Essential Classics - The Continuing Debate

[Lateralthinking1]

Very much enjoyed hearing Fantastic Scherzo Op.25 by Josef Suk on the programme today.

[Nick Armstrong]

Very much enjoyed hearing Fantastic Scherzo Op.25 by Josef Suk on the programme today.

Agreed - and in a great performance... Indeed, in my experience, only Mackerras makes it sound 'fantastic' - I've heard a couple of others and it can seem banal and above all repetitive in other hands.

[Lateralthinking1]

Agreed - and in a great performance... Indeed, in my experience, only Mackerras makes it sound 'fantastic' - I've heard a couple of others and it can seem banal and above all repetitive in other hands.

Thank you Caliban. With which other composers in your view does Mackerras excel?

[Nick Armstrong]

Thank you Caliban. With which other composers in your view does Mackerras excel?

Well Janacek above all perhaps. I've never particularly felt attuned to the Mozart symphony recordings late on in Scotland; but basically he could do anything. I have a Mahler 6 (free with BBC Music Magazine) which is terrific.

[Lateralthinking1]

Well Janacek above all perhaps. I've never particularly felt attuned to the Mozart symphony recordings late on in Scotland; but basically he could do anything. I have a Mahler 6 (free with BBC Music Magazine) which is terrific.

Great. Janacek and Mahler are more me than is Mozart, not that I have anything against the latter!

[Nick Armstrong]

Great. Janacek and Mahler are more me than is Mozart, not that I have anything against the latter!

The Mackerras performances on this album (Sinfonietta and Taras Bulba with the VPO) are great, for example...

[Ferretfancy]

Let's not forget Mackerras conducting Gilbert and Sullivan, even if the operettas are not enjoyed by all. His semi-staged performance of HMS Pinafore at the Proms a few years ago was terrific.

[Nick Armstrong]

Let's not forget Mackerras conducting Gilbert and Sullivan, even if the operettas are not enjoyed by all. His semi-staged performance of HMS Pinafore at the Proms a few years ago was terrific.

True. He was a legend at home when I was growing up, as my dad directed G&S operettas and often played an LP of CM's "Pineapple Poll" pot-pourri. I was amazed when I "grew up" and found CM was a serious musician as well, cracking tough nuts like Janacek and Britten...

[Suffolkcoastal]

I see the 'unessential' CD this week is another excuse to ram yet more Hungarian and Slavonic Dances down the listeners throats. What is it with this obsession with Hungarian & Slavonic Dances (and Debussy Preludes too) since the new regime took over???

[Bax-of-Delights]

Yet another programme I don't listen to now - except this morning when out in the car I switched from R4 to R3 just to see what was playing and got...Sorcerer's Apprentice. Dear god in her heaven - what with that and as you point out, endless Hungarian and Slavonic dances you'd think at least one of the presenters would say "enough already"! But they never do and they churn out the same old, same old.

[Richard Tarleton]

Sorcerer's Apprentice.

Yes - this was the choice of guest Alan Rusbridger, whose schedule clearly leaves little time for listening to R3 and therefore knowing how often it is played. He spends his limited leisure time playing chamber music with friends amateur and professional, judging by his new book . It might have been a kindness on Sarah's part to have got him to say something else was the first piece he remembered hearing....

[Barbirollians]

If it was the Cantelli recording, however, it would have been well worth a listen . His recording recaptures for me all the excitement of first hearing it as a child.

[Thropplenoggin]

Today's EC, however, did introduce me to 'Miserere Mei Deus' by Josquin Desprez, in the fascinating 'The Story of Music' spot around 11 a.m. (?).

[Black Swan]

Yet another programme I don't listen to now - except this morning when out in the car I switched from R4 to R3 just to see what was playing and got...Sorcerer's Apprentice. Dear god in her heaven - what with that and as you point out, endless Hungarian and Slavonic dances you'd think at least one of the presenters would say "enough already"! But they never do and they churn out the same old, same old.

Couldn't agree more, same for me. Another program I have given up on.

[Don Petter]

Switched on in the car this morning, to catch a very strange 'disjointed' performance of the Pastoral. Luckily I arrived before having to hear the presenter.

I see from the schedule it was the Zurich Tonhalle under Zinman.