The Choir 7.6.15

[ardcarp]

Not a bad edition of The Choir today...especially as it is featuring..right now...a great CD from one of my favourite choirs, Gonville and Caius. They're playing the 'rainforest' track, i.e. Metaphors by Curitba. Incredible high soprano part from both birds and a human.

http://www.cai.cam.ac.uk/recordings/romaria-choral-music-from-brazil

[Eine Alpensinfonie]

Thanks. I'd given up on this programme since it went silly, but I'll give it a listen.

[ardcarp]

I detect a trace of trying to be less silly...I may be proved wrong. Still a bit touchy feely, but that's the way of things.

[DracoM]

A track from the G&C Cd ws on LJ earlier.

[underthecountertenor]

Not a bad edition of The Choir today...especially as it is featuring..right now...a great CD from one of my favourite choirs, Gonville and Caius. They're playing the 'rainforest' track, i.e. Metaphors by Curitba. Incredible high soprano part from both birds and a human.

http://www.cai.cam.ac.uk/recordings/...ic-from-brazil

Non-leading question for you, ardcarp. What did you think of the Portrait Choir?

[DracoM]

Well, for me, if I may chip in, not bad at all.

[ardcarp]

Non-leading question for you, ardcarp. What did you think of the Portrait Choir?

Nice idea. As to their standard, it depends who you are comparing them with!

[Eine Alpensinfonie]

OK

So what is the Classical Voice Season?

I suspect I already know the answer:-

The Radio 3 Way Forward Sub-Committee meets every three months to discuss new gimmicks for the forthcoming season. Sometimes it's an alternative venue; or it may be mindless saturation of one composer's music; or it may just be a fancy title, such as this one, enabling R3 to go on exactly as before.

[Honoured Guest]

OK

So what is the Classical Voice Season?

I suspect I already know the answer:-

The Radio 3 Way Forward Sub-Committee meets every three months to discuss new gimmicks for the forthcoming season. Sometimes it's an alternative venue; or it may be mindless saturation of one composer's music; or it may just be a fancy title, such as this one, enabling R3 to go on exactly as before.

It contextualised the biennial BBC Cardiff Singer of the World 2015 and it extended beyond Radio 3, to include, for eample, last night's BBC2 documentary on La Traviata and all the competition coverage on BBC4 (and additionally on BBC2 in Wales).

As for R3 going on exactly as before, Alan Davey was recently reported as saying that "we're looking at the whole schedule now" so perhaps we can expect some changes more extensive than just retweaking Breakfast.

[DracoM]

The Choir: October 4th 2015

I try to listen without throwing a brick at the radio, but today........we had this:

"My 'Choral Classic' this week is Beethoven's Missa Solemnis."

All 13 minutes of it! The Agnus Dei - complete! Gosh!

Conducted by? .............of course, since this is the BBC, John Eliot Gardner - their poster boy for all that is classical - btw, with some decidedly odd sounding soloists, and some truly awful ensemble playing.

This is in a programme littered with trails / tweets / bits of this and bits of that. and bits of nothing that adds up to much.
Interesting is that this posting is the FIRST posting about the programme since 21st June. Does that not tell you just a bit about how R3 devotees of Choral Music feel served by this pot-pourri?

[DracoM]

Sorry - should have added thanks for the lovely little vignette of John Scott and welcome news that the BBC plan a recording of him at St P's on 28th Oct, and on 23rd Dec an archive service from St T's Fifth Ave - do hope it's one of his amazing Advent or Christmas sequences.

[ardcarp]

Yes the programme is infuriating, and I prefer not to hear it at all than risk driving whilst in charge of a brick. However I did hear it today (in the car) and filtering out all the garbage, was impressed with Ben Parry's London Voices, especially their [live?] performance of William Brooks' Two Madrigals. Why does the playlist not mention Stimmung???? This was much talked about and illustrated in the programme. All the other stuff went int one ear and...well...out somewhere else.

PS

Sorry - should have added thanks for the lovely little vignette of John Scott and welcome news that the BBC plan a recording of him at St P's on 28th Oct, and on 23rd Dec an archive service from St T's Fifth Ave - do hope it's one of his amazing Advent or Christmas sequence

Yes, St T's trebles sounded fantastic in Furchte Dich Nicht.

[DracoM]

That reminded me - the Stimmung segment. Yes, lost in transit.

What really makes me scream about the programme is that SMP in that busily relentless tone she uses ties everything in the show to either some upcoming event on R3, or some past event on R3 that can be accessed - fill in usual R3 mantra - or reminders that 'This is The Choir on Radio 3', pretty well every other item. Any sense that it is being done for the love of music as opposed to the love and furtherance of R3 is entirely lost. It is a model of exactly how to royally p**s people off.

[Vox Humana]

I was in Spain last month and found a classical music radio station which provided much enjoyment. My knowledge of Spanish does not extend much beyond ordering a large beer, but it hardly needed to. The announcements were really quite concise: from what I could make out they told us what we were about to hear, added some context and that was it. Clearly the station's policy was to keep the chat to a minimum and get on with the music. There was no dumbing down in the pieces played either. It reminded me of Radio 3 in the old days. Lovely.

[Nick Armstrong]

I was in Spain last month and found a classical music radio station which provided much enjoyment.

Did you get - or can you find out - a name, VH?