Essential Classics - The Continuing Debate

[ahinton]

Oh! Looking at the playlist, I see that the programme started with stuff by Lloyd-Banker! "Trash to say the least" indeed - and no doubt casting a sour taste over the remainder of the programme for those who heard it. Still - as effective as prunes with All-Bran for that time on a Sunday Morning.

Have you ever tried All-Brian intead?

A composer whom I know (no name, no wotsits) calls the person to whom you refer "Lord Lloyd Loom"...

[LMcD]

5 items in the first 30 minutes this morning - not very nourishing.....Although I haven't carried out a detailed analysis, I get the impression that the musical content is now even MORE fragmented the previously.
Tomorrow's treat at 10.50: "Suzy is joined by fashion designer and activist Vivienne Westwood to talk about the cultural icons that have influenced her work and life". (That's presumably VW's icons, but I can't be sure

[Sir Velo]

Tomorrow's treat at 10.50: "Suzy is joined by fashion designer and activist Vivienne Westwood to talk about the cultural icons that have influenced her work and life". (That's presumably VW's icons, but I can't be sure

No doubt we will be treated to the dulcet tones of Johnny Rotten!

[Stanfordian]

Presumably, we will be treated to Anarchy in the UK...

Vivienne Westwood - Celebrity mad the BBC!

[french frank]

5 items in the first 30 minutes this morning - not very nourishing.....

So far it's looking like Breakfast before the odd improvements were introduced (lengthening of pieces, end of phone-ins). Two pieces by Gershwin (whose 119th birthday it will be next week), 20 minutes apart. Vivaldi to open sung by Elin Manahan Thomas (any mention of her being an R3 presenter, I wonder).

You can read about Westwood's influences here: 50s, punk, fetishism, ethnic dress, punk, feminism, punk. If we don't get punk at some point I'm sure Suzy will be disappointed.

[Rex Bartlett]

Oh ffs. Not only do we now have to endure all the mindless wittering between short sound bites but among them there's the V Westwood person telling us (Radio 3 listeners) we should all learn to read because it's "the evolution of mankind". A week ago I was sighing over Alexander Goehr droning on as incomprehensibly as his music and here I am now listening to something called 'Three on three', our daily dose of 3 short pieces played consecutively.......

This is worse than Classic FM and I feel a bit sick.

"And now it's that time of the morning we sit down with a cuppa and enjoy today's Slow Moment".

[Stanley Stewart]

"Finish, good lady; the bright day is done,
And we are for the dark"

Antony and Cleopatra, Act V, Sc II

[Richard Tarleton]

Oh ffs. Not only do we now have to endure all the mindless wittering between short sound bites but among them there's the V Westwood person telling us (Radio 3 listeners) we should all learn to read because it's "the evolution of mankind".

Indeed. The last time I noticed her she was at an anti-fracking demo, being interviewed next to a wood near a potential fracking site in Sussex. She invited the interviewer to cock an ear and listen - "There, no birds singing", she pointed out triumphantly [i.e. as a result of the test drilling about to take place a few hundred metres away]. It was late July . I wonder if SK will get her started on that later in the week...environmental campaigner....

This is worse than Classic FM and I feel a bit sick.

"And now it's that time of the morning we sit down with a cuppa and enjoy today's Slow Moment".

After the perceived improvements, great hopes of AD's stewardship, etc., this is a train wreck of a programme. I only tuned in for about 5 seconds this morning, in the car - I like the opening clarinet glissando of RIB but feel it goes downhill from there.

[Bax-of-Delights]

Flicked it on three times this morning and each time I encountered one of the overplayed pieces instantly recognisable within a couple of seconds. The final flick on and I came up against SK's puke about "putting your feet up with a cup of coffee and letting today's Sloooooow music wash over you". It sounded like one of those sickly adverts for Lindt chocolatiers.

[Richard Tarleton]

Flicked it on three times this morning and each time I encountered one of the overplayed pieces instantly recognisable within a couple of seconds. The final flick on and I came up against SK's puke about "putting your feet up with a cup of coffee and letting today's Sloooooow music wash over you". It sounded like one of those sickly adverts for Lindt chocolatiers.

Actually this does reveal quite a bit about who they think the target audience is, audience segmentation being a particular (professional) interest of mine pre-retirement

[LMcD]

I'd assumed the target audience was Classic FM listeners seeking an escape from advertisements.....

[un barbu]

I listened to the last twenty minutes and thought that what was played was just bland. A great relief to get to 'Composer of the Week'.

[french frank]

Fact-based, taking 6 episodes from Rob Cowan and Sarah Walker (I think the Mondays over 6 weeks), the number of pieces daily ranged from 12-17, average 15-16; SW slightly fewer than RC in her two weeks.

Taking the 6 episodes so far from SK, the pieces ranged from 20-25, average 22-23 - that's about the same length as Breakfast, judging by PT's this morning. And the impression is that the choices, including: Gershwin x 3 (I got Rhythm, Rhapsody in Blue, Summertime), Dvořák (Prague Waltzes), Debussy (Children's Corner), Sullivan (Pineapple Poll), Bizet (Carmen Suite), Britten (Salley Gardens), Beethoven (Egmont Overture), Wagner (T&I Prelude), Schubert (Impromptu D 899 No 3), Flotow (Last Rose of Summer), Ireland (London Overture), Lambert (Rio Grande), plus probably a couple of others, each individually unobjectionable, collectively make for a programme at the light and/or familiar end of the repertoire.

Add to that a celebrity interview which, to be completely objective, I ought to listen to plus any other new gimmicks, and it all adds up to a programme that would, possibly, do credit to Classic FM. (I remember a critic in, possibly, the D. Telegraph, sighing over the tweeness of Brian Kay's 'Three for All' with its reference to 'settling down with a cup of tea)

But we must beware of being too critical lest we be publicly lambasted as self-elected snobs.

[Richard Tarleton]

But we must beware of being too critical lest we be publicly lambasted as self-elected snobs.

I'm picturing the Hampstead coffee morning focus group at which these changes (including the selection of the presenter) were brainstormed.....I know, but had better not repeat, the words and phrases on the mood board/thought cloud.....it's actually, as you've pointed out, quite a shift, reminds me of the shift from CD Masters to Essential Classics......

[ferneyhoughgeliebte]

Not entirely sure what Rex's comments on last week's Composer of the Week are doing here (which particular comments did you find "incomprehensible", by the way; I'll be happy to try to explain them to you).

Flicked it on three times this morning and each time I encountered one of the overplayed pieces instantly recognisable within a couple of seconds. The final flick on and I came up against SK's puke about "putting your feet up with a cup of coffee and letting today's Sloooooow music wash over you". It sounded like one of those sickly adverts for Lindt chocolatiers.

I switched on as the Tristan Prelude was finishing - there was then a long inter-amble during which SK reminded/informed listeners that earlier she had asked for suggestions for a piece of Music to "follow" Gershwin's RiB, then told us that lots of people had suggested Ravel's Piano Concerto, a suggestion she thought was a splendid one, wittered on about the friendship between George and Maurice, mentioned one of the wikiquotes ... and then said she wasn't going to play the Ravel, but Lambert's Rio Grande instead - which cynics might be tempted to suggest was already on the playlist (and the Ravel would have taken up too much wittering time).

Back to the CD collection for me!