BaL 9.09.23 - Building an essential library of great recordings

[Master Jacques]

I’m an opera lover and I don’t share this negative perception of Radio 3’s treatment of it. Those Proms two opera relays would have been amongst the most expensive of this years Proms. Opera on 3 relays the best Met and ROH performances and I listen virtually every week. I live 300 miles from the West End and without them I would be deprived of an art from that I partly subsidise through tax though from time to time I pay £700 odd in train ticket and hotel costs to see in person . For me those relays are something of an artistic lifeline.

I’ve never seen the R3 opera audience figures but I suspect they are small. If it’s still the case that the cast and orchestra get an additional 100 per cent of their fee for a radio relay then they will be by far the most expensive elements in the Radio 3 schedule - though the Met costs might be part of a cheaper deal. For me Opera on 3 is worth the licence fee on its own - though as current BBC pensioner my view cannot be considered unbiased.

I'm hazarding a guess, but given that Radio 3 was spared having to rehearse either The Trojans or The Carmelites (for the many weeks needed in both cases) I would be sceptical about relative expensive, which was probably centred on box office split terms as much as up-front BBC fees. Not that we'll ever know ("commercial sensitivity" and all that). The case with the Kurtág, which did involve a BBC orchestra and would have required in-house rehearsal, is very different of course.

While the Met and Royal Opera relays certainly mean that radio audiences get to hear standard repertory with starry voices, which is important as you suggest, there are equally important questions raised by the strategy. First, subsidising American broadcasts does not meet BBC's brief to foster operatic performance in the UK. Relays from Welsh National Opera, Scottish National Opera, Opera North and ENO are very rare indeed - productions which British taxpayers who fund them deserve to hear.

Second, without going too far off topic (and welcoming makropulos's hopeful plea for Record Review to do a "top 15" devoted to opera!) I can only repeat that Met broadcasts do not compensate for the almost total lack of in-house studio or live-concert opera during the rest of the year. We need only compare the present desert with the superlative record of Radio 3 in funding and presenting rarer operatic repertoire on a very regular basis, during the 1960s to 2000s, to feel that opera is being short-changed by an increasingly populist (anti-"elitist") corporation. This short-changing was apparent even in yesterday's selection. One out of 15? This hardly reflects the seminal importance of opera to Western music, very little of which - even orchestral and chamber patterns - can be properly appreciated without taking operatic history into account.

Audience size is not important, compared to the need for public service - which means, promoting opera positively and widely, without snobbery or defensiveness.

[Barbirollians]

I rather enjoyed this except for the Pogorelich with Joanna all the way on that one

[Nick Armstrong]

I rather enjoyed this except for the Pogorelich with Joanna all the way on that one

I enjoyed the pile-on by Joanna and (our own, our very own) Nigel to eliminate this choice from any ‘essential’ library

[Barbirollians]

And agreed with makropoulos about Harnoncourt too - except in Schumann where I think he was quite brilliant.

[Hitch]

The podcast is still not available for downloading.

[Goon525]

The podcast is still not available for downloading.

Though it is available both for streaming and downloading via BBC Sounds

[Hitch]

Though it is available both for streaming and downloading via BBC Sounds

Thank you. I knew about the streaming but not the access to a download via the Sounds app, which I do not have installed on my phone. However, the episode is still not available via Podcast Addict.

[Ssm]

Many thanks!!! Exactly what I was looking for.

[pastoralguy]

Wot! No Beethoven Pastoral Symphony…?!

[Eine Alpensinfonie]

In response to Pulcinella’s suggestion, I’ve merged the two threads.
I ask that before starting new threads/topics, people might check whether there’s a similar one that’s been started.

[silvestrione]

I enjoyed the pile-on by Joanna and (our own, our very own) Nigel to eliminate this choice from any ‘essential’ library

Yes, wasnt that good? When Pogorelich /Schumann Toccata came on, I was thinking, how can anyone want to recommend this? So it was marvellous when Joanna and Nigel weighed in to it!

