Essential Classics - The Continuing Debate

[peterthekeys]

I really do wonder sometimes.

In the idiotic "what-could-you-follow-that-with" game, someone suggested Sorabji's Fantaisie Espagnole. Ian Skelly pronounced the composer's name as "sorab-yee". Has he really never heard of him??? I mean, I could have believed it from SK, but I thought IS was a bit more erudite.

(I remember Harold Truscott once telling me that for some reason he and Sorabji had gone to Broadcasting House together, and that as they entered the building, Sorabji had commented: "Well - it's a wonder that the walls don't vomit.")

[ahinton]

I really do wonder sometimes.

In the idiotic "what-could-you-follow-that-with" game, someone suggested Sorabji's Fantaisie Espagnole. Ian Skelly pronounced the composer's name as "sorab-yee". Has he really never heard of him??? I mean, I could have believed it from SK, but I thought IS was a bit more erudite.

(I remember Harold Truscott once telling me that for some reason he and Sorabji had gone to Broadcasting House together, and that as they entered the building, Sorabji had commented: "Well - it's a wonder that the walls don't vomit.")

Many thanks for this. Yes, well from the sheer quantity of Sorabji's work that gets broadcast on BBC one could well be forgiven for suspecting that none of the presentewrs know how to pronounce his name!

I didn't know that Sorabji knew Harold Truscott! His priceless comment upon entering Beeb House, though, is utterly typical!

[oddoneout]

Perhaps someone could share their erudition re pronunciation of Sorabji for the benefit of poor higorant souls such as myself?

[ferneyhoughgeliebte]

Perhaps someone could share their erudition re pronunciation of Sorabji for the benefit of poor higorant souls such as myself?

I've always pronounced it as it looks, with the emphasis on the second syllable: "SoRABgee". (The rhythm as in the first motif of the Nielsen Fourth Symphony.)

(I would be grateful for advice about the pronunciation of his first name - and, please, no one suggest "Lee-on"!)

[antongould]

Enforced listening to EC as I am on a stopping bus all trains having been cancelled at short notice. Hey, EC is not that bad - certainly brightening up my journey. I have another, shorter bus ride to get to work in a moment.

OG

OMG surely not OddFOURout ....... ?????

Nice surprise IMVVHO to have Skellers back .... I may be wrong, but I think his pronunciation of Glenn Gould and Anton Bruckner was fair to moderate ........

[oddoneout]

OMG surely not OddFOURout ....... ?????

Nice surprise IMVVHO to have Skellers back .... I may be wrong, but I think his pronunciation of Glenn Gould and Anton Bruckner was fair to moderate ........

And he took the trouble to reply to my email to EC about a 'missing' item(the Bruckner between Bax and Liszt was omitted from the playlist so in the dark as to what it was) which I hadn't expected, certainly not while the programme was running.

[oddoneout]

OMG surely not OddFOURout ....... ?????

Nice surprise IMVVHO to have Skellers back .... I may be wrong, but I think his pronunciation of Glenn Gould and Anton Bruckner was fair to moderate ........

Good grief, we'll be a gang at this rate

[antongould]

And he took the trouble to reply to my email to EC about a 'missing' item(the Bruckner between Bax and Liszt was omitted from the playlist so in the dark as to what it was) which I hadn't expected, certainly not while the programme was running.

A gentleman then but, now we know, not a scholar ......

[LMcD]

Perhaps someone could share their erudition re pronunciation of Sorabji for the benefit of poor higorant souls such as myself?

That goes for me too.

[oddoneout]

A gentleman then but, now we know, not a scholar ......

Well he might be, but not of lesser known composers. I accept the 'but he's paid to know' argument, but this is hardly in the infamous CFM Dvorak class, and I doubt he'll get it wrong again after such public exposure.

[french frank]

hardly in the infamous CFM Dvorak class

Nor the Radio 3 Boolay. More in the Vaklav Neumann class (also R3).

[ahinton]

I've always pronounced it as it looks, with the emphasis on the second syllable: "SoRABgee". (The rhythm as in the first motif of the Nielsen Fourth Symphony.)

(I would be grateful for advice about the pronunciation of his first name - and, please, no one suggest "Lee-on"!)

That's the way that Sorabji himself pronounced it - and with a short rather than a long "a" - although https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Rostam_and_Sohrab which refers to the name from which I believe it to have derived places the emphasis on the first syllable; I've gotten into the habit of emphasising the first syllable but I imagine that most people place the emphasis on the first.

[ahinton]

In the idiotic "what-could-you-follow-that-with" game, someone suggested Sorabji's Fantaisie Espagnole.

I wonder who it was that made that suggestion (not me, guv, honest) and what it was supposed to follow? At some 20 minutes, I can't imagine the suggestion being taken up on that programme in any case, frankly...

[ferneyhoughgeliebte]

That's the way that Sorabji himself pronounced it - and with a short rather than a long "a" - although https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Rostam_and_Sohrab which refers to the name from which I believe it to have derived places the emphasis on the first syllable; I've gotten into the habit of emphasising the first syllable but I imagine that most people place the emphasis on the first.

Thank you - as a Northerner, short rather than long "a"s are correct pronunciation.

Any advice on "Kaikhosru"? I've always thought "more or less as written": "Kigh-kos-roo", again with emphasis on the second syllable - but I thought for years that Chaya Czernowin's surname was pronounced as in "hello lamp-post; whatcherknowin' - until I said this allowed to a former student of hers. Funniest thing he'd heard all day!

[Opinionated Knowall]

Can I recommend Forvo? For example https://forvo.com/word/czernowin/#cs