Building a Library - General Discussion

[Goon525]

As Jayne rightly hints above, the cream of the old crew almost all wrote for Gramophone. Now the Beeb seem determined to avoid using anyone who writes for what is still the world's premier classical review magazine. (And which is going through a good period at the moment with some excellent new writers.) For those of us who read it, there’s an advantage in one of the G team doing BaL, because we already know something of their style and preferences. Instead, we get a succession of otherwise unknown names, some of whom are pretty good, but...

[Master Jacques]

As Jayne rightly hints above, the cream of the old crew almost all wrote for Gramophone. Now the Beeb seem determined to avoid using anyone who writes for what is still the world's premier classical review magazine. (And which is going through a good period at the moment with some excellent new writers.) For those of us who read it, there’s an advantage in one of the G team doing BaL, because we already know something of their style and preferences. Instead, we get a succession of otherwise unknown names, some of whom are pretty good, but...

There's a lot in that. Journalist-critics tend to be communicative broadcasters by nature ... and old-style analytical performers such as David Owen Norris fall into that boat too. Listening to many from the current crop of BaL presenters, I sometimes feel that they are going out of their way to appear less articulate than they really are, so as not to frighten those hordes of 12-year-olds to whom Radio 3 is (apparently) trying to appeal.

When we are facing - as we are - an Arts Council which has recently announced that it will in future subsidise "relevance" (to ordinary lives) rather than "excellence" (artistic talent) is it any wonder that BaL finds itself doing the headless chicken act, and avoiding genuinely communicative journalists?

[Cockney Sparrow]

.......However they saw themselves in terms of broadcasting, Osborne, Greenfield, Robert Layton and other Old Gramophonians were great communicators, most of whom had a smooth, articulate delivery before a microphone.....

Not forgetting Rodney Milnes, who was in a different league, and streets ahead of their present go to reviewer of opera recordings.

[jayne lee wilson]

Bit harsh about Lucy Parham, I thought she spoke insightfully and interestingly about the Schumann.

"He gets you by the scruff of the neck and brings you right into the opening of this concerto..."

That kind of thing, (about Pollini)....

[Barbirollians]

RO made a brief reappearance a few years back doing Bruckner 8 and rather surprisingly Sibelius 3 - what a tonic it would be to hear him ,Swain , Harriet Smith (even though I don’t agree with her adulation for the recordings of Nelson Freire )again .

[underthecountertenor]

Not forgetting Rodney Milnes, who was in a different league, and streets ahead of their present go to reviewer of opera recordings.

Oh yes, how I miss Rodney Milnes, and his (occasionally ever so slightly malicious) wit.

[jayne lee wilson]

I recall sometime in the mid-1990s when Kenyon seemed to be doing his best to screen out the Gramophone from RR (with its pusillanimous "CD" renaming) an unfamiliar reviewer described Hindemith's Symphonic Metamorphosis on themes of Carl Maria von Weber as "muddy music".....

I was to say the least mildly abashed at such a casual, inaccurate dismissal.

The same reviewer contributed a BaL on a major symphonic work last year.... it was....unimpressive, not up-to-speed on recent recordings, omitted some key comparisons, and had a very strange final choice.......

[seabright]

...

Oh - and Andrew McGregor should go away and let the time-wasting wittering be put to better purpose by the reviewer.

Do you suppose that A McG has a life-time contract and will still be presenting RR when he's in his 80s or even older, as David Jacobs did with his 'easy listening' Radio 2 show, or Jimmy Young with the 'JY Prog' which he presented almost until he was 90, or Alan Keith who died at the age of 94 not long after presenting 'Your 100 Best Tunes' for the last time? I can remember the days of old when there was a regular change of presenter every year or so. However, it looks like A McG is clinging to the job like a limpet, so one wonders how many listeners would welcome a change, assuming it would be for the better of course!

[Cockney Sparrow]

Oh yes, how I miss Rodney Milnes, and his (occasionally ever so slightly malicious) wit.

I recall him saying - "here we have what is needed, boot lipped native Russian speaking altos...."

