Gramophone

[VodkaDilc]

I seem to have started a trend!

Just to show youngsters that I'm not inventing the little verses, I have found this on the official Rupert Bear website:

Rupert fans come in all ages, as Rupert appeals at many levels. In the Annuals, in fact, it has become traditional that the stories can be "read" at 4 levels:

Simply by looking at the pictures ... 4 per page

By reading the "one-liners" at the top of the page
(e.g. "Rupert and Algy meet the Elves")

By reading the (occasionally excrutiating!) two-line rhyming couplets under each picture - e.g.
To try to help the working elves,
The chums go underground themselves

By reading the free-form prose at the foot of the page. This is a conventional "storyline" in fairly adult language and is the only bit of the Rupert writing that has any real literary merit!

[MickyD]

Cullingford has removed those terrible sub editor favoured silly headings and replaced them with neutral bried descriptions of the records but they could still do with going .

How can I put it best ? I reckon had these changes been made before I stopped subscribing I would have continued to subscribe but they are not enough to make me resubscribe.

The same goes for me too. For years I dutifully filled out their Readers' Questionnaire and always complained bitterly about those sub-headings (I'm sure I wasn't the only one) but they remained firmly in place. Two years on and I'm still very happy with IRR.

[Ferretfancy]

Alfred Bester's Rupert was a lot nicer than a certain other Rupert.

[mathias broucek]

Richter's Schubert can be slow
Needs a prod to make it go

I like this game!

Wilhelm liked to speed then slow
But Jascha's tempi stayed "just so"

[Nick Armstrong]

The same goes for me too. For years I dutifully filled out their Readers' Questionnaire and always complained bitterly about those sub-headings (I'm sure I wasn't the only one) but they remained firmly in place. Two years on and I'm still very happy with IRR.

After this exchange, I saw the May Gramophone in a newsagent's so bought it. There is a free CD on the front, of Karajan conducting the Philharmonia in Beethoven 5 and Brahms 2.... I think the magazine is better - the silly sound bite phrases have become merely descriptive - and actually a waste of ink (the review which starts "Brahms" then lists a series of pieces, then performers Collegium Vocale Ghent and Philippe Herreweghe, is headed additionally "Herreweghe and his Ghent singers in choral Brahms"... errr... yes... what's the point of saying it twice?! )

The rest of the magazine isn't too bad... although the 'cover story' and reason for the free CD is:

"Hall of Fame" (a Classic FM phrase if ever there was one)...
"50 People who changed Classical Music" (Legge, Karajan, Callas bla bla bla)

... and the whole thing appears to be a commercial hook-up with Amazon...

[MickyD]

Well, I suppose that is hardly surprising - they must be having to find some sort of extra finance, Caliban, if their subscribers have been dropping like flies of late.

[Eine Alpensinfonie]

By reading the (occasionally excrutiating!) two-line rhyming couplets under each picture

I absolutely love these.
And Rupert runs and jumps with glee,
"I've been to China; what's for tea?"

By reading the free-form prose at the foot of the page. This is a conventional "storyline" in fairly adult language and is the only bit of the Rupert writing that has any real literary merit! [/I]

The problem with this is that it's all written in the present tense.

[amateur51]

I absolutely love these.
And Rupert runs and jumps with glee,
"I've been to China; what's for tea?"

The problem with this is that it's all written in the present tense.

Paul Lewis played Schubert sonatas
So home for tea and Mum's frittatas

I've told that Carol Ann Duffy that I'm ready to take over if she needs a rest

[Nick Armstrong]

Paul Lewis played Schubert sonatas
So home for tea and Mum's frittatas

I've told that Carol Ann Duffy that I'm ready to take over if she needs a rest

She's just instructed me to seek an injunction restraining you from ever attempting to contact her again.

[amateur51]

She's just instructed me to seek an injunction restraining you from ever attempting to contact her again.

[birkenshawboy]

Yes you would be well off giving up your Gramophone subscription. After reading Gramophone since the mid 70's my tolerance levels have finally cracked. It is but a pale shadow of its former self. How many of the regular featured articles have been dropped since the onset of James Inverne's editorship - Quarterley review, Soundings, virtually the entire audio section. You do get the impression that no one cares about how recordings sound any more. I've got a stack of old Gramophones which I regularly flick through. I suspect that the pressure from the publisher goes a long way to explaining the magazine's sad current state. At least Inverne has left the building so their may be hope after all. Gave up my subscription about 2 years ago and I don't regret it one jot.

[Beef Oven]

I subscribed to Gramophone for about 20 years and gave up 5 years ago.

It aint what it was!

Formulaic reviews and features and one of the best hi-fi reviews replaced with What Hi-Fi!

Hey birkenshawboy - Egg Wetter Gree!!!

The above is my earlier post, #297.

[Barbirollians]

I am wondering whether to go back to Gramophone . Despite the length of the reviews IRR is beginning to go downhill in my opinion .

They have recently added a number of reviewers that I do not rate at all . One of whom must have cloth ears to have liked the Liszt Concertos of Matsuev and the insufferable Michael Jameson - who gave a bizarre rave review to a dreary Mahler 2 from Simone Young and who as a cellist ( though his recorded catalogue seems rather slim) appears to dislike every recording that is not played as he might have played it had he had the chance - his endless railings against the late Jacqueline du Pre were no credit to BBCMM in the past and I see he is at it again in the most recent IRR .

It still has some very good reviewers - some are shared with Gramophone and indeed we have two of its very best as members on here but it is worryingly inconsistent and I find Richard Whitehouse's monopolising of Shostakovich as irritating as some do Seckerson with Mahler in Gramophone .

[jayne lee wilson]

Yes Bb., I've found that inconsistency with IRR a little worse recently after recommended purchases - one reason why I try before I buy (downloads, excerpts online etc.) I still like its reviews overall for the length and detail, but then, by now I know which reviewers I trust! As for MJ...

As one who continues to subscribe to both, I can assure you that Gramophone has improved, or recovered, considerably, since Martin Cullingford assumed editorship. But you have to factor in the superb new Gramophone archive to all of this. For about £2 extra per month, it's a great and absorbing resource of some 70 years of reviews, surveys and articles, beautifully implemented and lovely to use. It's great to go back and see what Deryck Cooke, Trevor Harvey or Richard Osborne said about the original releases, and then follow the links, or just follow your nose, through the back issues. The only problem with it is the time that goes by once you're in.
I used to mock the line "the magazine is just the beginning" - but now, with the latest archive, it's true.

[akiralx]

But you have to factor in the superb new Gramophone archive to all of this. For about £2 extra per month, it's a great and absorbing resource of some 70 years of reviews, surveys and articles, beautifully implemented and lovely to use. It's great to go back and see what Deryck Cooke, Trevor Harvey or Richard Osborne said about the original releases, and then follow the links, or just follow your nose, through the back issues.

I only recently resubscribed to Gramophone for the archive, it is very enjoyable - but my beef is I struggle to track down specific reviews.

For example I was recently looking for Haitink's early 70s Mahler 5 - so putting in 'Haitink Mahler' as the search and even narrowing by each year in the 1970s still brings up every recording by Haitink, and every recording of Mahler - quite a few of both... It took me half an hour of concerted searching to find it - even then only by spotting the right issue from a comparative review of M5. It takes me *ages* to find any specific review. What do you all do to avoid this? I've tried putting the query in quotes as I'm only interested in both elements together but that doesn't seem to work...