Essential Classics - The Continuing Debate

[Barbirollians]

It is normal these days to get an influx of J Strauss II at the start of January, but this year it seems to be worse than usual. Music on the Brink could have been an interesting idea if properly planned and thought through, but its coming over as rather scrappy at the moment.

I agree but this is complete nonsense - an excuse to play music from 1914 randomly but without any real theme or structure .

[Serial_Apologist]

I agree but this is complete nonsense - an excuse to play music from 1914 randomly but without any real theme or structure .

COTW this week is proving to be one exception to this however, mercifully...

[Suffolkcoastal]

COTW is still one of the few programmes on R3 that managed to maintain standards and has a fair degree of professionalism. The trouble with much of the rest of the Music on the Brink series is that they are trying to fit it to the various misconceived programmes of recent years like Inessential Classics

[Bax-of-Delights]

Music on the Brink is a concept that deserves much better than what is presently on offer. It is the kind of theme that I would suppose many of us who have been critical of R3's style in recent years would argue has the potential to bring in the new listener as well as offer insights and discussions on the European musical world in the first 14 years of the 20th century.

Sadly, what we are given is a mish-mash of gobbets of music scattered throughout the day's offerings which has little relevance to either each other or the rest of the music in any programme (COTW excepted). What is needed is a series totally dedicated to the music of the period interspersed with a commentary placing developments within context both historical and musical. It feels and sounds like someone in the R3 back office had the idea to tack onto the general centenary acknowledgement of WW1 but couldn't be bothered to go the whole hog. Instead we have that annoying jingle with the equally annoying voice-over used on cookery programmes announcing "Music on the Brink" at random and irrelevantly.

[Barbirollians]

Music on the Brink is a concept that deserves much better than what is presently on offer. It is the kind of theme that I would suppose many of us who have been critical of R3's style in recent years would argue has the potential to bring in the new listener as well as offer insights and discussions on the European musical world in the first 14 years of the 20th century.

Sadly, what we are given is a mish-mash of gobbets of music scattered throughout the day's offerings which has little relevance to either each other or the rest of the music in any programme (COTW excepted). What is needed is a series totally dedicated to the music of the period interspersed with a commentary placing developments within context both historical and musical. It feels and sounds like someone in the R3 back office had the idea to tack onto the general centenary acknowledgement of WW1 but couldn't be bothered to go the whole hog. Instead we have that annoying jingle with the equally annoying voice-over used on cookery programmes announcing "Music on the Brink" at random and irrelevantly.

I agree 100% . How fascinating it might have to have a programme each on the effects on the five main participants in the war -UK,Germany, Austro-Hungary , France and Russia - and one other considering the other countries that joined in or were forced into the war like Belgium.

[Serial_Apologist]

Music on the Brink is a concept that deserves much better than what is presently on offer. It is the kind of theme that I would suppose many of us who have been critical of R3's style in recent years would argue has the potential to bring in the new listener as well as offer insights and discussions on the European musical world in the first 14 years of the 20th century.

Sadly, what we are given is a mish-mash of gobbets of music scattered throughout the day's offerings which has little relevance to either each other or the rest of the music in any programme (COTW excepted). What is needed is a series totally dedicated to the music of the period interspersed with a commentary placing developments within context both historical and musical. It feels and sounds like someone in the R3 back office had the idea to tack onto the general centenary acknowledgement of WW1 but couldn't be bothered to go the whole hog. Instead we have that annoying jingle with the equally annoying voice-over used on cookery programmes announcing "Music on the Brink" at random and irrelevantly.

Imagine what one of us, here on this forum, with our collective knowledge and insights into this subject, could have made of the brief, in terms of filling the schedule with informative and lively programiing and debate, possibly lasting several months! Eg:

1) Give examples of the breakdown of diatonic tonality in the musics of Arnold Schoenberg, Bela Bartok and Erik Satie, and how in different ways these examples relate to the contemporaneous movements in the arts and sciences, eg Fauvism, Cubism, Expressionism, and psychoanalysis, Evolutionary theory and psychoanalysis, with particular bearings on the evolving social and political circumstances pertaining in the countries of birth and/or domicile of the artists and musicians concerned.

