Schubert on 3

[David-G]

Beginning to wonder if - though it will never be uttered aloud of course - the R3 teams begin to think they have painted themselves into one monstrous corner on this one.

Schubert is most deffo NOT Mozart, and wall-to-wall-to-wall Schubert is .........not all that interesting. They are working manically to make it seem like 'an event', but the harder they work, they more I wonder if they ever dare to stop for a second, they might just find themselves uncomfortably thinking 'this is a mistake' before rushing on with the next trail and tweet-fest.

Well, I have been finding wall-to-wall Schubert a delight. I would agree that much about the presentation is appalling, and I would agree with all the brickbats thrown at that department; but at the end of the day that is secondary, and what matters is the music. Which I am enjoying IMMENSELY.

[Nick Armstrong]

I mentioned earlier that a key benefit for me of the Schubert week is that there is no danger of coming across anything by (among others) Tchaikovsky.

I've just noticed the first non-Schubert listing for R3 for Saturday night:

Through the Night
01/04/2012
With John Shea. With 2011 Tchaikovsky Competition Winner Daniil Trifonov in Tchaikovsky.





I'm missing the Schubertathon already.....

[Roehre]

Personally I find minor (usually = early) Schubert generally far more interesting than minor, early Mozart.

Wholeheartedly seconded.
Early Schubert is recognizable Schubert. Early Mozart most of the time isn't recognizable as Mozart.

[DracoM]

Well, I have been finding wall-to-wall Schubert a delight. I would agree that much about the presentation is appalling, and I would agree with all the brickbats thrown at that department; but at the end of the day that is secondary, and what matters is the music. Which I am enjoying IMMENSELY.

Delighted to hear it.

[LeMartinPecheur]

Thinking further about my little spat with DracoM about minor Schubert as against minor Mozart, IMO the earliest work of Schubert's to be saved from the final flames of civilisation is probably D118, Gretchen am Spinnrade where Mozart's is K271, the 'Jeunehomme' piano concerto.

Given that D118 is proportionally much earlier in S's total output (118 out of 990-odd) as compared with 271 out of 626-odd) for WAM, and that WAM died at 36 as against S's 31, this seems to me clear scientific proof that Schubert's early compositions are far more valuable than WAM's!

Retires rapidly behind sofa...

[aeolium]

Actually, LMP, I would go even earlier than you in the Deutsch catalogue and save the first symphony D82 which is an impressive work for a 16-year-old. But isn't your comparison rather lop-sided as the great majority of Schubert's works were short songs, which is not the case with Mozart? And though I agree that Mozart's K271 is probably his first mature masterpiece I think there are few if any large-scale works of Schubert's (up to the equivalent age, 21) that match that work for ambition or achievement - and wouldn't you keep any of Mozart's violin concertos, or the symphonies K183 and 201?

Surely Gretchen was no Jeunehomme?

[bach736]

Beginning to wonder if - though it will never be uttered aloud of course - the R3 teams begin to think they have painted themselves into one monstrous corner on this one.

Well, if their Schubertfest is not to your liking, just think what they'll do to the Wagner 200 next year.

[Master Jacques]

Well, if their Schubertfest is not to your liking, just think what they'll do to the Wagner 200 next year.

One of the comforts of this (for me) occasionally dispiriting Schubertiad-Grundschwein week, is that so very few composers wrote sufficient quantities of wallpaper for the trick to be much repeated. Certainly you couldn't do it with Wagner. You'd be out of music after a couple of days at worst.

Mozart, in his infinite variety, seemed a perpetual joy. Now if only young Franz had penned some pretty music for glass harmonica, just to ring the changes. Mind you, let's pray that no future R3 Controller turns out to be an obsessive Reger nut .... (don't even mention the fact, but it's only four years to the centenary of his death, Lord Help Us!)

[Roehre]

Mind you, let's pray that no future R3 Controller turns out to be an obsessive Reger nut .... (don't even mention the fact, but it's only four years to the centenary of his death, Lord Help Us!)

