Classic FM to come to BBC Radio 3 on IWD.

[Bryn]

This afternoon, I attended Studio 1, Maida Vale for concert which was recorded for broadcast on International Women's Day. The opening work, "Argentum" by Dani Howard, was commisioned by Classic FM. 25 years old, Ms. Howard was made, or at least born, in Hong Kong. Like the rest of the programme, with the exception of Elizabeth Maconchy's "Serenata Concertante", it posed no danger of scaring the horses. Good fun though. I will list the whole programme later.

[french frank]

I'm struggling to remember a BBC policy of a couple of years ago which was all about "reaching out" to cooperate with other broadcasters - which included R3 and CFM. Just to show that we're not competitors or rivals? Seems this work was composed to celebrate CFM's 25th anniversary in 2017.

[ferneyhoughgeliebte]

I'm struggling to remember a BBC policy of a couple of years ago which was all about "reaching out" to cooperate with other broadcasters - which included R3 and CFM. Just to show that we're not competitors or rivals? Seems this work was composed to celebrate CFM's 25th anniversary in 2017.

Spoiler - interested Forumistas* can hear the work via youTube if they can't wait until 8th March:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=lbqiw5Vg1zI

(* = I nearly wrote "curious Forumistas" bit felt that that might be unhelpfully ambiguous.)

[Bryn]

Spoiler - interested Forumistas* can hear the work via youTube if they can't wait until 8th March:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=lbqiw5Vg1zI

(* = I nearly wrote "curious Forumistas" bit felt that that might be unhelpfully ambiguous.)

Same conductor as this afternoon. I will have further to say re. horses, later, when using a laptop, rather than a phone.

[ferneyhoughgeliebte]

Same conductor as this afternoon.

Michael Seal? (I ask because that YouTube video mentions two, and - unless he's put on a lot of weight since his publicity photos - it isn't Maxime Tortelier.)

[Bryn]

Michael Seal? (I ask because that YouTube video mentions two, and - unless he's put on a lot of weight since his publicity photos - it isn't Maxime Tortelier.)

Seal, indeed. The intended programme was to have been:

Dani Howard: Argentum
Florence Price: Sinner Please Don't Let This Harvest Pass
Augusta Holmes: Air de Ballet
Elizabeth Maconchy: Serenata Concertante
Isidora Žebeljan: The Horses of Saint Mark

Michael Seal (conductor)
Tamsin Waley-Cohen (violin)
BBC Symphony Orchestra

However, the Augusta Holmes work was omitted due to "problems with the music", whatever that meant. We were advised that it would be performed and recorded for broadcast, at a later date.

[subcontrabass]

However, the Augusta Holmes work was omitted due to "problems with the music", whatever that meant. We were advised that it would be performed and recorded for broadcast, at a later date.

You can study the autograph manuscript score here: https://gallica.bnf.fr/ark:/12148/bt...90672/f1.image

[Serial_Apologist]

You can study the autograph manuscript score here: https://gallica.bnf.fr/ark:/12148/bt...90672/f1.image

In the bowdlerised words of John McKenroe, she can't be serial.

[french frank]

I'm struggling to remember a BBC policy of a couple of years ago which was all about "reaching out" to cooperate with other broadcasters - which included R3 and CFM. Just to show that we're not competitors or rivals? Seems this work was composed to celebrate CFM's 25th anniversary in 2017.

And now that we're celebrating CFM's 30th anniversary, the D. Telegraph has an Ivan Hewett (former R3 presenter) v. Simon Heffer (aka Simon Heffer) debate on the two stations.

I was able to read the article on this link, sent to draw my attention to the piece (looks as if my cookies make it unavailable to me now. Headline: After 30 years, is it time for Classic FM to change its tune?. Hewett would presumably disagree, and I would, probably: by all means let it do what it does - it's a free world).

CFM is celebrating its birthday by inviting its listeners to bake a cake and enjoy some 'delicious treats among friends and neighbours'. Which is, says Hewett, 'exactly as it should be; enjoying delicious treats of an aural kind is precisely what the station is all about. Every piece of music chosen because the station has evidence that people love it, and want to hear it again and again' (and btw if you disapprove there's always the off-button).

Compare that, he goes on, with the ethos of R3 which 'blurs its aim' to give pleasure when it suggests that listeners 'ought to listen to ear-bending medieval polyphony and scrunchy modern music, because listening to music isn't just about having a good time, it's about "going on a journey" or being "stretched" or being "challenged" '. Oh, no the horror! It's that 'blurs its aim' which suggests critiicism.

Heffer (for 'tis he) points out that for Classic FM "familiarity is an asset to be prized above curiosity and discovery". And to add a learned note: "The problem with Classic FM is that, as Thomas Carlyle once said of Matthew Arnold, it leads its converts out into the desert and leaves them there." [Corrigendum: M Vinteuil delicately points out that Arnold said it of Carlyle - as Mr Heffer correctly reported.]

I have no problem with Hewett's praise for Classic FM; it's a different animal (and should be) from R3. I find it hard to understand how a former R3 presenter can suggest that it is difficult for medieval polyphony - or "scrunchy" modern music - to give pleasure (though it may not do so for a Classic FM audience). Leave aside the fact that if he'd listened to R3 at all in recent years, it would surely have been hard for him find very much that's stretching or challenging in the classical output.

[Serial_Apologist]

And now that we're celebrating CFM's 30th anniversary, the D. Telegraph has an Ivan Hewett (former R3 presenter) v. Simon Heffer (aka Simon Heffer) debate on the two stations.

I was able to read the article on this link, sent to draw my attention to the piece (looks as if my cookies make it unavailable to me now. Headline: After 30 years, is it time for Classic FM to change its tune?. Hewett would presumably disagree, and I would, probably: by all means let it do what it does - it's a free world).

CFM is celebrating its birthday by inviting its listeners to bake a cake and enjoy some 'delicious treats among friends and neighbours'. Which is, says Hewett, 'exactly as it should be; enjoying delicious treats of an aural kind is precisely what the station is all about. Every piece of music chosen because the station has evidence that people love it, and want to hear it again and again' (and btw if you disapprove there's always the off-button).

Compare that, he goes on, with the ethos of R3 which 'blurs its aim' to give pleasure when it suggests that listeners 'ought to listen to ear-bending medieval polyphony and scrunchy modern music, because listening to music isn't just about having a good time, it's about "going on a journey" or being "stretched" or being "challenged" '. Oh, no the horror! It's that 'blurs its aim' which suggests critiicism.

Heffer (for 'tis he) points out that for Classic FM "familiarity is an asset to be prized above curiosity and discovery". And to add a learned note: "The problem with Classic FM is that, as Thomas Carlyle once said of Matthew Arnold, it leads its converts out into the desert and leaves them there." [Corrigendum: M Vinteuil delicately points out that Arnold said it of Carlyle - as Mr Heffer correctly reported.]

I have no problem with Hewett's praise for Classic FM; it's a different animal (and should be) from R3. I find it hard to understand how a former R3 presenter can suggest that it is difficult for medieval polyphony - or "scrunchy" modern music - to give pleasure (though it may not do so for a Classic FM audience). Leave aside the fact that if he'd listened to R3 at all in recent years, it would surely have been hard for him find very much that's stretching or challenging in the classical output.

The unwisdom of hindsight that is one manifestation of opportunism could be a useful alibi to flaunt in these duplicitous times.