Building a Library - General Discussion

[Hitch]

Whoever edits the podcast of BaL deserves a pay rise for their quart-into-pint-pot efforts, especially when it's a "two-fer".

[Dermot]

I have contacted the radio station, by e-mail, enquiring if the programme can be heard again. I await their response.

The broadcast can not be listened to again. BR Klassik will supply the playlist and the script, on request.

[HighlandDougie]

Well, I have an mp3 of one. Michael Oliver - 1996 - Turangalila Symphony. PM me if you (or anyone - for a week or so) would like to download it from dropbox. 73 minutes - grieve for what we have lost.........

Indeed grieve. Many, many thanks to CS for this treasure from the past. A reminder of Michael Oliver as a fine broadcaster and the sheer pleasure of longer extracts to illustrate well-made points. Given that there are podcasts these days about virtually everything under the sun (and some are excellent), a modern IoR would lend itself to being a podcast but would, I suspect, be a nightmare to make, given rights issues etc. Anyway, a real treat.

[verismissimo]

... the thread starter now appears as EA

... and there's me thinking it was someone else entirely.

[Darloboy]

Yikes! Another marathon! How do these reviewers get through all these, without fatigue of the work setting in? I’m interested in this BaL, because, I don’t have much of Schumann’s chamber works.

These days they just ignore all except half a dozen of them.

[makropulos]

These days they just ignore all except half a dozen of them.

No. That is not how it works –and it's not a question of 'ignoring' anything. I thought all this had been explained before, but here's what contributors are actually asked to do:
1. Listen to as many versions as possible. With pieces recorded many times over this can be a mammoth undertaking. Also, if it's quite a long piece (e.g. an opera). I had something like 25 versions of Hansel and Gretel to listen to when I did that for BAL. If I'd ignored any of them, I would have missed a couple of very good versions that made the eventual final list.
2. Create a shortlist of 15 serious contenders (where that many exist)
3. produce a final list of 10 which are the ones used for the broadcast, including a 'winner'.

[Bryn]

No. That is not how it works –and it's not a question of 'ignoring' anything. I thought all this had been explained before, but here's what contributors are actually asked to do:
1. Listen to as many versions as possible. With pieces recorded many times over this can be a mammoth undertaking. Also, if it's quite a long piece (e.g. an opera). I had something like 25 versions of Hansel and Gretel to listen to when I did that for BAL. If I'd ignored any of them, I would have missed a couple of very good versions that made the eventual final list.
2. Create a shortlist of 15 serious contenders (where that many exist)
3. produce a final list of 10 which are the ones used for the broadcast, including a 'winner'.

Thank you, makropulos. Some earlier discussions left open an implication that the reviewer was presented with a selection by the Beeb, rather than whittling down to a shortlist from their own extended listening.

[Darloboy]

No. That is not how it works –and it's not a question of 'ignoring' anything. I thought all this had been explained before, but here's what contributors are actually asked to do:
1. Listen to as many versions as possible. With pieces recorded many times over this can be a mammoth undertaking. Also, if it's quite a long piece (e.g. an opera). I had something like 25 versions of Hansel and Gretel to listen to when I did that for BAL. If I'd ignored any of them, I would have missed a couple of very good versions that made the eventual final list.
2. Create a shortlist of 15 serious contenders (where that many exist)
3. produce a final list of 10 which are the ones used for the broadcast, including a 'winner'.

Thanks, I meant that they were ignored in the programme. I've been listening to a lot of old BaLs on YouTube recently. It's striking that in some of those pre-shortlist programmes, the reviewer decided to make a shortlist - usually because there were too many recordings to do justice to. However, when they did so, they invariably gave a summary at the beginning or end of the programme as to why they had discarded some recordings. Some reviewers still do this. I think it would have been helpful in the context of yesterday's programme where the reaction of many listeners was to wonder what criteria had been used for the selection and why period recordings were completely ignored.

[makropulos]

Thanks, I meant that they were ignored in the programme. I've been listening to a lot of old BaLs on YouTube recently. It's striking that in some of those pre-shortlist programmes, the reviewer decided to make a shortlist - usually because there were too many recordings to do justice to. However, when they did so, they invariably gave a summary at the beginning or end of the programme as to why they had discarded some recordings. Some reviewers still do this. I think it would have been helpful in the context of yesterday's programme where the reaction of many listeners was to wonder what criteria had been used for the selection and why period recordings were completely ignored.

I completely take your point about setting out the criteria –and I agree with you that it's useful to have some mention of the most interesting ones that are not going to be discussed. Especially with something as extensively recorded as the Schumann Quintet, I think it would have been helpful.

[BBMmk2]

I wish it would! It’s a pity we can’t set up our own radio station.

[Cockney Sparrow]

There are folks here adept at the genome or other sources. I'm just wondering when Interpretations on Record started and the date of the last one. My recordings on reel to reel (and audio Hi8 VHS) have long gone, and I only kept a few cassettes. But I have a large quantity of Minidiscs - I wonder if I recorded any?

[Serial_Apologist]

I wish it would! It’s a pity we can’t set up our own radio station.

OOh - that's an idea!

Do you know of any abandoned tower block rooftops in your area, BBM??

[cloughie]

OOh - that's an idea!

Do you know of any abandoned tower block rooftops in your area, BBM??

Or even just a garden shed!

[Cockney Sparrow]

The younger generation (e.g. my children) spend a lot of time listening to podcasts -radio is marginal or absent. If only (The) Gramophone had the resources and inclination to extend their features on recordings of individual works into a monthly (even quarterly to start with...)podcast to rival the dear departed "Interpretations on Record". Obviously takes more time and more expense for them - one would hope a blanket rights relaxation from the music industry would help in the equation for the longer extracts.
Would it extend the audience amongst those all important new listeners they need to acquire, as well as satisfying the likes of us?

If not - then what about as part of an additional subscription level?

[Eine Alpensinfonie]

Well not any more! I suddenly recalled a seam of format-related comments in the Schumann 3 BAL thread and have moved those too, with the result that the thread starter now appears as EA

. Yes, I noticed that. The title isn’t really my style, but never mind.