Choral Evensong: Wed, Nov 15th 2017

[ardcarp]

I also am saddened by the trend away from live broadcasts. There is something very special about them. This afternoon's 'CE' was a new departure...i.e. sticking this on the CD player:

https://www.amazon.co.uk/Rachmaninov-Liturgy-St-John-Chrysostom/dp/B0001E8C00

I had it on in the background and it had a certain meditative quality. That's all I can say.

Another 'archive' next week?

[ardcarp]

As next week's 'archive' recording is not one conducted by Francis Jackson, could we not have had a live broadcast from York in honour of the great man?

[DracoM]

But, as I said upthread, amazing to me is that at this time of the singing year, many choirs in caths / colls etc are almost at their best, so why on earth so few live tx?
HAS to be money.

I sense an ominous shift in priorities.

[mw963]

I mentioned in a thread last winter that we seemed to be being a bit starved of what I'd describe as "normal fare".

Seems it's getting a lot worse now. Personally I think the people who run the BBC CE dept have a lot to be ashamed of, either because they haven't fought hard enough for the Radio 3 show that gets (or certainly used to get, so I'm led to believe) the second largest weekly audience, or because they're doing it deliberately.

I've said it many times, but when the wretched WRETCHED shameful Kenyon vandalised Radio 3 in 1992 I stopped listening, apart from CE. It looks as though my exile is about to become complete. And when I say I stopped listening I really mean it, I was one of the network's most devoted followers, but we all have our standards, our expectations, and our limits, and for me Kenyon wrecked it beyond repair. I hope the man is proud of himself for the damage he did.

No point in being too angry, like the BBC no doubt I have an digital archive of approx 600 broadcast CEs, so I'd better start dusting them off....

Couldn't be bothered to listen to today's; I don't want pale imitations, however competent they may be.

[ardcarp]

May I suggest that any Forumistas who feel strongly about the current decline of the CE slot might write to the BBC? If anyone knows a good person to write to in that august institution (i.e. not just a generic complaints department) do please let us know. I'm sharpening my quill right now.........

[DracoM]

Agreed.

[jonfan]

http://www.rhinegold.co.uk/classical_music/record-reach-radio-3s-choral-evensong/

Above is from February this year; I thinkest we panic too much. Alan Davey in BBC Music Mag has the Advent Carol Service from St John's as one of the 'three great moments to tune into this December.' According to the same mag there's a rich and varied fare on CE during December:- Keble College, Oxford; Eton Choral Course; Edington Priory and finally Rodolfus Choir at St Gabriel's, Pimlico, which was so moving last December. So come on, let's have some Advent Hope as befits the season.

[DracoM]

Eton Choral / Rodolfus......yes, two out of five are......? And tell me who is the JEG of pick-up choirs who will be conducting? Maybe even RA? And how many are recordings?
And not ONE cathedral choir in that, and only one genuine treble-top choir?

Eton Choral / Rodolfus / Edington have already appeared this year. Like the recent RH, most of them are young pros looking for auditions and futures. Yes, the music-making will be fine, I do not doubt that. But....but.......but......................coming after today - a CE played on a CD, I just begin to have the tremblings of a wave of despair.

Hereford? Truro? Ripon? Canterbury?

Sorry, apologise in advance for the wearily cynical tone, but.........come on!

[Vox Humana]

I'm pretty sure that, back in the days of the Third Programme, there were far more bespoke performances broadcast than there are today. There was less competition and probably more money back then, of course. To my mind it was those live or pre-recorded performances that made the station most valuable. If it was true then I feel it even more so today. The ready availability of CDs and videos (admittedly of variable merit) on YouTube have, for me, somewhat decreased the relevance of radio stations that broadcast mainly CDs. It does boil down to money - and to governments that don't give a gnat's piffle for the classical arts - and, for that reason, I do fear that live CEs are an endangered species. I didn't listen this afternoon; I'm afraid I just wasn't interested.

[mw963]

To my mind it was those live or pre-recorded performances that made the station most valuable. .

