BaL 5.10.24 - Brahms: Symphony 1

[cloughie]

Did it get your goat though (or is that an expression that hasn't migrated across the pond)?

(What does it mean in your context, btw?)

Let's not mix up someone 'getting your goat' (ie annoying you) with GOAT in this newer American context presumably from text speak and social media use.

[makropulos]

Some of the above posts trouble me, not least because they come from people who did not listen to the programme nor seemed to have played catch-up. Katy Hamilton provided reasons for her choice of the three 'finalists' and her choice of Y N-S at the end of the day was, by her admission, a very close run thing. I thought that she was going to opt for Karajan rather than Mackerras but it could easily have been the other way round so, in a sense, the winner was a bit of a compromise. That it happens to be a recent release is surely neither here nor there. The inference that the BBC has been influenced by a record company (or for that matter the presenter equally pressed to choose a recent recording), without there being any hard evidence to support it, feels just a bit grubby and Trumpian to me but maybe it's my exquisite sensibilities to blame. I can't see Radio Three Sam being very impressed.

They trouble me too, above all because they are extremely misleading. As somebody who has done several BALs, I say with absolute clarity that I have never been given any kind of editorial 'steer' in terms of who the 'winners' might be, or what vintage of recordings to choose. For instance, there were no grumbles when I picked Clemens Krauss (1950) for Die Fledermaus a couple of years ago – nor any suggestion that I might prefer a more recent one instead. I think I've explained the process before, but it deserves saying it again: when someone is asked to do a BAL, their first task is to sift through available recordings in order to select up to 15 recordings, a list of which are then sent to the producer. From that, nearer the time of the broadcast, the reviewer (nobody else) is then asked to get that down to a maximum of 10 versions which can be illustrated in the programme. At no point is there any interference, editorial or otherwise, from the BBC – let alone from a record company. The choice is entirely down to the reviewer. That's been my unvarying experience over several years of doing these things, and I'm sure every other reviewer will have had exactly the same experience. It can be daunting making these initial choices with a much-recorded work (my next BAL is on one such, and I'm currently listening through 60+ versions of it in order to arrive at my list of 15), but that's what we're expected to do. I hope that helps clarify things somewhat.

[Petrushka]

They trouble me too, above all because they are extremely misleading. As somebody who has done several BALs, I say with absolute clarity that I have never been given any kind of editorial 'steer' in terms of who the 'winners' might be, or what vintage of recordings to choose. For instance, there were no grumbles when I picked Clemens Krauss (1950) for Die Fledermaus a couple of years ago – nor any suggestion that I might prefer a more recent one instead. I think I've explained the process before, but it deserves saying it again: when someone is asked to do a BAL, their first task is to sift through available recordings in order to select up to 15 recordings, a list of which are then sent to the producer. From that, nearer the time of the broadcast, the reviewer (nobody else) is then asked to get that down to a maximum of 10 versions which can be illustrated in the programme. At no point is there any interference, editorial or otherwise, from the BBC – let alone from a record company. The choice is entirely down to the reviewer. That's been my unvarying experience over several years of doing these things, and I'm sure every other reviewer will have had exactly the same experience. It can be daunting making these initial choices with a much-recorded work (my next BAL is on one such, and I'm currently listening through 60+ versions of it in order to arrive at my list of 15), but that's what we're expected to do. I hope that helps clarify things somewhat.

Thank you for your comments.

I'd like to take this opportunity to apologise for setting this particular hare running in my #60 and fully accept that there is no editorial interference from the BBC or by any record company in the choice of those recordings chosen by the reviewers.

Your perspective is extremely useful and I'm grateful for your input to Building a Library and on this Forum.