The Choir - Last straw

[Stillhomewardbound]

Stillhomewardbound wondered whether olde-style Radio 3 supporters couldn't reasonably issue a similar rebuke to critics of their favoured programme style.

Err, no. I didn't.

I DID adopt the prerogative of the royal 'We' but HG makes a unfounded assumption about what that might mean. I don't claim to speak for any particular constituency and I don't greatly care for this kind of easy pigeon-holing as in 'olde-style Radio 3 supporters'.

I no more care for debates about debates, either, but there is a quote facility on these boards which enables members to accurately present other member's views rather than inaccurately surmising them.

[David-G]

I can remember sitting down with my daughter aged about 2 and a half watching Rheingold on the TV (mid 80s). Amazingly, she got it - giants, mermaids, gold, rainbow bridge, castle etc. Primitive Jungian archetypes at work accessible even to infants.

I hope she has gone on to become a Wagner lover?

[gingerjon]

This thread has made me feel very bad that, via the delights of social media, I sent in some comments to The Choir. I feel particularly bad because it's not a programme I'd ever have the slightest interest in listening to and feel I might have played some part in buggering things up for those who do have that interest.

[Eine Alpensinfonie]

I doubt whether your contribution made a huge amount of difference, given the Radio 3 trend of of turning every programme into C-Beebies.

[jean]

Just tell us what you said before you slink away!

I was quite surprised when someone in a choir I sing in suggested we should set ourselves up to be met - Don't do it, I said, but it emerged they had only the vaguest idea of what the programme was like.

[DracoM]

And I vividly remember getting into serious trouble at school by failing to get a History essay in on time. Night before hand-in, I had by accident heard the opening bars of Beethoven's Fifth on the Proms on R3. I just switched the lights off, and lay there in the dark listening, utterly gobsmacked both then and for many, many minutes afterwards. Went to bed having totally forgotten the essay - until next day. Ouch. And the same happened years later on Radio 3's whole evening relays of the Bayreuth Ring cycle. Wagner fan from then. Thank you Radio 3. Don't talk down to me.

Kids are only frightened of the difficult if you tell them to be. And that is exactly by implication what The Choir is doing. The disservice to young, middle aged and old on exploration for new things is incalculable. They really have got the basic concept of the programme totally, totally wrong. It is a Radio 2 magazine programme without R2's efficiency and confidence.

[Honoured Guest]

Did anyone listen to the feature on David Lang?

[Historian]

And I vividly remember getting into serious trouble at school by failing to get a History essay in on time. Night before hand-in, I had by accident heard the opening bars of Beethoven's Fifth on the Proms on R3. I just switched the lights off, and lay there in the dark listening, utterly gobsmacked both then and for many, many minutes afterwards. Went to bed having totally forgotten the essay - until next day. Ouch.

I like to think that, if you had come to me with that reason for not having written the essay, I would have given you extra time to finish it..

[VodkaDilc]

And I vividly remember getting into serious trouble at school by failing to get a History essay in on time. Night before hand-in, I had by accident heard the opening bars of Beethoven's Fifth on the Proms on R3. I just switched the lights off, and lay there in the dark listening, utterly gobsmacked both then and for many, many minutes afterwards. Went to bed having totally forgotten the essay - until next day..

My first acquaintance with the complete symphony was similarly stunning. As a teenager I knew the opening, but (and someone might correct me or confirm this) on the day that Churchill died, the complete symphony was played on the radio after the announcement. It must have been a Saturday or Sunday, since I stayed in bed late that morning and listened right through. It's about half a century ago, so details could be hazy. Can anyone confirm? It was certainly not R3; the Home Service, perhaps - or even the Light Programme.

[gingerjon]

Just tell us what you said before you slink away!

It was a very witty line about the national anthem of Liechtenstein. *Very* witty.

[gingerjon]

My first acquaintance with the complete symphony was similarly stunning. As a teenager I knew the opening, but (and someone might correct me or confirm this) on the day that Churchill died, the complete symphony was played on the radio after the announcement. It must have been a Saturday or Sunday, since I stayed in bed late that morning and listened right through. It's about half a century ago, so details could be hazy. Can anyone confirm? It was certainly not R3; the Home Service, perhaps - or even the Light Programme.

Shows how times change. When Thatcher died the BBC couldn't even be persuaded to play "Ding Dong The Witch is Dead" - and that only runs for a minute.

[jean]

It was a very witty line about the national anthem of Liechtenstein. *Very* witty.

And it went..?

[mercia]

on the day that Churchill died, the complete symphony was played on the radio after the announcement.

http://www.winstonchurchill.org/learn/biography/funeral/newspapers

Home Service would be my guess

[VodkaDilc]

http://www.winstonchurchill.org/lear...ral/newspapers

Home Service would be my guess

Many thanks for the confirmation, mercia.

[Eine Alpensinfonie]

Kids are only frightened of the difficult if you tell them to be. And that is exactly by implication what The Choir is doing. The disservice to young, middle aged and old on exploration for new things is incalculable.

This attitude is not new. It is something I've been up against during 40 years of teaching.