Women Composers' Thread/International Women's Day 2015 on R3

[Stanfordian]

Now, now! Why should IWD be treated differently from the selections on the other 364 days of the year?

In my view if the music is good enough than it should be played, if not then don't play it. BBC Radio 3 would be doing women a disservice by playing poor quaity music just because it was composed by a woman. I think 95% of the time Radio 3 get it right.

[doversoul1]

In my view if the music is good enough than it should be played, if not then don't play it. BBC Radio 3 would be doing women a disservice by playing poor quaity music just because it was composed by a woman. I think 95% of the time Radio 3 get it right.

But where Radio3 isn’t getting right is that it is ignoring 95% of good music that is out there, and women composers being fewer in numbers their works naturally fall into this 95%.

Rather off-topic but this sort of thing, which still seems to be the norm, really does not help women in classical music. Poor Jennifer. Surely she doesn’t deserve this?

http://www.jenniferpike.com/

…and this (good for Stephen Pritchard to draw/deter the readers’ attention)

http://www.theguardian.com/music/2015/mar/08/britten-barber-piano-concertos-nocturnes-elizabeth-joy-roe-cd-review

[Stanfordian]

But where Radio3 isn’t getting right is that it is ignoring 95% of good music that is out there, and women composers being fewer in numbers their works naturally fall into this 95%.

Rather off-topic but this sort of thing, which still seems to be the norm, really does not help women in classical music. Poor Jennifer doesn’t deserve this.

http://www.jenniferpike.com/

…and this is in The Guardian Review (good for Stephen Pritchard to draw/deter the readers’ attention)
http://www.theguardian.com/music/201...-roe-cd-review

Hiya doversole,

I've noticed that Radio 3 on International Womens Day are using male as well as women presenters, however, Rob Cowen has brought the missus in (Sarah Walker); he refered to her as his 'other half'.

With regard to your other point I'm not sure what the difference is between a woman instrumentalist or singer agreeing to drape herself over a piano lid for a publicity photo to the singer Ute Lemper draping herself over a piano lid during her stage show.

[ardcarp]

The Cowan/Walker double act seems to be falling into that R3 trap of being simperingly in agreement about everything. Yuk!!

[peterthekeys]

women composers - and Mozart?

Wonderful to hear all this music by women composers - and as much for the fact that so much of it has hardly ever been broadcast previously on R3 (even the breakfast show had to leave the chestnuts in the bag for one day!)

And yet - and yet ... Couldn't Sunday Morning have suspended their current grind through the Mozart piano sonatas for just one week? I've long wondered facetiously if there a regulation somewhere in the BBC's constitution that at least one work by Mozart must be broadcast on R3 every day - and I'm now wondering rather less facetiously if this confirms it!

(Shame that none of the works of Marianne (Nannerl) Mozart have survived.)

[french frank]

I'm not sure what the difference is between a woman instrumentalist or singer agreeing to drape herself over a piano lid for a publicity photo to the singer Ute Lemper draping herself over a piano lid during her stage show.

I assume that Lemper does that out of choice because she wants to look sexy as part of her stage persona and performance. I'm never quite sure about publicity pictures. Some stars are vain enough to want to look sexy even though it has nothing to do with their performance.

[peterthekeys]

Dorothy Howell

Overall, my feeling is that R3 have chosen well for this fest of music by women composers (excellent to hear David Owen Norris doing Building a Library on the Clara Schumann piano trio yesterday - wonderful work (what a shame that she stopped composing after Robert's death - nothing like a devastating personal tragedy to elicit great music.))

Having said that, I'm disappointed that - amongst others - they seem to have left out Dorothy Howell (or at least, I haven't seen anything by her on the schedule - has anyone else?) Henry Wood included her symphonic poem "Lamia" in the Proms of 1919: it brought her fame, and the work was reprised in several later Proms series (she also played her own Piano Concerto at the Proms.) I've not heard either work up to now, and was hoping to do so during this weekend (I've got several of her piano pieces, including one called "Spindrift" which is superb.)

[Eine Alpensinfonie]

The Cowan/Walker double act seems to be falling into that R3 trap of being simperingly in agreement about everything. Yuk!!

Agreed.

It's just a normal Radio 3 Sunday, with a slight twist. Why not a include a substantial work (like "The Wreckers") instead of this continued yukkiness?

[Nick Armstrong]

"The feeling that I should scream if I heard a cadence again" - Liz Lutyens.

Amen to that!!!

Akin to

"The feeling that I should scream if I heard a reference to International Women's Day again" - Cal Iban.

And it's not yet quarter to eleven.

[BBMmk2]

In my view if the music is good enough than it should be played, if not then don't play it. BBC Radio 3 would be doing women a disservice by playing poor quaity music just because it was composed by a woman. I think 95% of the time Radio 3 get it right.

In most cases, I would agree, but there are some like their male counterparts, who are unjustly neglected and should be heard more. I have heard quite a few already today and most of them do need more air time, to say the least. Yes the Amy Beach's, Clara Schumann's etc, but there are plenty of others.

[teamsaint]

Doreen Carwithen never gets much of a mention.

Incidentally, did anybody remind Cals to set his alarm for the big day?

[vinteuil]

"The feeling that I should scream ..." - Cal Iban.

... here's a pome to cheer up Cal ibn Sycorax, by the Master -

Caliban at Sunset

I stood with a man
Watching the sun go down.
The air was full of murmurous summer scents
And a brave breeze sang like a bugle
From a sky that smouldered in the west,
A sky of crimson, amethyst, gold and sepia
And blue as blue were the eyes of Helen
When she sat
Gazing from some high tower in Ilium
Upon the Grecian tents darkling below.
And he,
This man who stood beside me,
Gaped like some dull, half-witted animal
And said,
"I say,
Doesn't that sunset remind you
Of a slice
Of underdone roast beef?"

[P G Wodehouse]

[LeMartinPecheur]

... here's a pome to cheer up Cal ibn Sycorax, by the Master -

Caliban at Sunset

I stood with a man
Watching the sun go down.
The air was full of murmurous summer scents
And a brave breeze sang like a bugle
From a sky that smouldered in the west,
A sky of crimson, amethyst, gold and sepia
And blue as blue were the eyes of Helen
When she sat
Gazing from some high tower in Ilium
Upon the Grecian tents darkling below.
And he,
This man who stood beside me,
Gaped like some dull, half-witted animal
And said,
"I say,
Doesn't that sunset remind you
Of a slice
Of underdone roast beef?"

[P G Wodehouse]

[Nick Armstrong]

... here's a pome to cheer up Cal ibn Sycorax, by the Master -

Caliban at Sunset

Merci, vinmousseux! It's one of me favourites!

[doversoul1]

Akin to

"The feeling that I should scream if I heard a reference to International Women's Day again" - Cal Iban.

And it's not yet quarter to eleven.

I’m not surprised if it is Radi3’s way of telling us that this really is a one-day wonder in order to keep up with WWD. Apart from Composer of the Week, next week’s schedule looks comfortably back to normal with Brahms, Beethoven, Chopin… Even a premier work on Afternoon on 3 (Wednesday) is by a man.