The Saturday Music Feature on 29 January at 12.15pm (after CD Review) "explores the meaning of 'Spanishness' for native composers such as Falla, Joaquin Rodrigo and Roberto Gerhard (later exiled in England), and looks at their music against the backdrop of the political and cultural upheavals of the 1930s and 40s: the creation of the Republic followed by the Nationalist uprising, the ensuing Civil War and the subsequent regime of General Franco".
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It isn't given us to know those rare moments when people are wide open and the lightest touch can wither or heal. A moment too late and we can never reach them any more in this world. -
I'd spotted that in RT- sounds very interesting. The reinvention of Michael Portillo as a TV presenter began I think when he told the story of his family's confilicts during the civil war. It was the first time I had watched him and not felt ill! -
I like Michael Portillo! He very good I think, especially in the train joiurneys he is presenting on tv at the moment and otrher projects. He should be ideal for this project to, especiaqlly being half Spanish himself!Don’t cry for me
I go where music was born
J S Bach 1685-1750Comment
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Surely his face when Twiglet defeated him at Enfield Southgate brought a smile to yours?Originally posted by JoeG View PostComment
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I have come to like him and enjoy his programmes, despite his earlier political affiliations.Comment
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...and i find his contributions to This Week open minded and astute ...[and never thought i would say that about a Thatcherite vegetable]According to the best estimates of astronomers there are at least one hundred billion galaxies in the observable universe.Comment
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Originally posted by aka Calum Da Jazbo View Post
exactly.
Yes he's good value. I've even become vaguely addicted to his Great Railway journeys series - some interesting stop-offs and eccentrics along the way. Some genuine intelligence and enthusiasm, just the right side of being too smooth..."...the isle is full of noises,
Sounds and sweet airs, that give delight and hurt not.
Sometimes a thousand twangling instruments
Will hum about mine ears, and sometime voices..."
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Bryn - yes indeed that was a very happy moment for me!
I agree though with others that his presentations are interesting and intelligent and it would be good to see him present a programme similar to that earlier. What did people think of it - I enjoyed but thought that Rodrigo's relationship with the Fascist state may have been glossed over?Comment
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I think the progress we have seen in his public enlightenment from a right wing politician has been a lesson I wish many other politicians could learn from.
Maybe it was that time that he had to spend looking after a poor family and their very limited budget, which we watched on a series of TV programmes or, perhaps, getting about more to widen his experience that did the trick?
No wonder he said that he would never go back into politics again!Comment
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...perhaps we gloss over Portillo's relationship with the Tory Party .... i think he came to a view that he expresses as 'they did not want me as leader' .... and leaves his view of them unsaid ...According to the best estimates of astronomers there are at least one hundred billion galaxies in the observable universe.Comment
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Have we two strands intertwined here, or was he also involved with the Radio 3 music feature on the Divided Spain? I was out so missed it and - as usual - will find myself catching up via Listen Again.
I think people should be allowed, within reason, to discard their former selves. Portillo likes train journeys, Mellor loves classical music (Ken Clarke a jazz fan): so they aren't all bad
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It isn't given us to know those rare moments when people are wide open and the lightest touch can wither or heal. A moment too late and we can never reach them any more in this world.Comment
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ff, I'm not clear either how Michael Portillo got into your thread....
I don't think the programme really lived up to its billing - the first part (Falla) quite interesting, likewise the bit on Gerhard, but it rather lost its way, the interview with Cecilia Rodrigo did not tell us much at all. The programme could have covered more ground in the time I felt, it spent too much time on the C de Aranjuez tho' the idea it unintentionally helped sanitise Spain's image abroad quite interesting. It didn't really bottom out Rodrigo's place in a divided Spain
The Falla story much more complicated - he lived in his house on the Alhambra hill, with people being shot and taken away just over the wall - his health was fragile enough anyway, he was a psychological wreck as a result. I thought with Graham Wade on the programme someone might mention Segovia - a Francoist, although he absented himself in S America during the war....Llobet, another Catalan, who died unhappily in 1938....Comment
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I agree. The only point I really got about Rodrigo was that perhaps being blind he really didn't want to 'see' what was going on. Segovia being primarily a performer didn't get a look-in. I would have quite liked to have heard more about Gerhard and heard more of his music, but he also got out of Spain.
Perhaps composers weren't the best examples of the divided Spain. There was a Voices programme a few years back called The Pity of War which looked at composers and poets during the two world wars. The composers seemed to get off much more lightly than the poets.It isn't given us to know those rare moments when people are wide open and the lightest touch can wither or heal. A moment too late and we can never reach them any more in this world.Comment
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Sorry ff & RT - the Portillo reference was my fault - simply because he had presented a programme about family conflicts in the Civil WarComment
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No problem. I expect he would have been as good as Dermot Clinch in presenting (and researching) the programmeOriginally posted by JoeG View Post
It isn't given us to know those rare moments when people are wide open and the lightest touch can wither or heal. A moment too late and we can never reach them any more in this world.Comment
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