Essential Classics - The Continuing Debate

Collapse
X
 
  • Filter
  • Time
  • Show
Clear All
new posts
  • ferneyhoughgeliebte
    Gone fishin'
    • Sep 2011
    • 30163

    Originally posted by Caliban View Post
    Very rarely, one suspects.
    Ooooh! You've got the bit between your teeth!
    [FONT=Comic Sans MS][I][B]Numquam Satis![/B][/I][/FONT]

    Comment

    • Nick Armstrong
      Host
      • Nov 2010
      • 26523

      Originally posted by ferneyhoughgeliebte View Post
      Ooooh! You've got the bit between your teeth!
      And the hump - just tuned in and heard the flutey mystery piece, not really paying attention... and thought - Poulenc flute sonata. Mr Maconie, not knowing the piece, correctly deduced it was Prokofiev ... adding generously 'quite like Poulenc'. Good for him, I knew I liked him!
      "...the isle is full of noises,
      Sounds and sweet airs, that give delight and hurt not.
      Sometimes a thousand twangling instruments
      Will hum about mine ears, and sometime voices..."

      Comment

      • antongould
        Full Member
        • Nov 2010
        • 8780

        Originally posted by Caliban View Post
        And the hump - just tuned in and heard the flutey mystery piece, not really paying attention... and thought - Poulenc flute sonata. Mr Maconie, not knowing the piece, correctly deduced it was Prokofiev ... adding generously 'quite like Poulenc'. Good for him, I knew I liked him!

        And threw in Rubbra to make him, surely, a firm favourite hereabouts. I have found him a very interesting guest - I know teamsaint's view but he's IMVVHO a bit up the Swansea......

        Comment

        • Nick Armstrong
          Host
          • Nov 2010
          • 26523

          Originally posted by antongould View Post
          And threw in Rubbra to make him, surely, a firm favourite hereabouts. I have found him a very interesting guest - I know teamsaint's view but he's IMVVHO a bit up the Swansea......


          Yes - didn't notice Dame Penelope nonchalantly referencing Rubbra...
          "...the isle is full of noises,
          Sounds and sweet airs, that give delight and hurt not.
          Sometimes a thousand twangling instruments
          Will hum about mine ears, and sometime voices..."

          Comment

          • JFLL
            Full Member
            • Jan 2011
            • 780

            After just listening to Haydn's Symphony no. 47 with Adam Fischer and Mozart's Dissonance Quartet with the Smetana Quartet, I can't help feeling that the 11.00-12.00 slot should be excluded from the general execration heaped on this programme. If only Radio Times listed everything they're going to play in that hour, not just the first piece. For me, this is often the hour when the programme deserves the title of 'Essential Classics'.

            (Talking of Haydn, wasn't it refreshing that Thomas Sondergard and the BBC NOW programmed his Symphony no. 28 in Live in Concert on Wednesday?)

            Comment

            • vinteuil
              Full Member
              • Nov 2010
              • 12793

              Originally posted by JFLL View Post
              After just listening to Haydn's Symphony no. 47 with Adam Fischer and Mozart's Dissonance Quartet with the Smetana Quartet, I can't help feeling that the 11.00-12.00 slot should be excluded from the general execration heaped on this programme. If only Radio Times listed everything they're going to play in that hour, not just the first piece.
              ... o yes, yes, a thousand times yes!



              Originally posted by JFLL View Post

              (Talking of Haydn, wasn't it refreshing that Thomas Sondergard and the BBC NOW programmed his Symphony no. 28 in Live in Concert on Wednesday?)
              ... indeed so! - so good to hear the less-often-heard Haydn symphonies

              Comment

              • Nick Armstrong
                Host
                • Nov 2010
                • 26523

                Originally posted by JFLL View Post
                After just listening to Haydn's Symphony no. 47 with Adam Fischer and Mozart's Dissonance Quartet with the Smetana Quartet, I can't help feeling that the 11.00-12.00 slot should be excluded from the general execration heaped on this programme. If only Radio Times listed everything they're going to play in that hour, not just the first piece. For me, this is often the hour when the programme deserves the title of 'Essential Classics'.

                (Talking of Haydn, wasn't it refreshing that Thomas Sondergard and the BBC NOW programmed his Symphony no. 28 in Live in Concert on Wednesday?)

