What Classical Music Are You listening to Now? III

[oliver sudden]

I remember an R3 announcer a few years ago pronouncing the German word ‘Fett’ absolutely perfectly.

Unfortunately he was back-announcing the second of the Debussy orchestral Nocturnes.

(The composer’s name pronounced deb-YOUSS-ee of course.)

I’m not so troubled, I admit… having also spent a fair bit of time listening to names being mangled on France Musique

[Sir Velo]

While we're at it, why does Georgia Mann insist on Arleen Augér as Augair?.

I could be uncharitable and say it is because she has very little knowledge of classical music and is too arrogant to make use of the BBC Pronunciation Unit, but I wouldn't dream of being so ungentlemanly..

[Roger Webb]

[QUOTE=oliver sudden;n129937
....... having also spent a fair bit of time listening to names being mangled on France Musique :[/QUOTE]

I swap between France Musique and WDR 3, and a while back there was a discussion on France Musique about pronunciation of Breton names with the general admission that they often get them wrong. I suppose the same as the BBC with Welsh names.

Wasn't it Oscar Wilde who said that he gave the French 10 out of 10 for pronunciation, but only 2 out of 10 for spelling!

[french frank]

I’m not so troubled, I admit… having also spent a fair bit of time listening to names being mangled on France Musique

The one thing to be resignedly gloomy about is the decline in foreign language teaching.

Now playing: Granados: Goyescas, Alicia de Larrocha. I think an off-air recording. There's a good pdf on the Hyperion website (re the Garrick Olsen recording), the kind of thing Discovering Music might have broadcast.

Interesting that there seems to be no good translation for majos/majas. Concentrating on the social implications of the words ('beaux and belles' doesn't cut it) perhaps 'chavs and chicks', indicating that the particular Spanish connotations are totally absent from British society.

[Pulcinella]

The one thing to be resignedly gloomy about is the decline in foreign language teaching.

Now playing: Granados: Goyescas, Alicia de Larrocha. I think an off-air recording. There's a good pdf on the Hyperion website (re the Garrick Olsen recording), the kind of thing Discovering Music might have broadcast.

Interesting that there seems to be no good translation for majos/majas. Concentrating on the social implications of the words ('beaux and belles' doesn't cut it) perhaps 'chavs and chicks', indicating that the particular Spanish connotations are totally absent from British society.

Guys and dolls?
Or Italian ragazzi/ragazze?

[french frank]

Guys and dolls?

Possibly. I was going by the OED definition of 'chav' (considered derogatory) meaning not just working class but also the essential characteristic of brashness and the wearing of designer clothes: majo British style..

[Roger Webb]

I could be uncharitable and say it is because she has very little knowledge of classical music and is too arrogant to make use of the BBC Pronunciation Unit, but I wouldn't dream of being so ungentlemanly..

There's a BBC Pronunciation Unit?

Ask 'em whether it's Bernsteen or Bernstine

[Petrushka]

There's a BBC Pronunciation Unit?

Ask 'em whether it's Bernsteen or Bernstine

Apparently, Elmer preferred the former while Leonard preferred the latter.

[Roger Webb]

Apparently, Elmer preferred the former while Leonard preferred the latter.

Yep, but it's not that simple with Lenny, he was quite happy with 'steen as a New Yorker, when he became 'international' incl. gigs in Vienna, he started to prefer 'stine (the more 'Germanic' way).
His father Sidney was an immigrant from Ukraine and as a Russian Jewish name Bernstein would always be pronounced Bernsteen. Trouble is in this country we assume that it is German and don't want to look ignorant, so we say 'stine. Ask any one to say the name Eisenstein - the Russian film director, not the character in Fledermaus! - and 99% of people in this country will get it wrong!...and the 1% percent who get it right are probably Ukrainian!

[oliver sudden]

“The Эйзенштейн stays mainly in the plain…”

(I had to look it up.)

[Stanfordian]

Cyrille Dubois – 'So Romantique!'
French Opera Aria collection: Auber, Boieldieu, Clapisson, Delibes, Donizetti, Thomas, Dubois, Godard, Gounod, Halevy, Luce-Varlet, Saint-Saëns & Silver
Cyrille Dubois (tenor)
Orchestre National de Lille / Pierre Dumoussaud
Recorded 2021 Auditorium du Nouveau Siècle, Lille
Alpha Classics, CD

I just love this rare opera repertoire.

[Stanfordian]

Verdi – 'I Vespri Siciliani'
Cheryl Studer - Elena, Chris Merritt - Arrigo, Giorgio Zancanaro - Monforte,
Ferruccio Furlanetto - Procida, Gloria Banditelli - Ninetta, Ernesto Gavazzi - Danieli,
Enzo Capuano - Bethune, Francesco Musinu - Vaudemont, Paolo Barbacini - Tebaldo
Marco Chingari - Roberto, Ferrero Poggi - Manfredo
Orchestra e Coro del Teatro alla Scala / Riccardo Muti
Live Recording 1989/90 Teatro alla Scala, Milan
EMI Classics, 3 CD set

[oliver sudden]

The Adler recording of Mahler 6. Just on the tram home so I probably won’t get very far into it. Gosh it’s not at all bad though so far. They’re tearing into it and it seems to be just the right degree of difficulty.

And the movements are in the right order. What’s not to love?

[Roger Webb]

The Adler recording of Mahler 6.

........What’s not to love?

Had no idea it came in version for harmonica

[oliver sudden]

Had no idea it came in version for harmonica

The other day I heard the third movement played on saxophone, accordion, and double bass, so, not a million miles off…