Sunday Morning: Praise where praise is due

[Guest]

I thought there must have been a timeslip when I listened to Louise Fryer presenting Sunday Morning without chat, without guests, without e-mails [except one at the end], presenting, moreover, a range of works [some quite substantial - Arensky's 1st Piano Trio] that went from John Taverner to HK Gruber, including one piece from each age between, among them the Quodlibet from Cage's 1950 String Quartet [tuneful enough to appear on Breakfast]. Nothing predictable, everything interesting - especially Horszowski playing St Francois de Paule walking on the waters. Wow! I might listen to this programme again, and make it the soundtrack to my Sunday morning.

NB The studio producer introducing his own choice of the archive recording is hardly a guest - he only talks about MUSIC!

[french frank]

Wow! I might listen to this programme again, and make it the soundtrack to my Sunday morning.

'The perfect soundtrack', even.

Thanks for mentioning it - I'll give it a listen and see whether it's really a change and, at last, they've found a decent formula for Sunday mornings. [Or whether you've finally cracked ... ]

[french frank]

Having listened from beginning to end I agree with mikerotheatrenestr0y. Nice choice of music (nitpicking to say that the theme itself didn't really seem necessary). I liked the presenter (Louise Fryer) for two points in particular: the term 'gig of the week' doesn't seem to form part of her lexicon (she prefers 'concerts'); and when unexpectedly contradicted by her guest, she merely registered slight surprise without pursuing the matter, even though she appears to have been right.

I listened to Sunday Morning some months back with a different presenter and thought it just awful. The production company (Perfectly Normal) seemed to be living up to its name this week. Good work

[3rd Viennese School]

Sunday Mornings Exist!!?? I thought that was just a myth.

3VS



"Don't wake the cows up"

[mikerotheatrenestr0y]

[QUOTE=3rd Viennese School;26801]Sunday Mornings Exist!!?? I thought that was just a myth.

Clearly you don't have dogs. This week, also, [I was away last w/e] even with Suzy Klein, there is a varied playlist [C20 choral, trio-sonata for woodwind, concert aria, concertante with piano, symphony, symphonic dance, guitar, piano, C18 opera extract] with substantial pieces [Beethoven 1] and unusual composers [Zelenka, Arensky, Rameau], one of whom [Arensky] may have been programmed in response to a listener's e-mail [a legitimate use of IT, I believe]. Has the tide turned??

[antongould]

Sounds not too bad at all - I will give it an iplay

[Norfolk Born]

I was pleasantly surprised by what I heard of the 'Breakfast' programme this morning. There were some interesting lesser-known pieces (well, lesser-known to me) among the more predictable items. And there seemed to be fewer invitations to 'get interactive'.
Having said that, I shall be back with the 'Today' team from 06.00 tomorrow.

[kernelbogey]

I was pleasantly surprised by what I heard of the 'Breakfast' programme this morning. There were some interesting lesser-known pieces (well, lesser-known to me) among the more predictable items. And there seemed to be fewer invitations to 'get interactive'.
Having said that, I shall be back with the 'Today' team from 06.00 tomorrow.

I have Breakfast on because I want to hear the music - but dear God the presenter's patronising chat is really making me feel ill. [My post on another thread this morning at 0836]

I don't like the vilification of individual presenters which may seem to be personal attacks - so you can check the playlist if you don't know whose style I'm referring to here, as I'm not going to name them here.

What irritated me was a number of colloquialisms and a faux-intimacy as though the presenter were chatting to a friend on a mobile, or, as we used to say, over the garden fence. 'Let's kick off with...'; 'there you go'; 'good news for violinists' [that American violin makers are making lots of fiddles for export to China - ay? - and I thought presenters were expected, by long custom, not to comment on news items]; and a microphone technique that is clearly intended to be chatty and 'intimate'.

Listening to some of it, I decided that it was essentially unscripted - compare Martin Handley, Donald MacLeod, Petroc Trelawney et al - and I assume this presenter has been hired to exercise this style.

The presenter who was very good at this style was Verity Sharpe. Though I imagine she was reading a script she managed to introduce a tone and inflection to her presentation that sounded natural and informal. (BTW haven't heard her in a while: does anyone have any information about her absence?)

I don't like to rant but I was seriously turned off this morning. (And have to live up to my nom-de-boards occasionally.)

[Frances_iom]

Im afraid that's what she was employed for - I find it sad when I have to turn off R3 (apart from Early Music I seldom listen on Sundays these days) all I can say in praise was this morning in the brief period between alarm and shower when I did listen there were none of the please-text me-quicks and the ratio of music to chat had it seemed increased, but I did find the bit re American violin makers strange.

[mikerotheatrenestr0y]

Another amazingly catholic selection this morning - Enescu, Scriabin and Hammerschmidt [who he?] in one programme! [Philippe Rogier doesn't count, because they're pushing the new CD on Linn.] Innocent earing the Enescu, I thought it might have been Frank Bridge [lyrical but also occasionally aggressive]. Are we sure someone from this board isn't involved with the production company?

[meles]

I thought this morning's music reached an all time low (which is a very low low). Film music, songs from the shows in dreadful arrangements, some South American thing for nose flute and choir...

The Scriabin was good and I missed the Hammerschmidt. The breakfast programme, the morning programme, and private passions (ET, for heaven's sake!), all showing that it's now Radio 2 1/2.

[mikerotheatrenestr0y]

Praise where praise is due: fortepiano Mozart concerto, Onslow [both only I movt, but even so] and a COMPLETE SIMPSON HORN TRIO!!!

[Bax-of-Delights]

A lot of very familiar and overplayed material on the Fiona Talkington section....but surely I didn't hear Suzy Klein announce that she didn't know much about Lotte Lehmann

And why is it down to the listening audience to "suggest" forgotten or obscure material (the Onslow for example)? If the presenter is more than just a disc jokey wouldn't she be researching and playing such material off her own back? Or is it all part of the exercise to make R3 more "inclusive" (text, email in please)?

[Pianorak]

..but surely I didn't hear Suzy Klein announce that she didn't know much about Lotte Lehmann . . .

I'm afraid you did!

[mikerotheatrenestr0y]

Radio 3's role as educator has to start somewhere; why not with its staff? I always try to learn something new when I go to school.