"Perfect Pianists at the BBC" - Friday 4 March 20:00, BBC Four

[oddoneout]

I also found it enjoyable, and considering what could have happened, I did not find the cut-offs a major distraction/irritation. It did seem a bittersweet reminder though of what we have lost in terms of quality music on TV. A recently repeated rather scrappy progamme about Andre Previn also forcibly brought home that in days gone by it was not considered unreasonable to show 'classical' concerts, and I remember watching relays of complete Mozart operas. This hour is probably our lot for the foreseeable future....
I may be confusing things now but was DON presenting from the keyboard museum that's closing/closed?

[ferneyhoughgeliebte]

So did I to start with ... until hands disappeared at the bottom of my screen

Yes - there were many close-up on faces rather than fingers elsewhere, too - Kissin and Uchida in particular. A pity: DON's illustration of finger shapes at the start of the programme, and the overhead views of Richter were very revealing.

[oddoneout]

Richter........!!!!!




(I preferred the later version of the Étude - which we heard first - but ... for crying out loud! How is that possible?!)




Haven't seen it all yet (had to pause and vent about the superhuman Sviatoslav; and the below) - it's fascinating so far.

But.

For the sake of zooming all archive footage to fill the wide screen 16:9 format, they've lopped off the top and bottom of all the original 4:3 screen ratio films, as far as I could see. So that for example for much of the clip of Radu Lupu playing the Grieg with the LSO and Previn, poor old André was chopped off at the shoulders, and the upper reaches of the keyboard had gone too. Did everyone else find the same thing? I wondered whether it's an issue with the signal - my telly automatically switches between 16:9 and 4:3 material (many documentaries have old footage, and usually one sees it in the original format, with black bars down each side, while modern footage is automatically screen-filling).

If they have scythed off the top and bottom of all the clips, it's very poor.

If it hadn't been for the soundtrack I would have thought someone had just speeded up the film of the Etude. Not sure how musical it was, but certainly jawdropping.
I didn't have too many problems with 'scything' - don't think I missed any important hand work, but then as my set is an old CRT which has not adapted too well to the picture sizing choices available in the wonderful new world of digital I'm perhaps used to less than the whole picture.

[Nick Armstrong]

I did not find the cut-offs a major distraction/irritation.

Oh no - neither did I. It just seemed like thoughtless vandalism to precious archive footage which was supposed to be the raison d'être of the programme. But there was sufficient substance to the programme notwithstanding, to make it worth a watch, I agree.

[oddoneout]

Yes - there were many close-up on faces rather than fingers elsewhere, too - Kissin and Uchida in particular. .

But isn't that the new style of presenting music on TV - swooping nausea inducing flights over the orchestra, never staying in one place more than a nano second lest the viewers lose concentration, focusing on the blood, sweat and tears that performing such important works causes celeb musicians....It's all about showing off how clever/talented/ innovative your camera crew and producers are, not about showing what's actually happening.
Happens with ballet too.

[ChrisBennell]

I also found it enjoyable, and considering what could have happened, I did not find the cut-offs a major distraction/irritation. It did seem a bittersweet reminder though of what we have lost in terms of quality music on TV. A recently repeated rather scrappy progamme about Andre Previn also forcibly brought home that in days gone by it was not considered unreasonable to show 'classical' concerts, and I remember watching relays of complete Mozart operas. This hour is probably our lot for the foreseeable future....
I may be confusing things now but was DON presenting from the keyboard museum that's closing/closed?

Surprisingly there's another programme next Friday - "Virtuoso Violinists from 60 years of BBC archives - presented by Nicola B" -

[oddoneout]

. But there was sufficient substance to the programme notwithstanding, to make it worth a watch, I agree.

I did find myself thinking though about what other programmes could be done by expanding what was shown tonight - how the instruments shaped the music, how techniques have changed, who made stylistic breakthroughs, the influence of HIPP thinking, traditions in other countries etc etc

[ferneyhoughgeliebte]

But isn't that the new style of presenting music on TV - swooping nausea inducing flights over the orchestra, never staying in one place more than a nano second lest the viewers lose concentration, focusing on the blood, sweat and tears that performing such important works causes celeb musicians....It's all about showing off how clever/talented/ innovative your camera crew and producers are, not about showing what's actually happening.
Happens with ballet too.

I think that's right.

[EdgeleyRob]

I enjoyed it,
The boy Moiseiwitsch could play a bit couldn't he.
What would be a good cd or box to invest in?
Don't spose there's any Alkan

[Barbirollians]

Lang Lang was horribly exposed in that company . I bet a producer insisted he was included .

No Argerich was a disappointment she has appeared at the Proms on TV a lot .

My favourite apart from the jaw dropping Richter - Ogdon's Liszt - scintillating stuff .

[Barbirollians]

Surprisingly there's another programme next Friday - "Virtuoso Violinists from 60 years of BBC archives - presented by Nicola B" -

What next " Charming Cellists" ?

[mercia]

I may be confusing things now but was DON presenting from the keyboard museum that's closing/closed?

it wasn't Finchcocks (if that's what you meant) - though I've forgotten where he said it was. edit - it was Hatchlands in Surrey (which may or may not be closing, I don't know)

http://www.cobbecollection.co.uk/ - that's a great website, you can listen to each instrument being played

[zola]

Maybe not a fashionable response but the snippet that did it for me was Murray Perahia's Scarlatti.

But overall, a reminder that we really are feeding off scraps these days where music TV is concerned.

[ferneyhoughgeliebte]

What next " Charming Cellists" ?

Flippin' Flautists. 'Orrible Oboists. Plastered Percussionists?

[ahinton]

Flippin' Flautists. 'Orrible Oboists. Plastered Percussionists?

Trump et players?