CE Wells Cathedral Wed, 25th Sept 2019 [A]

[DracoM]

CE Wells Cathedral [A]
(First broadcast 19 March 2014)


Order of Service:


Introit: O quam gloriosum (Victoria)
Responses: Tomkins
Psalms: 1, 112 (Beale, Booth)
First Lesson: Genesis 50: 22-26
Office Hymn: Lord, hear the praises of thy faithful people (Coelites plaudant)
Organ prelude: Intonazione del settimo tono (A.Gabrieli)
Magnificat quinti toni (Praetorius)
Second Lesson: Matthew 2: 13-23
Nunc dimittis tertii toni (Victoria)
Anthem: Joseph fili David (Padilla)
Hymn: Who are these, like stars appearing (All Saints)

Organ Voluntary: Prelude and Fugue in C, BWV 547 (Bach)


Jonathan Vaughn (Assistant Organist)
Matthew Owens (Organist and Master of the Choristers)

https://www.bbc.co.uk/programmes/m0008p79

[mw963]

When I saw the title I thought - oh good, finally an "ordinary" Cathedral Evensong.

But - no - it's a repeat. Apparently chosen at random and for no particularly good reason, and one that is so relatively recent that it's not of interest from a "historical" point of view.

Personally I think the people at the BBC running Choral Evensong are making an increasingly bad job of the slot, In the matter of archive Evensongs I now visualise them with a box of tapes (or possibly a hard disk on-screen list nowadays), several large drinks, a blindfold, and a pin.

The result of all this is that I'm increasingly forgetting to tune in, and CE was the ONLY show for which I'd move the radio (in my case a satellite receiver) away from German radio and across to Radio 3.

The BBC Choral Evensong team have a lot to answer for. Perhaps one of them would like to come on here and explain why......

[DracoM]

BUT have a look at the order of service - it is full of items not often seen in the usual weekly-broadcast services, surely?

I have some sympathy with above, but it's maybe a bit much to ask a cathedral to put together a LIVE service? If I was a DoM, I'd be a bit chary of offering to post a live September service with a significant bunch of new choristers just back from summer hols, and the Oxbridge college-based choirs have yet to re-convene / rehearse fully.

Just a thought.

[Vox Humana]

The BBC Choral Evensong team have a lot to answer for. Perhaps one of them would like to come on here and explain why......

I'll bet they wouldn't! :)

I very much agree that, if we must have repeats, at least the BBC ought to chose from the more historical ones. I know quite a lot are available on YouTube now, but I doubt many of us sit there systematically going through the whole lot.

I am just back from a holiday in Spain, where we tuned our car radio to the Spanish classical music channel. What a breath of fresh air! It reminded me of how Radio 3 used to be in the good old days: just wall-to-wall, decent, enjoyable, classical music with (so far as I could tell) professional, informative announcements delivered without any patronising.

[DracoM]

https://areena.yle.fi/radio/ohjelmat/yle-klassinen/

And this is my refuge.
So..........are many of us deserting BBC R3 - more than the BBC thinks / realises?

[mw963]

In my case I deserted Radio 3 when it was vandalised by the wretched WRETCHED Kenyon in 1992, only returning for Choral Evensong each week. Hence it's quite an achievement that they've managed to b*gger up even my last reason for a weekly listen. Am I not right in thinking that this forum was set up as a result of a further dumbing down in the early 2000's.....

Agree about RNE Classica, also on satellite, and with some really lovely music.

For an increasing number of reasons I'm now actually at the stage of wishing I didn't have to pay the BBC licence tax, and thoroughly resenting it, because I am honestly using it so little now. Sadly I have to keep a licence simply because I have a satellite receiver, which when it isn't on German Radio is on French TV.....

[DracoM]

Suspect you may be speaking for more than yourself...!!

[jonfan]

BUT have a look at the order of service - it is full of items not often seen in the usual weekly-broadcast services, surely?

I have some sympathy with above, but it's maybe a bit much to ask a cathedral to put together a LIVE service? If I was a DoM, I'd be a bit chary of offering to post a live September service with a significant bunch of new choristers just back from summer hols, and the Oxbridge college-based choirs have yet to re-convene / rehearse fully.

Just a thought.

