Essential Classics - The Continuing Debate

Collapse
X
 
  • Filter
  • Time
  • Show
Clear All
new posts
  • french frank
    Administrator/Moderator
    • Feb 2007
    • 30241

    Originally posted by Bryn View Post
    There's this, which has no paywall to keep us from it.
    Or perhaps my correspondent won't find much comfort there, either
    It isn't given us to know those rare moments when people are wide open and the lightest touch can wither or heal. A moment too late and we can never reach them any more in this world.

    Comment

    • LMcD
      Full Member
      • Sep 2017
      • 8405

      Just before the 1 o'clock news on Radio 3, there was a trailer for Sarah Walker's new Sunday programme. I had to check, just to make sure that I hadn't tuned to Classic FM by mistake.

      Comment

      • Nick Armstrong
        Host
        • Nov 2010
        • 26523

        Originally posted by Richard Tarleton View Post
        A letter in today's Times slagging off the new-look EC, cancelled out by a letter praising R3's am output
        Whereas in the new Radio Times are two letters slagging it off, plus some editorial italics indicating that readers 'continue to express doubts about the changes'. No praise.
        "...the isle is full of noises,
        Sounds and sweet airs, that give delight and hurt not.
        Sometimes a thousand twangling instruments
        Will hum about mine ears, and sometime voices..."

        Comment

        • Rex Bartlett
          Full Member
          • Dec 2015
          • 19

          The coming week's episodes.

          Tuesday with Rob Cowan. Schubert's Quartettsatz, Sunday Night TV
          Wednesday with Rob Cowan. Tchaikovsky's Romeo and Juliet, Pigeon Cure.
          Thursday with Rob Cowan. Handel's Water Music, Munch's Scream.
          Friday with Rob Cowan. Lakmé's Flower Duet, Stoke Potteries.
          Monday with Rob Cowan. Mozart's Exultate Jubilate, How to smell like a Georgian.

          It should be funny. But it's not. Et tu Rob?

          Mel Brooks. "This program is nuts".
          Last edited by Rex Bartlett; 02-10-17, 15:45.

          Comment

          • BBMmk2
            Late Member
            • Nov 2010
            • 20908

            I quitter like it when Suzy Klein presents it, as you may just get a brass band or a wind band playing. had both last week! Including Grimethorpe Colliery Band/Gary Cutt or a wind band, London Symphonic/Nigel Hess.
            Both fine by me!
            Don’t cry for me
            I go where music was born

            J S Bach 1685-1750

            Comment

            • Nick Armstrong
              Host
              • Nov 2010
              • 26523

              Caught a section of this programme today, for the first time really since the 'revamp' (apart from the odd specific extract on iPlayer for ... ahem... research purposes concerning S Klein).

              It's terrible, banal stuff. Makes the old Essential Classics look positively scholarly. The crowning turd in the slop bucket was Harriet Harman telling listeners that Act 2 of Tosca is set in a 'Palazzio'. Then back to poor Rob Cowan having to witter about Vivaldi's 'Autumn'...

              How/why has Alan Davey allowed this to happen on his watch? Has anyone asked him?
              "...the isle is full of noises,
              Sounds and sweet airs, that give delight and hurt not.
              Sometimes a thousand twangling instruments
              Will hum about mine ears, and sometime voices..."

              Comment

              • antongould
                Full Member
                • Nov 2010
                • 8778

                Originally posted by Caliban View Post
                Caught a section of this programme today, for the first time really since the 'revamp' (apart from the odd specific extract on iPlayer for ... ahem... research purposes concerning S Klein).

                It's terrible, banal stuff. Makes the old Essential Classics look positively scholarly. The crowning turd in the slop bucket was Harriet Harman telling listeners that Act 2 of Tosca is set in a 'Palazzio'. Then back to poor Rob Cowan having to witter about Vivaldi's 'Autumn'...

                How/why has Alan Davey allowed this to happen on his watch? Has anyone asked him?
                Indeed - it is getting Stockton-on-Tees a bad name ... "someone" should ask him .......

                Comment

                • french frank
                  Administrator/Moderator
                  • Feb 2007
                  • 30241

                  Originally posted by Caliban View Post
                  It's terrible, banal stuff.
                  I noted three points which I found questionable during the 16 minutes I listened a couple of weeks back. And almost 14 minutes were listening to the music - and I leave out the fact that most of the versions I know take 21-22 minutes, not 14 mins.

