BaL 15.10.16 - Cabaret

[french frank]

and the fact that this, and the WSS BaL are non-classical makes me wonder about things I have not yet quite worked out.

That's a separate issue: Cole Porter has been on Composer of the Week, so has Charles Mingus. Et al. They're not classical.

I just wonder whether people religiously listen to BaL every week, no matter what piece of music is being discussed. Or whether they're happy to give it a miss if it's a work they're not interested in as long as it's a classical composer and the recordings are being properly compared.

[french frank]

Another way to look at it:

Roger Wright once told me that the choice of Billy Mayerl for Composer of the Week didn't really work because there wasn't enough development in his work. Mistake. Move on. So Cabaret on BaL. Mistake. Move on, but just be grateful it was nevertheless an interesting feature.

[gurnemanz]

I just wonder whether people religiously listen to BaL every week, no matter what piece of music is being discussed. Or whether they're happy to give it a miss if it's a work they're not interested in as long as it's a classical composer and the recordings are being properly compared.

The time it is on is generally not suited to concentrated listening for me. Danny Baker on Five Live is a preferred background accompaniment to my Saturday morning activities. I often record BaL or go to iPlayer, sometimes deciding whether or not to bother with it on the basis of comments on here.

[EdgeleyRob]

The time it is on is generally not suited to concentrated listening for me. Danny Baker on Five Live is a preferred background accompaniment to my Saturday morning activities. I often record BaL or go to iPlayer, sometimes deciding whether or not to bother with it on the basis of comments on here.

Very rarely listen unless it's a piece of interest to me and then usually via i player.
Wish they would bring back interpretations on record.

[Sir Velo]

But it wasn’t ‘done’ as a BaL, as Draco points out that this survey was ‘without any or VERY little comparison at all’, and as a result, the final selection, the very point of BaL, was little more than formality if not pointless. It was very well done but it was not a BaL.

I have to say that for the "library" choice to be a translation is bewildering. This should have been called Kander's Cabaret, as poor old Fred Ebb gets the blow by. One of those BAL choices one gets now and again which should have been rejected at the pre-production stage as a travesty.

Cards on the table: for many of us, the 72 film and soundtrack is still the go to version, with unsurpassed performances by Joel Grey and Liza Minelli. One only has to look at the ratings on Amazon to know which version is the one the (discerning) public return to.

[Eine Alpensinfonie]

When the library choice isn't (and probably never has been) generally available in the UK, it's time to go back to the drawing board.

[doversoul1]

That's a separate issue: Cole Porter has been on Composer of the Week, so has Charles Mingus. Et al. They're not classical.

I just wonder whether people religiously listen to BaL every week, no matter what piece of music is being discussed. Or whether they're happy to give it a miss if it's a work they're not interested in as long as it's a classical composer and the recordings are being properly compared.

I’d be very interested in BaL on Cole Porter’s song CDs or an introduction to Charles Mingus etc. but so far, non-classical BaLs have been, I think, all musicals. Is it because musicals are considered to be close enough to classical music?

Having listened to this and the West Side Story BaLs, I think musicals are more suitable for Composer of the Week than for BaL* CoW has had some variations in its format. I don’t see why a musical can’t be a subject. Move on, indeed.

*focusing only on recordings doesn’t seem to work with musicals. Maybe because it is, after all, Show.

As to how I listen to BaL. I am terribly selective.

[Beef Oven!]

When the library choice isn't (and probably never has been) generally available in the UK, it's time to go back to the drawing board.

I think that’s a bit over the top - "the sky’s falling in" option doesn’t work.

Perhaps it would make sense to acknowledge that the best recording isn’t currently widely available, and nominate the next best with a caveat, and then start to think about next week’s interesting programme.

[french frank]

I’d be very interested in BaL on Cole Porter’s song CDs or an introduction to Charles Mingus etc. but so far, non-classical BaLs have been, I think, all musicals. Is it because musicals are considered to be close enough to classical music?

I imagine it's because musicals are based on a single work (like an opera or symphony): it doesn't imply any other association with classical music.

Having listened to this and the West Side Story BaLs, I think musicals are more suitable for Composer of the Week than for BaL* CoW has had some variations in its format. I don’t see why a musical can’t be a subject.

For 5 hours in any one week? Research that we've carried out shows that CotW listening is also selective: people listen if the composer/music interests them. If it doesn't, they don't. And the point about CotW is that the focus is on a composer and his œuvre, not a single work.

I think something's wrong if people feel it's absolutely essential to get their fix of a particular programme every day/week, and they feel let down, angry, disappointed if it doesn't measure up to their expectations. Just remember that other people enjoyed it.

[doversoul1]

I imagine it's because musicals are based on a single work (like an opera or symphony): it doesn't imply any other association with classical music.

For 5 hours in any one week? Research that we've carried out shows that CotW listening is also selective: people listen if the composer/music interests them. If it doesn't, they don't. And the point about CotW is that the focus is on a composer and his œuvre, not a single work.

I think something's wrong if people feel it's absolutely essential to get their fix of a particular programme every day/week, and they feel let down, angry, disappointed if it doesn't measure up to their expectations. Just remember that other people enjoyed it.

OK. We'll leave it at that.

[Howdenite]

I just wonder whether people religiously listen to BaL every week, no matter what piece of music is being discussed. Or whether they're happy to give it a miss if it's a work they're not interested in as long as it's a classical composer and the recordings are being properly compared.

I listen to all of Record Review every week, though rarely when it is on as I'm almost always tied up Saturday morning. If BAL is on something I'm not terribly interested in, then I am less likely to put everything down and listen intently, but I do still give it more attention than I would "everyday" radio (which I pretty much only listen to when driving). This was well presented, but not something I would refer to in the future, as I do with many BALs.

[DracoM]

Listen every week. It's a way of keeping in touch with how interpretations have / are developing.

[underthecountertenor]

I have to say that for the "library" choice to be a translation is bewildering. This should have been called Kander's Cabaret, as poor old Fred Ebb gets the blow by. One of those BAL choices one gets now and again which should have been rejected at the pre-production stage as a travesty.

Da Ponte (for example) still gets credited as the librettist in English language productions of Don Giovanni. Fred Ebb's text was still used - it was just translated (pretty faithfully, from what I could tell from the extracts played on BaL and on Sunday morning). And it certainly sounds like a heck of a performance, taken live. The smell of the greasepaint (and the roar of the crowd) were both palpable.

[underthecountertenor]

That's a separate issue: Cole Porter has been on Composer of the Week, so has Charles Mingus. Et al. They're not classical.

I just wonder whether people religiously listen to BaL every week, no matter what piece of music is being discussed. Or whether they're happy to give it a miss if it's a work they're not interested in as long as it's a classical composer and the recordings are being properly compared.

BaL is not a religion for me. If I'm near a radio on a Saturday morning, I will generally listen between 9 and 9.30 to see if there are any new releases that take my fancy. If I'm grabbed by the work featured on BaL, and/or by the reviewer, R3 will stay on (but if not, I might pop over to France Musique for a bit or put a CD on). Again, whether I return at 10.15 or so depends on what's on the menu. I get the Record Review email on Friday, so have a reasonable idea of whether my fancy might be tickled by something. But (pace DracoM) if a work doesn't interest me, I won't be interested either in seeing how interpretations of that work have developed. There are other things to do.

[DracoM]

If you live as far from a major concert hall as I do, BAL IS a way of keeping just a very little in touch.