Building a Library - General Discussion

[Barbirollians]

Do you mean such as Jeremy Sams, Richard Wigmore or Iain Burnside, perhaps?

Do you consider the above trio of BAL reviewers & those mentioned below to be prime suspects in the superficiality stakes ??


Regularly sidelined contributors such as Bill Mival, Jeremy Summerly, Jan Smaczny, or our own Makropoulos for instance ? or in the interest of improved gender-balance perhaps Lucy Parham, Gillian Moore & Marina Frolova-Walker -- all far too young and inexperienced to give us the benefit of their views....

When was Jan Smaczny last on ? Richard Osborne ,Robert Philip,Roger Parker ,Stephen Plaistow and Stephen Johnson appear to have been cast off entirely ( though I accept there might be health reasons ) and Rob Cowan punished for leaving .You make good points about Moore and MFW both of whom are very good.

My concern more was about the reviewers I referred to earlier having a very large share of BALs - sometimes good all too often not and if gender balance is the reason there are other women reviewers who would be better judging by their writing.

[Alison]

Jan Smaczny last on Oct 2020 - Dvorak 7.

[Maclintick]

When was Jan Smaczny last on ?

Fairly recently as Alison's post makes clear...

Richard Osborne ,Robert Philip,Roger Parker ,Stephen Plaistow and Stephen Johnson appear to have been cast off entirely ( though I accept there might be health reasons ) and Rob Cowan punished for leaving.

These men are all excellent BAL reviewers from whom I've learnt much over many decades. Rob Cowan now works for Classic FM & so it's unsurprising that Radio 3 no longer consider his services indispensable.

My concern more was about the reviewers I referred to earlier having a very large share of BALs

I don't think this stacks up in terms of "a very large share of BALs".
The ones you've mentioned don't have as large a share as Simon Heighes, Iain Burnside, or Jeremy Summerly, for instance.

[Barbirollians]

Fairly recently as Alison's post makes clear...

These men are all excellent BAL reviewers from whom I've learnt much over many decades. Rob Cowan now works for Classic FM & so it's unsurprising that Radio 3 no longer consider his services indispensable.

I don't think this stacks up in terms of "a very large share of BALs".
The ones you've mentioned don't have as large a share as Simon Heighes, Iain Burnside, or Jeremy Summerly, for instance.

So 9 months ago do you think he might have made a better job of Ma Vlast than Picard ?

[LMcD]

Fairly recently as Alison's post makes clear...

These men are all excellent BAL reviewers from whom I've learnt much over many decades. Rob Cowan now works for Classic FM & so it's unsurprising that Radio 3 no longer consider his services indispensable.

I don't think this stacks up in terms of "a very large share of BALs".
The ones you've mentioned don't have as large a share as Simon Heighes, Iain Burnside, or Jeremy Summerly, for instance.

I believe that he recently left Classic FM as his 3-year contract came to an end and was not extended or renewed.

[gradus]

Next week a rare and welcome appearance by Ed Seckerson on Chichester Psalms.

[Maclintick]

So 9 months ago do you think he might have made a better job of Ma Vlast than Picard ?

What would it prove if I did think so ? Hard cases make bad law, & selecting one example where one could imagine that Jan Smaczny (or Nigel Simeone or Patrick Lambert, for that matter) would have made a better fist of this assignment doesn't prove the charges of "ageism" or of a drift towards "superficiality" in BAL reviews.

[Barbirollians]

What would it prove if I did think so ? Hard cases make bad law, & selecting one example where one could imagine that Jan Smaczny (or Nigel Simeone or Patrick Lambert, for that matter) would have made a better fist of this assignment doesn't prove the charges of "ageism" or of a drift towards "superficiality" in BAL reviews.

The superficiality largely appears to arise from the new format - short BAls , endless unnecessary interruptions. It tends not to arise with contributors who don't have the need to be reinforced every time they say anything.

I don't think that the charge of ageism is not made out - most of the senior contributors have disappeared from the show . It may of course be because they cannot stick the interview format .

[Maclintick]

The superficiality largely appears to arise from the new format - short BAls , endless unnecessary interruptions. It tends not to arise with contributors who don't have the need to be reinforced every time they say anything.

So it's "Down With Twofer-ism !" ...haven't I heard this before...

I don't think that the charge of ageism is not made out - most of the senior contributors have disappeared from the show . It may of course be because they cannot stick the interview format .

What counts as "senior" ? The regular BAL reviewers listed in my post #54 certainly qualify in terms of knowledge, experience, maturity, whatever...

[ardcarp]

I regret that the more we complain about the present BAL trend, the less likely the Beeb will change anything. (Yes, they do look at our Forum.) There is a solid core of R3 adherents, some highly knowledgeable and even more just incorrigible music lovers. We are seen by the powers-that-be as a (slightly stuffy?) audience they can take for granted. It is however, hard-core BBC policy for all departments to appeal to the young, the racially diverse and the LGBTQ community. I absolutely applaud their motives. However can it be applied in the same way as to cooking, quiz show, current affairs etc. etc? I don't think so, and it will be counter-productive.

Happily there is some classical content to BBC4 tonight.

[Eine Alpensinfonie]

I regret that the more we complain about the present BAL trend, the less likely the Beeb will change anything.

If we don't complain they will assume everything is hunky-dory.

[Barbirollians]

I regret that the more we complain about the present BAL trend, the less likely the Beeb will change anything. (Yes, they do look at our Forum.) There is a solid core of R3 adherents, some highly knowledgeable and even more just incorrigible music lovers. We are seen by the powers-that-be as a (slightly stuffy?) audience they can take for granted. It is however, hard-core BBC policy for all departments to appeal to the young, the racially diverse and the LGBTQ community. I absolutely applaud their motives. However can it be applied in the same way as to cooking, quiz show, current affairs etc. etc? I don't think so, and it will be counter-productive.

Happily there is some classical content to BBC4 tonight.

I am not sure how diversity issues have anything to do with BAL being crap?

[Goon525]

Only in so far as there's cleary been a move to have far more women presenting BaL Frankly, there was a good case for that, but have they picked all the right women? The anti-Gramophone prejudice which echoes around the Record Review corridors at the moment (how does Richard Wigmore escape, other than by being very good?) means that several really good women reviewers on that magazine are being ignored.

[mikealdren]

Is the issue here really the difference between those whose career is as a music/CD critic and those who are primarily academic musicians?

[Barbirollians]

Only in so far as there's cleary been a move to have far more women presenting BaL Frankly, there was a good case for that, but have they picked all the right women? The anti-Gramophone prejudice which echoes around the Record Review corridors at the moment (how does Richard Wigmore escape, other than by being very good?) means that several really good women reviewers on that magazine are being ignored.

Yes the anti- Gramophone bias is quite striking.

I have not bought BBC MM for a while - do many BAL reviewers write for that ?