Saturday Classics/Inside Music

[french frank]

It was all about the music and its context, and that’s how I expect a programme on Radio3 with a name like Inside Music to be.

And that was what I was told it would be when I queried the publicity blurb (which is what this was). I thought I had posted this before, but:

"The press release said v little. 'Inside Music' is meant to be much more about musicians talking about their experience in their field of expertise and playing music that they have played or has helped shape their practice or musical outlook, but expressing (we hope) a musical response and explaining that response and not gushing. It assumes that intelligent people will not be against some musical talk if clear and well expressed."

We know there is often a discrepancy between what R3 say they're going to do and what actually transpires. As ever we have to wait and see what it is. I imagine it will vary depending on the guest.

[french frank]

Any comments on the latest programme announcement?

"Today conductor Nicholas Collon discovers how, when Joseph Haydn breaks the rules, he produces what some consider to be his most endearing music, and describes just how Maurice Ravel skilfully manages to deconstruct the Viennese Waltz.

Nicholas’s choices range from an emotionally pivotal moment in Bach’s B Minor Mass, to a madcap movement by John Adams played by Nicholas’s own Aurora Orchestra."

[ferneyhoughgeliebte]

Collonic irritation.

[DracoM]

OK, IN THEORY from that PR blurb, we should expect: first, explain what 'the rules' are, and then show how they are broken?
Exposition on radio?

As FF wisely says, hearing is believing in terms of R3 blurb > R3 output.

[doversoul1]

Just into a few minutes, we’ve already heard ‘wonderful’, ‘amazing’, incredible’. Some repeated. I’ll listen to the rest later.
(ed.) and we've already had 'it was the first movement'.

[french frank]

Just into a few minutes, we’ve already heard ‘wonderful’, ‘amazing’, incredible’. Some repeated. I’ll listen to the rest later.
(ed.) and we've already had 'it was the first movement'.

This is the Colin Currie - which did sound exactly like 'What I like' from the blurb. Next week Tamsin Waley-Cohen:

"Today solo violinist and chamber musician Tamsin Waley-Cohen is inspired by conductor Carlos Kleiber's rehearsal technique, discovers the eerie effect of strings combined with wine glasses, and describes how a Haydn string quartet is an elaborate game for four players. Tamsin's choices range from a number by Irving Berlin sung by Billy Holiday, to flirtatious pairings of wind instruments by Bartok, and a keyboard concerto by J.S. Bach's most iconoclastic son.

At 2 o'clock Tamsin reveals her Must Listen piece - something she thinks everyone should hear at least once in their life. It's a work she describes as sumptuous, intimate and with some of the most gorgeous harmonies imaginable. "

For a two-hour programme, I would think a couple of pieces would be adequate. So far we've had three this week in the first half-hour.

[DracoM]

OTT- Mr Currie's evaluations? Everything 'phenomenal' or 'mind-blowing' or 'fantastic' or etc etc
As a percussionist, why NOT explain the exact difficulties in playing that Petrushka section?
Why doesn't an orchestral player explain precisely why Kleiber's conducting technique was 'inspiring'? I mean if insiders merely gush, what on earth do we learn?

Just one chain of way OTT superlatives after another.

It's yet more gush and trax.

[french frank]

OTT- Mr Currie's evaluations?

I think this is going to depend on the guest each week. They have to be prepared to put some critical effort into their comments. Most people aren't used to doing that and don't know how to set about it.

[LMcD]

This is the Colin Currie - which did sound exactly like 'What I like' from the blurb. Next week Tamsin Waley-Cohen:

"Today solo violinist and chamber musician Tamsin Waley-Cohen is inspired by conductor Carlos Kleiber's rehearsal technique, discovers the eerie effect of strings combined with wine glasses, and describes how a Haydn string quartet is an elaborate game for four players. Tamsin's choices range from a number by Irving Berlin sung by Billy Holiday, to flirtatious pairings of wind instruments by Bartok, and a keyboard concerto by J.S. Bach's most iconoclastic son.

At 2 o'clock Tamsin reveals her Must Listen piece - something she thinks everyone should hear at least once in their life. It's a work she describes as sumptuous, intimate and with some of the most gorgeous harmonies imaginable. "

For a two-hour programme, I would think a couple of pieces would be adequate. So far we've had three this week in the first half-hour.

Is Billy Holliday Billie Holliday's cruelly overlooked brother?

[french frank]

Is Billy Holliday Billie Holliday's cruelly overlooked brother?

Yes, that's him. If you google him you get 1,700,000 hits, so not quite overlooked Though Billie Holiday is their even more famous cousin!

[LMcD]

Yes, that's him. If you google him you get 1,700,000 hits, so not quite overlooked Though Billie Holiday is their even more famous cousin!

Touché, maestro!

[oddoneout]

OTT- Mr Currie's evaluations? Everything 'phenomenal' or 'mind-blowing' or 'fantastic' or etc etc
As a percussionist, why NOT explain the exact difficulties in playing that Petrushka section?
Why doesn't an orchestral player explain precisely why Kleiber's conducting technique was 'inspiring'? I mean if insiders merely gush, what on earth do we learn?

Just one chain of way OTT superlatives after another.

It's yet more gush and trax.

Made the following KD presented programme look good?

[doversoul1]

But how come Colin Currie was chosen to present a 2-hour music programme in the first place? I don’t imagine he had to go through an audition but weren't there any criteria for a presenter? Simply being a good musician does not automatically make him/her a good broadcaster. On the other hand, there are plenty of first-rate musicians who are also excellent broadcasters. Just a few examples mostly from early music field:

William Lyons, director of the Dufay Collective who presented an EMS on David Munrow; Robert Hollingworth, the director of I Fagiolini who has presented a few EMS; Tom McKinney whose Boulez: Le marteau sans maître BAL was almost perfectly; Mahan Esfahani whose quattro stagioni BAL was, I thought, very good.

What’s wrong with these musicians? Or can we expect to hear them later?

[french frank]

But how come Colin Currie was chosen to present a 2-hour music programme in the first place? [ … ] William Lyons, director of the Dufay Collective who presented an EMS on David Munrow; Robert Hollingworth, the director of I Fagiolini who has presented a few EMS; Tom McKinney whose Boulez: Le marteau sans maître BAL was almost perfectly; Mahan Esfahani whose quattro stagioni BAL was, I thought, very good.

What’s wrong with these musicians? Or can we expect to hear them later?

Performers aren't available at the drop of a hat, I imagine, and it must be a bit potluck. I don't suppose the producer (who may be responsible for choosing the guests) can endlessly nitpick about how they are approaching the job. CC was the first one: we can probably expect some unevenness. Performers aren't necessarily going to be good broadcasters - or critics. Tamsin Waley-Cohen and Nicholas Collon to come.

[Stanfordian]

But how come Colin Currie was chosen to present a 2-hour music programme in the first place? I don’t imagine he had to go through an audition but weren't there any criteria for a presenter? Simply being a good musician does not automatically make him/her a good broadcaster. On the other hand, there are plenty of first-rate musicians who are also excellent broadcasters. Just a few examples mostly from early music field:

William Lyons, director of the Dufay Collective who presented an EMS on David Munrow; Robert Hollingworth, the director of I Fagiolini who has presented a few EMS; Tom McKinney whose Boulez: Le marteau sans maître BAL was almost perfectly; Mahan Esfahani whose quattro stagioni BAL was, I thought, very good.

What’s wrong with these musicians? Or can we expect to hear them later?

All presenters should have to be auditioned one would have thought. Maybe not these days on the BBC where I guess the main criterion is being well known or a celebrity. Presenting is certainly not easy!