2) As a follow-on brief for a programme series, with reference to the alleged death of grand narrative thinking in artistic and philosophical circles in the West, post 1970, consider the various manifestations of Neo-Classicism in European art and music of the 1920s and '30s in relation to inscribed notions of progress in the artistic ferment prior to World War I.

Someone better versed than I can probably articulate the issues better than I.

[Serial_Apologist]

I agree 100% . How fascinating it might have to have a programme each on the effects on the five main participants in the war -UK,Germany, Austro-Hungary , France and Russia - and one other considering the other countries that joined in or were forced into the war like Belgium.

There are so many possible perspectives from which to enrich this subject.

[Bax-of-Delights]

Imagine what one of us, here on this forum, with our collective knowledge and insights into this subject, could have made of the brief, in terms of filling the schedule with informative and lively programiing and debate, possibly lasting several months! Eg:

1) Give examples of the breakdown of diatonic tonality in the musics of Arnold Schoenberg, Bela Bartok and Erik Satie, and how in different ways these examples relate to the contemporaneous movements in the arts and sciences, eg Fauvism, Cubism, Expressionism, and psychoanalysis, Evolutionary theory and psychoanalysis, with particular bearings on the evolving social and political circumstances pertaining in the countries of birth and/or domicile of the artists and musicians concerned.

2) As a follow-on brief for a programme series, with reference to the alleged death of grand narrative thinking in artistic and philosophical circles in the West, post 1970, consider the various manifestations of Neo-Classicism in European art and music of the 1920s and '30s in relation to inscribed notions of progress in the artistic ferment prior to World War I.

Someone better versed than I can probably articulate the issues better than I.

It would appear S-A that you are more than well versed!

[Serial_Apologist]

It would appear S-A that you are more than well versed!

I'd take it on - expenses and taxi journeys included!

[ferneyhoughgeliebte]

Music on the Brink is a concept that deserves much better than what is presently on offer.

Sums up R3 generally.

Very good posts from BoD, Barbie and S_A

[french frank]

I do think the invariable method of imposing the special content on the regular schedule each time makes it well nigh impossible to put together a coherent programme throughout an entire day or weekend.

[Bax-of-Delights]

Driving down the M4 this morning en route to an auction I was delighted and amazed to hear a COMPLETE symphony on EC. Tchaikovsky's No.1.

I suppose that I am driven to commenting on this shows how we have become inured to hearing just bleeding chunks on EC.

R.Cowan interviewing Nigel Williams yesterday made an interesting allusion to how "we in R3" are standing up for quality and cited producers, assistant producers et al - but omitted the name of RW.
Worm turning?

[french frank]

R.Cowan interviewing Nigel Williams yesterday made an interesting allusion to how "we in R3" are standing up for quality and cited producers, assistant producers et al - but omitted the name of RW.
Worm turning?

Well, the cunning behind the choice of title becomes clearer.

R3 tweets:"Still to come on #EssentialClassics this morning, music by Padre Antonio Soler and Frank Sinatra. That's correct."

"Hope you enjoyed None but the Lonely Heart by Sinatra to finish off #EssentialClassics this week. @robccowan will be back on Monday at 9."

Well, it is a classic, probably.

[Sir Velo]

What is it with Rob Cowan's penchant for not playing anything later than the 1960s in Baroque repertoire? On Thursday we had a Bach Cantata in the Richter version when we could have had one of so many better versions informed by recent scholarship. The Richter was frankly as dull as ditchwater in extremely elderly sound.

The thing with Cowan is that when he plays repertoire which is clearly not his thing he falls back on those recordings from what he clearly considers to be the golden age of recording. Lovers of the baroque deserve far better than they get from R3!

[EnemyoftheStoat]

Lovers of the baroque deserve far better than they get from R3!

Not just lovers of the baroque.