Classic FM Magazine: A Guilty Secret

[Guest]

Spurred on by the message on FoR3 Forum recently that Classic FM Magazine was carrying a free double CD of Horenstein conducting Mahler symphony no 1 and Tamas Vasary playing some Beethoven piano sonatas, I tottered into Smugs, paid for a copy & stole out into the Stygian gloom, my head bowed lest someone might see me

Lo! In Sainsbury's today, I espied this month's Classic FM Magazine offering a typical pot-pourri of selections from this month's CD releases plus a second CD of Dvorak Symphony no 9 From The New World performed by LPO and conducted by James Loughran.

Reader, I was unashamed. James Loughran is a long-standing favourite of mine and so, inevitably, I stood in the queue wracking my conscience about what is now clearly my guilty secret. I have fallen under the spell of another Haymarket publication, so soon after quitting my Gramophone habit of 40+ years in favour of International Record Review.

I ask you! These marketing people - James Loughran - it was a so blatant *sob*

Later: ... the mag itself is vileness incarnate - the front cover shrieks "How Alfie Boe Conquered Opera - and why it bores him" and the internal design looks like a two year-old has hit the Letraset and the Pantone charts.

[Don Petter]

There, there! You've done absolutely the right thing by coming out, and now ve can start ze therapy.

But actually - Why the hell not? Take what you find where you find it. It's just an extension of the narrowing between the two erstwhile rivals. For instance, the CFM evening concerts can now often be a perfectly good alternative to the R3 offering.

[Barbirollians]

In two months Classic FM magazine has offered 2 sets of CDs worth more than all the old Gramophone covermounts which had one useful purpose - replacement jewel cases .

In fact reading that Classic FM magazine with the Horenstein CD i found little difference between it and the Inverne Gramophone.

[MrGongGong]

I hope you slipped it between the covers of something from the top shelf so no one would know amateur

aaaah Letraset them were the days , I was in a band as a teenager and we had a track called "instant lettering" in honour

[Nick Armstrong]

Spurred on by the message on FoR3 Forum recently that Classic FM Magazine was carrying a free double CD of Horenstein conducting Mahler symphony no 1 and Tamas Vasary playing some Beethoven piano sonatas, I tottered into Smugs, paid for a copy & stole out into the Stygian gloom, my head bowed lest someone might see me

Lo! In Sainsbury's today, I espied this month's Classic FM Magazine offering a typical pot-pourri of selections from this month's CD releases plus a second CD of Dvorak Symphony no 9 From The New World performed by LPO and conducted by James Loughran.

Reader, I was unashamed. James Loughran is a long-standing favourite of mine and so, inevitably, I stood in the queue wracking my conscience about what is now clearly my guilty secret. I have fallen under the spell of another Haymarket publication, so soon after quitting my Gramophone habit of 40+ years in favour of International Record Review.

I ask you! These marketing people - James Loughran - it was a so blatant *sob*

Later: ... the mag itself is vileness incarnate - the front cover shrieks "How Alfie Boe Conquered Opera - and why it bores him" and the internal design looks like a two year-old has hit the Letraset and the Pantone charts.

I was just fingering the publication in Waitrose. The sight of Alfie ("Pink") O'boe made me replace it instantly, together with a recollection from the distant past of seeing Loughran conducting Brahms like a windmill in a gale. Wasn't impressed, but given your comment I should perhaps revise my view.

However I would have got the previous issue had I ever seen it on the shelves - which I didn't

What is the CD by young Tamas like?

[Alf-Prufrock]

For instance, the CFM evening concerts can now often be a perfectly good alternative to the R3 offering.

Except that the Classic FM sound is appallingly compressed. Far worse than the BBC managed during the Havergal Brian symphony at the Proms. I find it intolerable after a relatively short while. I suppose it is listenable in the car, which is the market Classic FM appear to aim at - except that I do not own or drive a car!

[Don Petter]

Good point, I'm sure. I must indeed admit that when out in the car is the only time I tend to hear the evening fare.

[Nick Armstrong]

Good point, I'm sure. I must indeed admit that when out in the car is the only time I tend to hear the evening fare.

same here... or a late night cycle ride home when I don't want the spoken word or world music...

[amateur51]

I was just fingering the publication in Waitrose. The sight of Alfie ("Pink") O'boe made me replace it instantly, together with a recollection from the distant past of seeing Loughran conducting Brahms like a windmill in a gale. Wasn't impressed, but given your comment I should perhaps revise my view.

However I would have got the previous issue had I ever seen it on the shelves - which I didn't

What is the CD by young Tamas like?

I've yet to listen to it, Caliban but I'll report later.

James Loughran's Hallé Orchestra set of Brahms symphonies plus overtures was a CfP staple for the whole of the 1970s and beyond and I loved it. The same team did a Beethoven symphony cycle and a Rachmaninov symphony no 2 both for CfP. I wore my Rachmaninov LP down to the hubs until I could afford the LSO/Previn set. Happy days!

[Karafan]

I am sullied with guilt by association, my cheeks flaring to a roaring crimson, by dint of just reading your confession, Amateur.

Even my Furtwängler avatar looks flushed with embarrassment on closer inspection!

I feel your shame.

Bws,
K.

[Barbirollians]

I've yet to listen to it, Caliban but I'll report later.

James Loughran's Hallé Orchestra set of Brahms symphonies plus overtures was a CfP staple for the whole of the 1970s and beyond and I loved it. The same team did a Beethoven symphony cycle and a Rachmaninov symphony no 2 both for CfP. I wore my Rachmaninov LP down to the hubs until I could afford the LSO/Previn set. Happy days!

Loughran's Beethoven were on ASV . Cluytens ruled in the Beethoven symphonies on Cfp for a while and then Munich Phil and Kempe I think.

[barber olly]

Loughran's Beethoven were on ASV . Cluytens ruled in the Beethoven symphonies on Cfp for a while and then Munich Phil and Kempe I think.

What do the MPO Kempe set and the HO Loughran sets have in common? Non-availability on CD, as does the RPO Dorati set. Actually heading this up as a Guilty Secret is nonsense - would most of the CD buying cognoscenti (all you advisers on the Bargain thread) object to shelling out 5 notes for Horensteins Mahler 1 or Loughran's Dvo 9 in HMV?

[MickyD]

I hope you slipped it between the covers of something from the top shelf so no one would know amateur

In my younger days, a considerate news vendor would give you a brown paper bag...

[Nick Armstrong]

In my younger days, a considerate news vendor would give you a brown paper bag...

Ah, the voice of experience... !



Morning, Micky!

[amateur51]

Loughran's Beethoven were on ASV . Cluytens ruled in the Beethoven symphonies on Cfp for a while and then Munich Phil and Kempe I think.

You're spot on there, Barbs - my apologies