Essential Classics - The Continuing Debate

[Serial_Apologist]

I'm not convinced that guests always want to be manhandled
http://www.bbc.co.uk/programmes/galleries/p01kgf2x

He should be pulled over the carpet for that!

[teamsaint]

was that a triple entendre (or similar), S_A?

[Serial_Apologist]

was that a triple entendre (or similar), S_A?

As many as you like, TS!

[teamsaint]

ok, i just lost count.
Impressive in a nine word sentence .
Or Perhaps I have spent too much time in the car recently.

[Sir Velo]

- What do you think of it so far, Penelope?

- Ruggish!!

Does Penelope Wilton sport a wig then?

[Suffolkcoastal]

RC has had the dubious distinction this week of taking the number of Hungarian Dances broadcast on R3 so far this year past the 100 mark. Programmes presented by him have accounted for a considerable proportion of these as they have done with Slavonic Dances. RC seems to have as much an obsession with these pieces as the current regime does generally.

[Nick Armstrong]

Hurrah for Philip Pullman selecting the Gilels reading of Medtner's 'Sonata Reminiscenza' this morning

[Barbirollians]

I found my car radio was tuned in to music the other morning when the CD ended and after another piece when I realised it must be R3 ( never listened to of choice in the morning ) as it stopped after the first movement - I was greeted with the "brainteaser" not a description of the music just played - OFF switch pressed. It is so depressing.

[Stanley Stewart]

Spluttered this morning when Sarah Walker, Essential Classics, asked us not to go away as a recording of One Fine Day was scheduled. Wasn't quite sure whether Dr Walker was sending herself up, the programme, or the listeners. We got to the spot, a commemoration of Callas at 90 and heard her recording of Un bel di, aka, Un Del Boy di! Instant reminders of Two Way Family Favourites in the 1950s! Time marches on.

[cloughie]

Spluttered this morning when Sarah Walker, Essential Classics, asked us not to go away as a recording of One Fine Day was scheduled. Wasn't quite sure whether Dr Walker was sending herself up, the programme, or the listeners. We got to the spot, a commemoration of Callas at 90 and heard her recording of Un bel di, aka, Un Del Boy di! Instant reminders of Two Way Family Favourites in the 1950s! Time marches on.

Were you expecting The Chiffons?

[Stanley Stewart]

"...the readiness is all:..." Hamlet, Act V, Sc II

[Nick Armstrong]

Hurrah for Philip Pullman selecting the Gilels reading of Medtner's 'Sonata Reminiscenza' this morning

Likewise, hurrah for Howard Brenton's choices this week. Timings have been very happy - this morning, Horowitz playing the tumbling opening of Schumann's Kreisleriana was a marvellous adjunct to a cycle ride down the Mall with the wind at my back with thousands of leaves chasing and racing past me...

And yesterday in the damp, wintry park, the second movement of Mahler 5 was terrific, reminding one of the quality of that Karajan / BPO performance: after the slow elegiac central bit, the return of the lilting dance music is given a real drunken, phantasmagorical quality by the use of portamenti, it sounded wonderful. Might need to get that performance (I recall borrowing the LPs from the local library 30 years ago, before I really knew the piece).

[Bryn]

In the online listing for this morning's Essential Classics:

Arnold Schoenberg Piano Quartet No. 1 in G minor

Orchestra: Berlin Philharmonic. Conductor: Sir Simon Rattle.

EMI

Somewhat underplays the role of Johannes Brahms, what?

[ardcarp]

I don't know if this has been commented on before, but I find SW's use of the word 'there' most irksome, e.g.

Fred Bloggs THERE playing Beethoven

The Chipping Sodbury Philharmonic THERE, etc, etc

Once you've noticed it, you want to scream.

[Barbirollians]

She is generally irksome IMO . She sounds like she is auditioning for the Masterchef voiceover most of the time .