You must know a lot of Reger to draw this conclusion.
May I ask which of his works you particularly dislike? His piano miniatures, the solo violin sonatas, or those for cello, other chamber music, his songs, the Sinfonietta or the Mozart-variations, not to mention his piano concerto and his violin concerto, the string quartets? Or is it disliking a composer based on one work?
This tastes like the German/Dutch/French aversion against Vaughan Williams, Britten and Walton: boring, unsavoury music.... And 2013 we will be submerged in music of one of these three. OMG

[DracoM]

Well, if their Schubertfest is not to your liking, just think what they'll do to the Wagner 200 next year.

Bring it on.

[Master Jacques]

You must know a lot of Reger to draw this conclusion.
May I ask which of his works you particularly dislike? His piano miniatures, the solo violin sonatas, or those for cello, other chamber music, his songs, the Sinfonietta or the Mozart-variations, not to mention his piano concerto and his violin concerto, the string quartets? Or is it disliking a composer based on one work?

Sorry to provoke a solemn finger-wagging - I didn't mean to cause offence. A leavening (if that's the right word) of Reger in the R3 schedules would be welcome; and I don't dislike his work at all, especially the best of the chamber music. What made you think I did? But an undiluted week of him doesn't really bear thinking about, does it? Just an extreme example of the general folly of such things.

And seriously, yes - I would hope that R3 devise something similarly bold (but more imaginative) to honour BB's centenary next year. I'm not aware of any particular aversion against him in the countries you mention: his operas are world property nowadays, and quite right too. But that's moving off topic...

[hackneyvi]

Well, I have been finding wall-to-wall Schubert a delight. I would agree that much about the presentation is appalling, and I would agree with all the brickbats thrown at that department; but at the end of the day that is secondary, and what matters is the music. Which I am enjoying IMMENSELY.

I have the impression of a lot of chatter and alot of snippets. Unfinished Schubert juvenalia and muddy-sounding, scholarly rescorings over breakfast did nothing to inflame my ardour. Four repetitions of 'The Spirit of Schubert' in the space of a few seconds was a turn off.

I have been told that alot of thought has gone into this but whoever it was that did the thinking and whatever it was they were thinking about, I still end up being interested to hear the complete sonatas ... but I can do that on Spotify at my own convenience and without the sense that even my modest intelligence is being insulted by the powerful stink of cheese given off by the presenters.

[gurnemanz]

Beginning to wonder if - though it will never be uttered aloud of course - the R3 teams begin to think they have painted themselves into one monstrous corner on this one.

Schubert is most deffo NOT Mozart, and wall-to-wall-to-wall Schubert is .........not all that interesting. They are working manically to make it seem like 'an event', but the harder they work, they more I wonder if they ever dare to stop for a second, they might just find themselves uncomfortably thinking 'this is a mistake' before rushing on with the next trail and tweet-fest.

Just returned from choir practice + a couple pints of Otter Ale to read the above contribution. In other posts I have myself been intensely annoyed by and vociferously critical of some aspects of "The Spirit of Schubert" but baffling, disappointing and mean-spirited comments like the above cause me to leap to its defence. I don't understand how "they have painted themselves into a corner" and if they have, I cannot grasp how that corner could meaningfully be described as "monstrous".

What on earth does "deffo" mean? That Schubert is not Mozart (nor Bach, Telemann nor Wagner) is a redundant statement of the obvious. I have adored Schubert's music (and Mozart's) for about 45 years and have been quite selective in what I have tuned into, but I have probably tuned in to the Schubert week more than I listen to R3's usual fare. I assume that listening "wall-to-wall" would not be an "interesting" approach but also assume that it is not anticipated that any sane person would think of doing so. When I have tuned in, I have for the most part enjoyed what I have heard.

Before I go to bed I'm going play some Schubert on CD to assuage my ire. It may well be Christa Ludwig singing Gretchen am Spinnrade - a song I sometimes used to play to my Sixth Form German A Level students to show them what a 17-year-old genius can achieve.

[ucanseetheend]

There was an episode on the "spirit of " talking about Schubert and his mates and what they got up to, There needs to be some reference to the fact that Schubert died at 31 of syphilis because he was screwing around sexually with multiple whore females.

[Resurrection Man]

A long time lurker, I now feel compelled to rise to the defence of DracoM. I feel he has hit the nail on the head. I like Schubert..a little..a few pieces..but only in small doses. Radio 3 was switched off last Saturday.

Could someone please wake me up when this ghastly Schubert-fest (or is that Infestation?) is over?