Essential Classics - The Continuing Debate

[LeMartinPecheur]

I happened on the 'Time Traveller' in Essential Classics this morning. A very droll piece about Mary Benson:

https://www.bbc.co.uk/radio/play/m0000p4j

...about 1hr 12min from start.

I picked up on this too because I'd just been reading about the Benson family, mainly E F Benson of Mapp and Lucia fame, in Frank Muir's The Oxford Book of of Humorous Prose. (Brother A C Benson of course wrote the words for a certain Elgar march...)

Muir says of the children, "Their father was the Archbishop of Canterbury and he had proposed to their mother when she was 11. She was his second cousin, Mary Sidgwick, a formidably brainy lady described by Gladstone as 'the cleverest woman in Europe'. After bearing the archbishop six children she decided that enough was enough and left Lambeth Palace to live with her lesbian lover, Lady Tait, daughter of the previous Archbishop of Canterbury. The surviving children, three brothers and their sister, were homosexual, if anything."

Good(?) to hear this morning that Mary competed with her own daughter for the affections of Ethel Smyth, and that the latter played cricket!

[antongould]

Getting a good kicking on PhraseBook ........

[ferneyhoughgeliebte]

Getting a good kicking on PhraseBook ........

Faceboot?

[Nick Armstrong]

Getting a good kicking on PhraseBook ........

Got a link for that, antonio?

[Jimbo]

I see a sign of hope in what has previously been death by a thousand cuts of this once-great oasis of wonderful music. The other morning Ian Skelly played two movements (Playful Pizzicato and Sentimental Sarabande) from Britten's Simple Symphony. A few months ago Suzy Klein played just one movement - I can't remember which.

Is the day approaching when Ian or Suzy will play the entire work, all 16 minutes of it?

Hard to believe that this is the same programme in which Rob Cowen played a complete recording of one of Bruckner's symphonies. It must have lasted about 80 minutes.

Right now, I'd settle for the Britten, the whole thing. Can't wait!

[LMcD]

I see a sign of hope in what has previously been death by a thousand cuts of this once-great oasis of wonderful music. The other morning Ian Skelly played two movements (Playful Pizzicato and Sentimental Sarabande) from Britten's Simple Symphony. A few months ago Suzy Klein played just one movement - I can't remember which.

Is the day approaching when Ian or Suzy will play the entire work, all 16 minutes of it?

Hard to believe that this is the same programme in which Rob Cowen played a complete recording of one of Bruckner's symphonies. It must have lasted about 80 minutes.

Right now, I'd settle for the Britten, the whole thing. Can't wait!

(Just imagine the doves are pigs....)
(It's Cowan, by the way).

[cloughie]

(Just imagine the doves are pigs....)
(It's Cowan, by the way).

I suspect that the new formula was the last straw for Rob.

[Jimbo]

(Just imagine the doves are pigs....)
(It's Cowan, by the way).

Sorry Rob. I miss you.

And bring on the flying pigs!

[ferneyhoughgeliebte]

Surprised and delighted to hear Boulez broadcast on EC this morning (and Ligeti kicked the programme off) - not before time!

[Serial_Apologist]

I suspect that the new formula was the last straw for Rob.

No Cowan Gate way for him!

[Zucchini]

I suspect that the new formula was the last straw for Rob.

He played far too many dead performers. OK for many people here I suppose.

[french frank]

Hard to believe that this is the same programme in which Rob Cowen played a complete recording of one of Bruckner's symphonies. It must have lasted about 80 minutes.

Evidence is available that Rob was lined up to continue with EC when the latest changes were introduced. Whether that was the reason that he chose to 'be his own master' with his own show on Classic FM, only Rob could confirm. But that is what happened. It does not appear, prima facie and all that, E&OE, that he was booted out by Radio 3.

[french frank]

He played far too many dead performers. OK for many people here I suppose.

As far as "classical music" is concerned, the majority are dead. So no surprise there.

[LMcD]

He played far too many dead performers. OK for many people here I suppose.

The late, lamented Ray Moore would occasionally enlighten his listeners as to what was being broadcast on Radio 3. 'Well, it's still all stuff by dead foreigners. And there's been another outbreak of Buxtehude' (pronounced in a very thick Scouse accent with heavy emphasis on the first syllable).

[teamsaint]

Can't hear dead performers any other way.