Absolutely, and that fine tradition continued right through until Kenyon's vandalism. The morning fare on Radio 3 - after Morning Concert and This Week's Composer - was almost exclusively BBC "recital" recordings made in Maida Vale/Concert Hall/regions, with a late morning full-scale "concert", often of the overture/concerto/symphony format, and often pre-recorded in the regions. Then a a live lunchtime concert.

Any old fool can witter on and play a few CDs and trails, it's cheap, it's pitiful, and it's pathetic, as I was reminded when I endured fifteen minutes of it in the car a few days ago. Now I have Spotify in the car I can recreate the sort of music that Radio 3 *used* to play, the rest of my journey was accompanied by Medtner Sonatas, which used to get a fair outing on Radio 3 back then, recorded specially.

My words suggesting upthread that the CE dept should be ashamed of itself are harsh, but they stand, until someone like Stephen Shipley comes on here and explains what's going on. Not holding my breath though.....

[jonfan]

Obviously Alan Davey's pleasure in hosting CE on the station has gone by without comment. Yes, DracoM, the cynical tone is strong with the implication that it's not a proper CE unless it comes from a cathedral [and maybe boys on the top line?] and most of the singers are on the make, looking for self-promotion. I enjoy the variety from New Holloway last week to King's this week, the latter on that shocking new invention that the wireless uses nowadays - A CD The BBC are looking at the pennies but surely a live CE once a week isn't as expensive as the almost daily evening concerts. I don't see NK as a sinner as mw963 does and if you want plenty of the old progammimg style listen through the night or set your player; you might even get some Medtner. I hope mw963 finds something to listen to on Radio 3 to continue to justify his presence on these boards; we would miss him/her.

[subcontrabass]

I'm pretty sure that, back in the days of the Third Programme, there were far more bespoke performances broadcast than there are today. There was less competition and probably more money back then, of course. To my mind it was those live or pre-recorded performances that made the station most valuable. If it was true then I feel it even more so today. The ready availability of CDs and videos (admittedly of variable merit) on YouTube have, for me, somewhat decreased the relevance of radio stations that broadcast mainly CDs. It does boil down to money - and to governments that don't give a gnat's piffle for the classical arts - and, for that reason, I do fear that live CEs are an endangered species. I didn't listen this afternoon; I'm afraid I just wasn't interested.

In the days of the Third Programme, Choral Evensong was on the Home Service.

[subcontrabass]

May I suggest that any Forumistas who feel strongly about the current decline of the CE slot might write to the BBC? If anyone knows a good person to write to in that august institution (i.e. not just a generic complaints department) do please let us know. I'm sharpening my quill right now.........

My experience is that the generic complaints procedure can produce results. If you follow up the initial bland brush-off with a carefully argued case you will get through to the right people.

CE is the responsibility of the Religion and Ethics Department, not Radio 3. There is no longer a separate head of this department - it comes within the oversight of James Purnell, Director of Radio and Education.

[mw963]

Well jonfan, while I have this FOR3 vehicle on which to whine and whinge, I'm sure I shan't be going anywhere! It just makes me very sad that the Radio 3 I grew up with, and that accompanied me until the age of 33, should have been trashed by Kenyon (and I realise you don't agree with that view), and that the only peg on which I still hang my weekly listenership would appear to be - at best - subject to enfeeblement by a thousand cuts.

Those studio recordings of yesteryear were not only (mainly) wonderful to listen to, but also gave so many musicians the chance to broadcast; some were famous old hands (the BBC still had international clout in those days), for others it was a useful first time opportunity. For me they were so much more enjoyable than CDs, recorded as they were mainly "as live", although some retake editing did of course go on. And I certainly don't enjoy today's programmes presented by so-called personalities, for me the music should be the priority.

But clearly Mr Davey is easily thrilled, which is a pity, because a Controller should be somewhat austere, striving for the best, not thrilled by the mediocre.....

[mw963]

In the days of the Third Programme, Choral Evensong was on the Home Service.

I rather assumed that VH was referring to the general programmes on the Third/Radio 3, not to Choral Evensong, which as you rightly say wasn't on the station until the 1970s.