Thielemann Beethoven Cycle on Sky

[amateur51]

http://skyarts.sky.com/discovering-beethoven-video

Ah, making full use of the DVDs they've bought - how wise!

[Bryn]

Ah, making full use of the DVDs they've bought - how wise!

No, no, a51. This is Sky Arts HD. It's going to be the Blu-rays they are data compressing to reduce the audio and video quality, surely?

[Mahlerei]

Thought I'd give Thielemann another chance and watched his Bruckner 8 via the Digital Concert Hall. Sorry, but he does nothing for me :(

[Panjandrum]

Ah, making full use of the DVDs they've bought - how wise!

I hope you're not naive enough to imagine that the BBC and other broadcasters don't do the same. Moreover, there is such a thing as broadcasting rights which have to be paid for; so, I'm afraid not just a case of whacking a few dodgy DVDs in the player.

[Mr Pee]

I hope you're not naive enough to imagine that the BBC and other broadcasters don't do the same.

As far as Amateur is concerned, nothing that Sky Arts ever does has the slightest merit, because of his knee-jerk reaction to anything even remotely connected to News International. Even his beloved Guardian newspaper has praised the station on more than one occasion, but really, with Am51, it's like banging your head against a brick wall.

Still, it's his loss, not ours.

[John Skelton]

I hope you're not naive enough to imagine that the BBC and other broadcasters don't do the same. Moreover, there is such a thing as broadcasting rights which have to be paid for; so, I'm afraid not just a case of whacking a few dodgy DVDs in the player.

Music is very poorly served on BBC Television these days, but do they broadcast commercially available DVDs / Blu-Rays?

[Bryn]

Music is very poorly served on BBC Television these days, but do they broadcast commercially available DVDs / Blu-Rays?

No, and neither does Sky in reality. Both pay for the rights to broadcast material other than their own and most probably broadcast from hard disc files. At least it was problems with a Sky hard disc playback machine that they blamed when I complained about the appalling audio and video quality (drop-outs every 20 seconds) of a series of broadcasts of Berio's Outis a few years ago.

[amateur51]

I hope you're not naive enough to imagine that the BBC and other broadcasters don't do the same. Moreover, there is such a thing as broadcasting rights which have to be paid for; so, I'm afraid not just a case of whacking a few dodgy DVDs in the player.

Panyan! Please justify your assertion that the DVDs are 'dodgy'. This is a top class, art of the state broadcorping castration I'll have you know

Or so it should be ...

Costs enough!

[amateur51]

As far as Amateur is concerned, nothing that Sky Arts ever does has the slightest merit, because of his knee-jerk reaction to anything even remotely connected to News International. Even his beloved Guardian newspaper has praised the station on more than one occasion, but really, with Am51, it's like banging your head against a brick wall.

Still, it's his loss, not ours.

Have you watched the Thielemann performances, Mr Pee? You've been notably silent since your initial promo

[Mr Pee]

Have you watched the Thielemann performances, Mr Pee? You've been notably silent since your initial promo

Well, no I haven't- because the first such performance starts in about 10 minutes time...... <D'Oh! Emoticon.)

I might just as well ask you whether you even read my initial "Promo", where it clearly says that the cycle starts on TUESDAY at 8PM.

[amateur51]

Well, no I haven't- because the first such performance starts in about 10 minutes time...... <D'Oh! Emoticon.)

I might just as well ask you whether you even read my initial "Promo", where it clearly says that the cycle starts on TUESDAY at 8PM.

It actually says 'next Tuesday', Mr Pee which as a piece of information could have been a line excised from the original draft of Waiting for Godot

[Il Grande Inquisitor]

Rather a heavy, leaden first movement of No.1 - hardly a surprise with Thielemann - but what on earth's going on with the advert between movements?! This isn't SkyArts' normal practice; they normally screen operas without a single ad.

[Nick Armstrong]

Rather a heavy, leaden first movement of No.1 - hardly a surprise with Thielemann - but what on earth's going on with the advert between movements?!

Well the Murdochs have to pay for James's defence team somehow...

PS: unconnected and yet related: will the coverage of Grands Prix on the much-vaunted new Sky F1 Channel also be interrupted by adverts, as in the bad old days of ITV coverage? Being a non-Sky household, I must rely on others' reports (the BBC1hd coverage will be quite sufficient for my considerable interest in F1 )

[Il Grande Inquisitor]

Thankfully, no further ads and Thielemann seems to have woken up in the final movement. Vienna Phil sound glorious - I note hard timpani sticks the only concession to 'period performance practice' though...

[VodkaDilc]

Thanks to those who reminded me that this was tonight - I would have missed it otherwise.

I enjoyed it - but who wouldn't enjoy that symphony? Strange about the break after the first movement, especially as Sky Arts 2 does not normally have advert breaks. Ironically it was actually a break for a trail for a forthcoming programme, something very familiar to R3 listeners.

I'll be watching the rest of the series though. (The Sky planner helpfully tells us that this programme is 1 of 9!) And I suppose that any nit-picking about the programme has to be made with the realisation that, while we were watching Beethoven, our national broadcaster (financed by us) gave us, on its two main channels, a choice of Holby City or Hairy Bikers.