Bruckner: Symphony no. 7 BaL 13/12/14

[mikealdren]

I signed on to say how this week has reminded me how much I hate the chat format only to find you have all beaten me to it. How can they do this to our much loved programme?

Mike

[DracoM]

Put your bash at it on Facebook - the on;y way the BBC can be contacted unless you contact CD Review direct on email. They have GOT to be made aware of what a real mess they have made of this tricky work. I feel very sorry for Deathridge: he is trying to shut McG up by talking through him, but it ain't working.

[DoctorT]

Like much of R3, CD-R is gradually being ruined. Although I generally like AMcG, the 2 presenter BaL is an inferior format. But don't expect the powers that be to take any notice. Bah humbug!

[doversoul1]

I think John Deathridge will be a very good solo reviewer. He speaks clearly with few ers and ums, and the points he made were easy to follow by someone like me who has little knowledge of Bruckner’s music (this may mean rather boring to experts).

I wonder why Andrew does this. Not as if he had not enough to do in a programme lasting over three hours.

[Tony Halstead]

What a TOTAL muck this whole BAL is!! AMcG's interventions have virtually destroyed the continuity, made Deathridge improvise, makes the progress sound ha;ting, gushing, with erms and ers and hesitations all the way through,

Unforgivable MESS.

Bruckner 7th is complex and needs a very careful plotting through and is UTTERLY wrong for this kind of 'fireside chat' approach. Dreadful editorial decision. How could they have even thought this would work.

Absolutely agreed.
Quite appalling.

[Richard Tarleton]

AMcG's contributions added precisely nothing - they largely consisted of repetition or stating the bleedin' obvious - indeed given his egregious error (so much for "live") they detracted. Deathridge obviously too polite to correct him. His job in these chats seems to be to smooth everything out to the point of utter blandness, where the need is for intellectual rigour.

[Eine Alpensinfonie]

Today, I switched on shortly after the start - and switched off again. 'Nuff said.

[pastoralguy]

Who won?

[BBMmk2]

I am glad I missed this BaL, by all accounts. I might just go on their Facebook site and have a moan! We need a sensible critique, a process of illumination, maybe a few bits of knowledge thrown in, ie anecdotes etc.

[P. G. Tipps]

Who won?

Haitink/RCO 1966 ... that was my first-ever recording and it is good but I still prefer Jochum!

[ferneyhoughgeliebte]

Haitink/RCO 1966

With the Abbado/Lucerne DVD and Furtwangler (as a Pristine download) sharing silver/bronze.

(And I prefer Jochum, too - but was delighted to enjoy the Haitink, which I heard nearly forty years ago and detested!

And, yes, would have been a lot better if Deathridge had been allowed to explain more and not have to accommodate AMcG's innane interruptions.)

[pastoralguy]

Many thanks. I fell asleep during the show after a lousy week at work and missed it. While I'm Andrew McGergor's biggest fan, I have to concur that BAL doesn't suit this chat format. The section just now with the conversation about new cds was much, much better.

I suspect that Andrew has little choice in the format and is simply following orders from 'on high'.

[amateur51]

Add me to the list of complaints about the Gruesome Twosome

It did seem to me that BaL today forgot who its audience is. To pitch in with contrasting Celibidache and Norrington, the history of the Haas edition, cymbals and all was surely to start with the esoterica.. Surely this is the role of a coda. It was too complex for the neophyte and too dreary for the experienced listener, I would suggest.

Having said that, I liked the Deathridge way with the final choices, all three of them

[Eine Alpensinfonie]

I'm amazed that the 1949 Furtwangler isn't available now on CD (whereas the 1951 one is).

[HighlandDougie]

I'm amazed that the 1949 Furtwangler isn't available now on CD (whereas the 1951 one is).

I'm pretty sure that Andrew Rose/Pristine Classical will provide you with a CD if you don't want to download a file