[Eine Alpensinfonie]

Andrew NcGregor is one of the good guys on Radio 3. Imagine the alternative: Katie Derham doing a twofer, with that pathetic schoolgirl giggle every 15 seconds, and showing no understanding of the works/recordings being discussed. Be thankful for what we have, in so many ways.

[pastoralguy]

Andrew NcGregor is one of the good guys on Radio 3. Imagine the alternative: Katie Derham doing a twofer, with that pathetic schoolgirl giggle every 15 seconds, and showing no understanding of the works/recordings being discussed. Be thankful for what we have, in so many ways.

Absolutely!

[Master Jacques]

I recall sometime in the mid-1990s when Kenyon seemed to be doing his best to screen out the Gramophone from RR (with its pusillanimous "CD" renaming) an unfamiliar reviewer described Hindemith's Symphonic Metamorphosis on themes of Carl Maria von Weber as "muddy music".....

I was to say the least mildly abashed at such a casual, inaccurate dismissal.

The same reviewer contributed a BaL on a major symphonic work last year.... it was....unimpressive, not up-to-speed on recent recordings, omitted some key comparisons, and had a very strange final choice.......

You've got me curious ... I wonder whether we're thinking of the same reviewer, who in discussing an early Bax work stated that it was obviously under the spell of Strauss's Salome - a work which had not yet been performed or published at the time young Arnold was penning his (heavily Russian) piece at the Royal Academy!

Oh go on: I'll name a name. I'm talking about William Mival, whose sub-standard BaL on Schumann's 4th last year would certainly fit your description of out of date, out of touch - and out of order.

[Sir Velo]

"He gets you by the scruff of the neck and brings you right into the opening of this concerto..."

That kind of thing, (about Pollini)....

Yes, most inelegant. However, this is almost certainly the fault of the new chatty, accessible, anti-elitist; conversational, matey approach foisted on the programme which has, no doubt, attracted hordes of new listeners to the programme, er, not.

I can't imagine that an expression like that would have been used in a scripted edition of BAL; at least, I hope not.

[ferneyhoughgeliebte]

Andrew NcGregor is one of the good guys on Radio 3. Imagine the alternative: Katie Derham doing a twofer, with that pathetic schoolgirl giggle every 15 seconds, and showing no understanding of the works/recordings being discussed. Be thankful for what we have, in so many ways.

No - I'm sorry, but I don't buy this at all. I don't consider the inane, "agreeable" chirruppings that interrupt a reviewer's arguments every 15 seconds to be any better than the hypothetical "pathetic schoolgirl giggle" - nor does the "persona" that he adopts ("is compelled to adopt by his cruel masters in order not to let his children starve" if you prefer)show any real "understand of the works/recordings being discussed".

The "it could be worse so be thankful for the not-so-good that we've got" doesn't cut any ice with me - for me, the programme has gone beyond the "better than nothing" point, and I just do not want to listen to it because of the presenter's omnipresence. There are other alternatives.

[jayne lee wilson]

You've got me curious ... I wonder whether we're thinking of the same reviewer, who in discussing an early Bax work stated that it was obviously under the spell of Strauss's Salome - a work which had not yet been performed or published at the time young Arnold was penning his (heavily Russian) piece at the Royal Academy!

Oh go on: I'll name a name. I'm talking about William Mival, whose sub-standard BaL on Schumann's 4th last year would certainly fit your description of out of date, out of touch - and out of order.

You might think that, you might, ...........

The point about Gramophone reviewers, or at least the most experienced, is that they have The Knowledge - of the now very extensive recorded catalogue (of course, a few online-only reviewers, some also or formerly print journalists, exhibit this too) which is rarely found among the RR-invitee academics or musicians themselves, for obvious and less obvious reasons...

And of course they write about recorded music all the time and are true enthusiasts.... it does help in noticing and avoiding the more obvious clichés or platitudes.

Tom Service is also good in this respect, and personally I don't find his delivery a problem, especially when presenting the BaL alone.