There was good discussion in this programme, very, very welcome, e.g. Nigel choosing Mozart Piano Quartet with Brendel and a starry cast, and Allyson Devenish saying something like she wanted more 'mischief' in it, and then Nigel coming back to say, yes, there are wittier, more playful versions (sorry, Makropolous, I paraphrase) but in the Brendel the jokes stay fresh! Excellent.

[Barbirollians]

I did consider not including this as a BaL thread. A simple list of, say, 50 works to introduce people to classical music would probably be more helpful. Reducing it further leads to the level of the dumb mentality of CFM’s list of the 15 Greatest Symphonies, which corresponds quite closely with its own extremely limited playlist of symphony (movements), except that Mendelssohn 4 isn’t included:-

Mozart 41
Price 1
Beethoven 9
Mahler 2
Dvorak 9
Berlioz Symphonie Fantastique
Brahms 4
Gorecki 3
Shostakovich 5
Farrenc 3
Still 1
Tchaikovsky 6
Rachmaninov 2
Sibelius 5
Beethoven 3

No Haydn
No Schubert
No Schumann
No Mendelssohn
No Bruckner

What nonsense - I am delighted Florence Price has been rediscovered , I am charmed by the Still , I think the neglect of Farrenc ( who really is massively underrated ) a scandal but this is an absurd list.

[Lordgeous]

Yup - absolutely live – thus a 6:00am start for me to be sure of getting from Northants to the studio by 8:15 when we assembled. Weather was pleasantly mild as we went into Broadcasting House and monstrously hot as we staggered out. Still, we had some smashing stuff – was I was delighted by things like Joanna's choice of the pre-war Rubinstein Chopin, and always good to have just about anything by the Beaux Arts. As for the Glag. Mass, I had to have one of the big Janacek pieces in my list and they didn't want to overload the show with too much opera. You can imagine what a near-impossible task it was to find just five recordings...

So glad you included the magnificent Boult Prom Elgar One Nigel. I wasn't at the Prom (lucky you) but listened on radio and recorded it on my then trusty valve Rexox. I still have the tape and never having got round to transferring it to CD I was glad recently to find that the BBC had done the job for me!

Its certainly one of my all time favourites, and I've never heard a recording that betters that Prom. Pleased you played the ending, still brings a tear to the eye and a thrill to the spine - and it needs that amazing audience 'roar' at the close. I hope Sir Adrian appreciated it.

Loved the whole program with you, Joanna, et al. Interesting to be introduced to performances I didnt know but its cost me a bit, having found a copy of Kempe's Ariadne in the US!

[Bryn]

So glad you included the magnificent Boult Prom Elgar One Nigel. I wasn't at the Prom (lucky you) but listened on radio and recorded it on my then trusty valve Rexox. I still have the tape and never having got round to transferring it to CD I was glad recently to find that the BBC had done the job for me!

Its certainly one of my all time favourites, and I've never heard a recording that betters that Prom. Pleased you played the ending, still brings a tear to the eye and a thrill to the spine - and it needs that amazing audience 'roar' at the close. I hope Sir Adrian appreciated it.

Loved the whole program with you, Joanna, et al. Interesting to be introduced to performances I didnt know but its cost me a bit, having found a copy of Kempe's Ariadne in the US!

Regarding the Glagolitic Mass, was that the Supraphon CD or the 'live' DVD? If I recall correctly, they both used the Wingfield reconstruction, (I can't lay my hands on my Mackerras Janacek and Martinu boxed set at the moment).

[makropulos]

Regarding the Glagolitic Mass, was that the Supraphon CD or the 'live' DVD? If I recall correctly, they both used the Wingfield reconstruction, (I can't lay my hands on my Mackerras Janacek and Martinu boxed set at the moment).

It was the 1984 Supraphon CD (Söderström et al) which doesn't use the Wingfield reconstruction (but it does have the bars in the Sanctus that were cut in rehearsals). The later live DVD and the Chandos recording are both of the Wingfield version.