Essential Classics - The Continuing Debate

[Lancashire Lass]

I'm beginning to think it's a wind-up - Rob Cowan, eminent music critic, being reduced to reading out a long list of names of people with enough time to waste, having texted/tweeted/e-mailed the real name of Ringo Starr.

Or today's cringemaking list of what people were doing while listening to the Gershwin concerto -- chopping vegetables, splashing about in the bath ...

Radio for kiddies.

[Eine Alpensinfonie]

Rob talked about Stokowski's orchestration of "Pictures at an Exhibition" yesterday, having first heard it on the old Philadelphia Orchestra 78s as a kid. After playing Stokowski's later 'Phase 4 Stereo' New Philharmonia recording he confessed that he much preferred this version to Ravel's.

I can't agree with this assessment. Stokowski's version seems to me to be all spectacle and show, lacking the subtlety of the Ravel orchestration.

[Serial_Apologist]

I can't agree with this assessment. Stokowski's version seems to me to be all spectacle and show, lacking the subtlety of the Ravel orchestration.

[french frank]

Or today's cringemaking list of what people were doing while listening to the Gershwin concerto -- chopping vegetables, splashing about in the bath ...

Radio for kiddies.

I did think Rob genuinely sounded as if he enjoyed it all. A huge disappointment. I only listened to that bit to make sure you weren't making it up, LL It would really make me ill to listen to that kind of radio.

And before anyone chips in with 'Well, you don't have to listen' - I WANT to be listening in the mornings (it's a popular time for listening) - but not to cheap rubbish like that. I want serious radio from R3.

[Frances_iom]

I did think Rob genuinely sounded as if he enjoyed it all. ...: It would really make me ill to listen to that kind of radio.

I pointed out many years ago that RC seemed to be much more at home in a hospital radio context - granted his knowledge of recorded music is excellent but it seems he is no longer able to play to this strength - however I'm only commenting from 2nd hand knowledge as R3 for me is basically COTW + Evening Concert - R4 has about 2 (possibly 3 in a good week) intelligent programs 9am to about 9.45 tho Weds + Fridays are no switch on days. But what do you expect with exPepsi people in positions of responsibility the 'there is a difference' is a slightly less cloying taste than CFm

[aka Calum Da Jazbo]

ref today's puzzle

[Eine Alpensinfonie]

I'm beginning to think that all these infantile party games (playing two tunes simultaneously, playing music backwards, etc) is a sure sign that the producers are aware that the actual musical content is dull and repetitive.

[Stanfordian]

I'm beginning to think that all these infantile party games (playing two tunes simultaneously, playing music backwards, etc) is a sure sign that the producers are aware that the actual musical content is dull and repetitive.

Hello Eine Alpensinfonie,

This is all about broadening the appeal of the programme and making it interactive with the listener. Even Classic FM don’t play the party games - playing two tunes simultaneously, playing music backwards etc. It does feels like the old children’s TV programmes 'Playschool' or 'Blue Peter'. Just as bad is this constant round of bringing in celebrities to pick their favourite recordings. Why don’t they bring in specialists to talk about composer’s lives and their music?

[Eine Alpensinfonie]

Hello Eine Alpensinfonie,

This is all about broadening the appeal of the programme and making it interactive with the listener. Even Classic FM don’t play the party games - playing two tunes simultaneously, playing music backwards etc. It does feels like the old children’s TV programmes 'Playschool' or 'Blue Peter'. Just as bad is this constant round of bringing in celebrities to pick their favourite recordings.

I don't know about "broadening the appeal". It's all so crass.

Why don’t they bring in specialists to talk about composer’s lives and their music?

Exactly!

[french frank]

Why don’t they bring in specialists to talk about composer’s lives and their music?

We do know the answer to that, don't we? Because the programme targets an audience that prefers the Play School/Blue Peter approach. And Radio 3 is so thick it can't see that that may attract AN audience, but it doesn't educate them. And in the end they will have to drop Hear and Now, commissions for new music and what the current controller calls 'interesting and complex music' because it will no longer have an audience that appreciates them.

The new audience will call for more interactivity, more cinema music &c - and that's what they'll have to give them or they'll lose that audience too.

This is wrecking, not educating. Nor informing. But it goes with Strictly Come Dancing and the Great British Bake-Off in its popular entertainment value

[Victor Meldrew II]

I do have to say that I am now completely fed up of hearing Rob Cowan........he's almost omnipresent and suffers from catarrh too often!
We did have a discussion on Facebook a while ago about various aspects of Radio 3 and then he made a really odd comment, meant to be
a joke but which I found quite off-putting. Basically, if I didn't like Radio 3 and where it was going............!
His "...and a very warm welcome" and various MIS-pronunciations are getting tedious. I wish Radio 3 was like the old days, where an announcer
would simply introduce the music, not give you a lengthy preface on WHY I should like this performance.
I prefer to listen to concerts of whole works not bleeding chunks but even then, I have to listen to a long preamble before the music begins.
It's all "me, me, me" with many presenters.
But please, give RC a rest............i've had enough!

[aka Calum Da Jazbo]

We do know the answer to that, don't we? Because the programme targets an audience that prefers the Play School/Blue Peter approach. And Radio 3 is so thick it can't see that that may attract AN audience, but it doesn't educate them. And in the end they will have to drop Hear and Now, commissions for new music and what the current controller calls 'interesting and complex music' because it will no longer have an audience that appreciates them.

The new audience will call for more interactivity, more cinema music &c - and that's what they'll have to give them or they'll lose that audience too.

This is wrecking, not educating. Nor informing. But it goes with Strictly Come Dancing and the Great British Bake-Off in its popular entertainment value

er no it does not equal Strictly &c for entertainment value and that is the point ... it is not entertaining it is crass and incompetent and narrows the appeal of the programmes and the music they supposedly revere [essential?] ... Strictly, Bake and Sew &c are highly polished professional television that audiences love because it is done so well .... after this morning with RC this can not be said of the current approach to Essential Classics ... it is not merely a misguided or misplaced attempt to woo the 'young' audience it is a dire travesty of entertainment [try Wogan eh]

[Eine Alpensinfonie]

It's all "me, me, me" with many presenters.

Yes! Yes! Yes!

[ferneyhoughgeliebte]

Yes! Yes! Yes!

I'll have what he's having.

[french frank]

I have to make a confession. Every now and again I check various aspects of Breakfast - how much speech, what it's about, average length of pieces &c. But I just cannot bear to check Essential Classics, which - from what I hear from 'you lot' - seems to be the suet pudding version of Breakfast's Seven Up syllabub.

(And welcome to VW II, if he's still around - I knew his dad)