                Couldn't agree more, and now the 'guest celeb' has been shoved up to 10am, it's usually pretty civilised from 10.30 - depending who the 'week's artist' is, i.e. not overexposed Balsom/Galway type 'stars'.
                Incidentally, I find Galway's sickly vibrato almost as annoying as the sound emitted by wobbly sopranos... am I alone in this?

                I too caught both the Haydn (28 & 47) and loved every minute (though not especially keen on Fischer's strings...)
                "...the isle is full of noises,
                Sounds and sweet airs, that give delight and hurt not.
                Sometimes a thousand twangling instruments
                Will hum about mine ears, and sometime voices..."

                Comment

                • JFLL
                  Full Member
                  • Jan 2011
                  • 780

                  Originally posted by Caliban View Post
                  I too caught both the Haydn (28 & 47) and loved every minute (though not especially keen on Fischer's strings...)
                  I know what you mean, Caliban, and generally prefer Brüggen in these middle-period symphonies, but I like a bit of Sachertorte as a change from Dutch rye bread from time to time!

                  There are some interesting observations by Richard Wigmore in his Gramophone review of the relevant Fischer set:

                  "… what immediately strikes you, as on previous issues, is the string tone, with that echt-Viennese sweetness (but never oversweetness) and plangency"

                  and

                  "I was, though, increasingly irritated by Fischer’s almost invariable habit of using solo strings in the trios (and once or twice elsewhere, as in the finale of No. 48) – a charming, ear-tickling effect once in a while, perhaps, but here a predictable gimmick that can come close to trivializing the music."

                  Comment

                  • french frank
                    Administrator/Moderator
                    • Feb 2007
                    • 30250

                    Originally posted by JFLL View Post
                    If only Radio Times listed everything they're going to play in that hour, not just the first piece.
                    I checked this morning, and the website posts the titles as they've been played - which is, I think, the way Classic FM does it. Why? They must know what they're going to play before the programme starts, even if they don't know in time for Radio Times print dates.
                    It isn't given us to know those rare moments when people are wide open and the lightest touch can wither or heal. A moment too late and we can never reach them any more in this world.

                    Comment

                    • Don Petter

                      Originally posted by french frank View Post
                      I checked this morning, and the website posts the titles as they've been played - which is, I think, the way Classic FM does it. Why?
                      Imitation or emulation?

                      Comment

                      • french frank
                        Administrator/Moderator
                        • Feb 2007
                        • 30250

                        Originally posted by Don Petter View Post
                        Imitation or emulation?
                        Expediency? Actually, there seems to be a deliberate intention NOT to post playlists in advance of broadcast since, as ds noted, an EMS programme was a repeat - so the playlist was known before any of the programme details were posted. And they still withheld the playlist until after the programme. Or rather removed them.
                        It isn't given us to know those rare moments when people are wide open and the lightest touch can wither or heal. A moment too late and we can never reach them any more in this world.

                        Comment

                        • JFLL
                          Full Member
                          • Jan 2011
                          • 780

                          Originally posted by french frank View Post
                          I checked this morning, and the website posts the titles as they've been played - which is, I think, the way Classic FM does it. Why? They must know what they're going to play before the programme starts, even if they don't know in time for Radio Times print dates.
                          It is mysterious, particularly since Composer of the Week which follows always gets the most detailed listings imaginable in Radio Times, even though DM (as so often ) is only playing the third movement of a piece. I'd have thought that if they know what the piece at 11.00 is going to be sufficiently in advance for RT, they ought also to know the shape of the rest of the programme.

                          Comment

                          • Flosshilde
                            Full Member
                            • Nov 2010
                            • 7988

                            Originally posted by french frank View Post
                            I checked this morning, and the website posts the titles as they've been played ... Why?
                            Perhaps they want to make it more exciting for the listener - keeping them guessing.

                            Comment

                            • french frank
                              Administrator/Moderator
                              • Feb 2007
                              • 30250

                              Originally posted by Flosshilde View Post
                              Perhaps they want to make it more exciting for the listener - keeping them guessing.
                              But the listeners can guess anyway - by not looking at the website
                              It isn't given us to know those rare moments when people are wide open and the lightest touch can wither or heal. A moment too late and we can never reach them any more in this world.

                              Comment

                              • Flosshilde
                                Full Member
                                • Nov 2010
                                • 7988

                                Originally posted by Caliban View Post
                                Very rarely, one suspects.
                                I might do more frequently, if I knew what you were on about.


                                (I used to wonder who Flo Scampi was )

                                Comment

                                Working...
                                X