                  1. Mozart's Piano Sonata No 11 in A major announcement, described as 'pseudo-Turkish' (yes, Mozart Austrian, not Turkish; I would have objected less to 'pastiche', though), 'very fashionable', but nothing else said as an intro.

                  2. Back announcement, described as having 'nothing to do with Turkey at all'. Well, it did have something to do with Turkey and it would have been good to have been told what (Turks in Europe? Janissary bands? percussion instruments, like Turkish crescent? - Grove is good, but even Wikipedia has some useful comments).

                  3. First movement described as 'nursery-type' music, simplicity 'that Mozart was so good at'. Rather dismissive of the six mercurial variations which followed the theme. But perhaps 'variations' are too technical a term for the intended audience?

                  And Jeremy Irons as 'Enry 'Iggins to follow (not a listener suggestion, but an example of the expert curation). I've never personally heard the entire sonata referred to as the 'Turkish sonata, but that may just be my ignorance.
                  It isn't given us to know those rare moments when people are wide open and the lightest touch can wither or heal. A moment too late and we can never reach them any more in this world.

                  Comment

                  • Bax-of-Delights
                    Full Member
                    • Nov 2010
                    • 745

                    Originally posted by Caliban View Post
                    The crowning turd in the slop bucket was Harriet Harman telling listeners that Act 2 of Tosca is set in a 'Palazzio'.
                    The damn thing has just been plugged yet again. I don't listen to much R3 these days so one can assume Ms.Harman (just, well, why?) has been wheeled out plenty more times than the thrice I have encountered it. Perhaps she meant Palazzo. This one.
                    O Wort, du Wort, das mir Fehlt!

                    Comment

                    • Nick Armstrong
                      Host
                      • Nov 2010
                      • 26523

                      Originally posted by Bax-of-Delights View Post
                      Perhaps she meant Palazzo.
                      It just annoys me that someone is allowed on national radio to inform people about Tosca and its setting when they can't even get the name correct - and that no one on the R3 team picked up the error.
                      "...the isle is full of noises,
                      Sounds and sweet airs, that give delight and hurt not.
                      Sometimes a thousand twangling instruments
                      Will hum about mine ears, and sometime voices..."

                      Comment

                      • LMcD
                        Full Member
                        • Sep 2017
                        • 8405

                        Perhaps it was left up to Will Gompertz to approve the script.....

                        Comment

                        • teamsaint
                          Full Member
                          • Nov 2010
                          • 25193

                          Originally posted by Caliban View Post
                          Caught a section of this programme today, for the first time really since the 'revamp' (apart from the odd specific extract on iPlayer for ... ahem... research purposes concerning S Klein).

                          It's terrible, banal stuff. Makes the old Essential Classics look positively scholarly. The crowning turd in the slop bucket was Harriet Harman telling listeners that Act 2 of Tosca is set in a 'Palazzio'. Then back to poor Rob Cowan having to witter about Vivaldi's 'Autumn'...

                          How/why has Alan Davey allowed this to happen on his watch? Has anyone asked him?
                          You'd think that the aristocracy would know better........
                          I will not be pushed, filed, stamped, indexed, briefed, debriefed or numbered. My life is my own.

                          I am not a number, I am a free man.

                          Comment

                          • Ein Heldenleben
                            Full Member
                            • Apr 2014
                            • 6748

                            Originally posted by Caliban View Post
                            It just annoys me that someone is allowed on national radio to inform people about Tosca and its setting when they can't even get the name correct - and that no one on the R3 team picked up the error.

                            I bet they did spot it but no one had the nerve to correct her ...

                            Comment

                            • Eine Alpensinfonie
                              Host
                              • Nov 2010
                              • 20570

                              Originally posted by antongould View Post
                              Indeed - it is getting Stockton-on-Tees a bad name ... "someone" should ask him .......
                              Oh, Steph McGovern has already done that. (I know - she's actually from Middlesbrough.)

                              Comment

                              • LMcD
                                Full Member
                                • Sep 2017
                                • 8405

                                Can I just point out, in defence of 'Essential Classics', that they've just played the WHOLE of the Ritual Fire Dance from 'El Amor Brujo'.

                                Comment

                                Working...
                                X