Agree. (Second time today DracoM, becoming a habit). Great listening to channels from abroad but someone pays for them while you listen free?! Be careful what you wish for in starving the BBC of cash, wishing for the good old days that never were IMHO. Better orchestras now, people introducing programmes who are interested in what they’re listening to, not mechanically reading from a script. Wall to wall music preferred, then download TTN.

[ferneyhoughgeliebte]

Be careful what you wish for in starving the BBC of cash, wishing for the good old days that never were IMHO. Better orchestras now, people introducing programmes who are interested in what they’re listening to, not mechanically reading from a script. Wall to wall music preferred, then download TTN.

Revisiting the programming on R3 in the '70s & '80s for the Today's the Day Thread confirms for me that memories are not creating an illusionary sheen - they were very much what I needed from a Radio station in those days, and what I would wish for today. As a teenager, I was able to hear, in the hour before school, half-hour works complete and uninterrupted, together with 10-minute Overtures and chamber pieces, and from a much vaster range of repertoires than is considered "audience-friendly" by today's management. The announcers gave me important information about the works about to be broadcast, without imposing their irrelevant opinions on the hobbies of the performers, and without seeming to consider themselves the focus of attention, rather than the works they introduced. Had today's offerings been the only thing available to me as a teenager, I'd have nothing but contempt for the station (as was the case with students I tried to introduce to the station in the last decade of my teaching career) - little better than Hospital Radio - and would be resigned to a career in telephone sales.

Radio 3 is already 90% dead for me these days - with even Record Review ruined, and even The New Music Show, and Composer of the Week spoilt to near unbearable levels. If it ceased broadcasting tomorrow, I would hardly miss it. R3 is as clearly indifferent to my needs as I am contemptuous of their low standards - we have no need of each other any more. But the poor sods who are deprived of the essential education and life-enhancement that the station regularly provided ...

[mw963]

You are so right (to coin a modern phrase!) ferneyhoughgeliebte. You have expressed the situation perfectly, only missing one detail which was to shoot down the idea from jonfan that announcers read "mechanically from a script". What utter nonsense to write such a thing jonfan, do you not recognise carefully crafted use of language, polished delivery and appropriate modulation of the spoken word? But I know you and I will never agree on the old and the current Radio 3.

fhg - your youthful experiences of Radio 3 are so similar to mine. As you suggest, it's perfectly possible to be discerning as a youngster, and it's patronising to think that young people can be brought in with a "party atmosphere" such as seems to be the desired norm nowadays.

Thank goodness some of us can remember the better times. A quick look at the Radio Times Genome confirms it too.

Yes of course one should be careful not to destroy the BBC without good reason, but taking money from people via the licence fee should be a privilege, and many of us now feel despised, not cherished, by the current BBC. I seem recently to have run into more and more people who are questioning the BBC's existence at the moment, and saying so, quite unprompted by me. And the fact that we can listen to and watch programmes from all over Europe confirms that the BBC isn't the pinnacle of achievement that many of us believed it to be, certainly not when it comes to a classical music service......

(PS - where can I find the "Today's the Day" thread....?)

[ferneyhoughgeliebte]

http://www.for3.org/forums/showthread.php?19823-Today-s-the-Day&highlight=Today%27s+the+Day

(The schedule details for each date in 1969, '79. & '89 appear at the bottom of each entry. I began the Thread at the start of the year - recent gardening activities, and an eye problem have meant that I've had to neglect it. )

And, yes - I think that jonfan has confused "detachment" (presenting facts dispassionately, empowering listeners to form their own opinions, rather than enforcing the presenter's own ideas upon them) with "mechanical".

[ferneyhoughgeliebte]

Incidentally, and just to clarify, I wasn't at all intending to disgree with DracoM's very fair & sympathetic suggestion that DoMs may be a little reluctant to put their choirs forward for a national broadcast so soon in the new Term.

[DracoM]

Sorry - I should not have hi-jacked this CE thread like this. My fault. bred from frustration - one obv much shared! Woops!

[mw963]

Thanks for the link ferneyhoughgeliebte. That'll be a nice trip down memory lane. Accompanied by Spotify for some of the selections......

[mw963]

I think it's probably me who should be apologising for any hijack!