate, and is that a good trade-off? Ironically I didn't hear the broadcast in the end; a combination of cabin fever, a weather window, and the need for a pint of milk took me out late morning and I didn't return in time. I do wonder how much of that 'accident' was subconscious reaction to the trailers since normally I listen most weeks....

[Richard Tarleton]

I didn't hear it myself but a friend listening the other day tells me that Golliwog's Cakewalk has been overcome with political correctness and is now simply "Cakewalk" on R3 - this may even have been on Breakfast.

[DracoM]

Umm, http://www.bbc.co.uk/programmes/b09kcz51 . I will certainly be listening.

Yup. Me too.

[Stanfordian]

I didn't hear it myself but a friend listening the other day tells me that Golliwog's Cakewalk has been overcome with political correctness and is now simply "Cakewalk" on R3 - this may even have been on Breakfast.

Not surprising! Times have changed with the acceptability this type of language! Whilst working in psychology in the prison service a decade or so ago, diversity training certainly altered my way of thinking. I no longer use the type of language that say my father did.

[underthecountertenor]

I have to say that these conversations with Harrison Birtwistle this week are rather good.

[french frank]

I have to say that these conversations with Harrison Birtwistle this week are rather good.

Perhaps he'll appear in Suffy's annual survey one year?

[Stanfordian]

I have to say that these conversations with Harrison Birtwistle this week are rather good.

As one might expect from such a creative musical mind. If the programme is having guests talking about music then Birtwistle is the ideal person it should be having. I'm not at all interested in the musical sections of say an University Professor, TV Actor or Politician.

[Sir Velo]

If the programme is having guests talking about music this is the ideal person it should be having.

Composers, conductors, musicians, administrators etc should be the guests 100% of the time. Celebs (if we must have 'em - can't stand them myself) should be consigned to Private Passions.

[underthecountertenor]

Composers, conductors, musicians, administrators etc should be the guests 100% of the time. Celebs (if we must have 'em - can't stand them myself) should be consigned to Private Passions.

Private Passions (which I confess I usually rather enjoy) had a rare appearance by a musician last Sunday, in the form of Alfred Brendel. I found it a joy from start to finish.

[underthecountertenor]

Private Passions (which I confess I usually rather enjoy) had a rare appearance by a musician last Sunday, in the form of Alfred Brendel. I found it a joy from start to finish.

Though I don't know why I'm telling you this, as you could hardly have failed to know that it was on if you had Radio 3 on at any time during the preceding week, endlessly trailed as it was.

[LMcD]

Private Passions (which I confess I usually rather enjoy) had a rare appearance by a musician last Sunday, in the form of Alfred Brendel. I found it a joy from start to finish.

[Eine Alpensinfonie]

Celebs (if we must have 'em - can't stand them myself) should be consigned to Private Passions.

No, Desert Island Discs.

[french frank]

Celebs (if we must have 'em - can't stand them myself) should be consigned to Private Passions.

No, Desert Island Discs.

I think Private Passions is running out of steam as far as guests are concerned. A while back they seemed to come across people who were marginally well-known (Chairman of the National Coal Board, for instance) who turned our to have a genuinely private passion: with an interesting breadth and depth of knowledge which they could talk about.

Too often it seems to become well-known people talking knowledgeably about themselves and then choosing The Dance of the Cygnets.

[Ein Heldenleben]

Wonder of wonders - an entire multi -movement sonata on Essential Classics today - Beethoven Op 10 C minor . Makes up for the bizarre linking of Debussy and Charles Trenet ( La Mer ) yesterday .