The Joy of Mozart BBC4

[french frank]

Tom seems to have taken over from Charles (whatever happened to him?) as the classical music man who turns up everywhere;

Sunday, 18th Jan, 9pm The Joy of Mozart, on BBC Four.

And here's Tom rhapsodising about it in the Guardian.

[Barbirollians]

Tom seems to have taken over from Charles (whatever happened to him?) as the classical music man who turns up everywhere;

Sunday, 18th Jan, 9pm The Joy of Mozart, on BBC Four.

And here's Tom rhapsodising about it in the Guardian.

For all his faults at least Tom does not subject us to third rate conducting .

[Eine Alpensinfonie]

For all his faults at least Tom does not subject us to third rate conducting .

I never found CH's conducting to be 3rd rate. His presentation did grate on occasions, as did his dress sense, but at least he had some musical pedigree.

[BBMmk2]

Indeed, in having his own ensemble as well. TS does have some language gravitas though, which I like.

[ardcarp]

TS does have some language gravitas though, which I like.

...and he looks just raffish enough to be [what the BBC thinks of as] a Cool TV Person. Pray God he won't start off by saying "I'm Dr Tom Service and I'm going to discover how Mozart etc, etc".

[Barbirollians]

Every time Hazlewood took up his baton with the Army of Generals or whatever they were called - his supposed illustrations of the brilliance of a piece fell flat as a pancake to my ears .

[ardcarp]

The Joy of Mozart BBC4

That was the worst load of claptrap I've had the misfortune to endure. OK, I didn't have to watch it, but I kept hoping (with waning confidence) that something better might emerge.

1. The prgramme was grossly mis-titled. Joy? Or was this ironic?
2. TS began with naive iconoclasm...myth-busting via touristic bonbons.
3. He then proceeded to try and create some new myths, eg that ridiculous session with Mozart's half-empty incipit book
4. They had obviously economised on specially recorded stuff, e.g. Nicola B with no orchestra; sop. extract from Mass in C with piano
5. TS's 'interviews' mainly consisted of putting words into mouths
6. Ludicrous production style. In his 'chat' with Jane Glover she was talking to camera whilst he and she were seen simultaneously as two separate small images. Why?

I think the chief problem was the programme's confusion about its target audience. Those hoping to have their 'love of Mozart' (at whatever level) confirmed by a bit of history and some decent musical extracts would be confused. Those with a knowledge of Mozart anyway would be irritated by the naive re-iteration of all the usual stuff, e.g. Freemasonry, Freelance, Social Freedom, etc, etc

An evening wasted for me, I'm afraid.

[visualnickmos]

I fully concur with you, ardcarp. It was surely one of the worst examples of dumbing-down - ever.... (!)

[Mary Chambers]

I was looking forward to it, but in the end felt very disappointed. It was muddled and its overall aim was unclear to me. I did enjoy Lawrence Power's contribution about the viola, though.

[french frank]

I may take a look at some point, but what strikes me as one important point is that this was BBC Four's contribution, as if it might be too highbrow and esoteric for BBC Two viewers.

[I did feel that HRH's film on Parry was worth being on BBC Four]

[aeolium]

I'm afraid I couldn't manage more than a few minutes, as long as it took for Service to start showing home videos of himself as a child. At that point it seemed that this would be largely a programme about TS' self-discovery with the help of Mozart - like so many of the BBC's programmes now whether on radio or on TV, with the presenter not his subject taking centre stage.

[Eine Alpensinfonie]

I missed it 'cos of Foyle's War. However, I've recorded it, but already, from the above comments, I feel it will only make me angry. Charles Hazelwood wasn't that bad - really.

[Stanley Stewart]

So glad I opted for "Foyle's War" on ITV, last of a 3 part season, with first rate production values and a sensibility in its script and performance which made it a "must" for me. Top-heavy with commercial breaks but I continued with my reading; a reflex action responded to the occasion by pressing the pause button on my recorder so that I could watch the programme later without interruption. A 2 hour schedule became 90 mins after editing! Glad I made the right choice as I noted that the Mozart documentary was repeated at 3am on BBC 4 and set my recorder; I'll have a shufti this afternoon! "The readiness is all".

[aeolium]

Charles Hazelwood wasn't that bad - really.

No, he wasn't. He had a bee in his bonnet about the supposed elitism of classical music audiences, and I didn't like some of the theories he had about particular works (like the K466 piano concerto being mostly about Mozart's quarrels with his father) but he was capable of helpful musical analysis and did some very good Discovering Music programmes. I was not particularly bothered about the quality of his conducting or of his orchestra as DM for me was not really about the complete performance but about the analysis and the musical illustrations, including the highlighting of section work by parts of the orchestra. For this, his band were fine imv.

[Nick Armstrong]

Tom seems to have taken over from Charles (whatever happened to him?) as the classical music man who turns up everywhere

Or rather, nowhere - in this house.

Charles was ok, I was never one of his knockers. If you know what I mean.