Just recovering from the shock.....

[ardcarp]

.....of half-an-hour of Holy Week music on BBC 4, before the usual old rockers nostalgia night started. This courtesy of Tenebrae starting at 7pm. Beautifully sung.

https://www.bbc.co.uk/programmes/m000hb4m

(I don't know what happened to the Radio 3 schedule tonight. The concert conducted by Dan Hyde and concluding with RVW's Dona Nobis Pacem finished around 8.30pm leaving a yawning gap before the next scheduled programme, The Verb. Oh well, they're filling it with some random stuff.)

[Frances_iom]

most live (or recently recorded) concerts seem much shorter than usual, as well as sometimes playing just a single movement - this week they have been padded out with some item connected with the EBU Palm Sunday offering (tho studiously ignoring the star of that day - the Moscow Choir) - then I guess the presenter gets free rein to add something they have available and will fill the time slot so pot luck - maybe this is going to be the format of future evening concerts a short specially recorded section to show the BBC is still pushing live music followed by a random hour or longer of whatever tickles the presenter's fancy.

[oddoneout]

.....of half-an-hour of Holy Week music on BBC 4, before the usual old rockers nostalgia night started. This courtesy of Tenebrae starting at 7pm. Beautifully sung.

https://www.bbc.co.uk/programmes/m000hb4m

(I don't know what happened to the Radio 3 schedule tonight. The concert conducted by Dan Hyde and concluding with RVW's Dona Nobis Pacem finished around 8.30pm leaving a yawning gap before the next scheduled programme, The Verb. Oh well, they're filling it with some random stuff.)

And there was actually a decent pause between the end of Tenebrae and the beginning of Sounds of the 60s, thank heavens, so I was able to find the off button in time.

[oddoneout]

Another shock on BBC2 this evening? Not one, but two programmes for elitist niche audiences, how did that slip under the radar and avoid relegation to BBC4?

https://www.bbc.co.uk/programmes/m000tzdt

https://www.bbc.co.uk/programmes/m000tzcg

[LHC]

Another shock on BBC2 this evening? Not one, but two programmes for elitist niche audiences, how did that slip under the radar and avoid relegation to BBC4?

https://www.bbc.co.uk/programmes/m000tzdt

https://www.bbc.co.uk/programmes/m000tzcg

The BBC are advertising this as a performance of Handel’s Messiah, but at just an hour, and with time to include introductions from not one but two presenters, it must be a severely truncated version.

[cloughie]

The BBC are advertising this as a performance of Handel’s Messiah, but at just an hour, and with time to include introductions from not one but two presenters, it must be a severely truncated version.

Perhaps it is just the Easter half!

[oddoneout]

version created by English National Opera specially for audiences at home.

My bold.
All the best tunes and none of the boring bits? There will be an element of Covid compliance brought to bear as well I imagine.
I suppose we should be grateful it's appearing at all, even in a shortened version, given the aversion to broadcasting music on BBC2 these days.

[cat]

They've billed at least two tenor soloists, yet ENO have tweeted a clip of John Findon singing "Thou shalt break them" claiming it is an exclusive clip that won't be seen in the full performance.

Will certainly be interesting to see what makes the cut and how it all sticks together!

[french frank]

I suppose we should be grateful it's appearing at all, even in a shortened version

Or as Dr Johnson's witticism had it: "It is not done well; but you are surprised to find it done at all.”

[ardcarp]

a clip of John Findon singing "Thou shalt break them" claiming it is an exclusive clip that won't be seen in the full performance.

Was this evening's effort a scholarly m/s alternative to Thou Shalt Break Them, or just a cobbled up bit of recit. tacked on to He That Dwelleth in Heaven ?

[LHC]

In a strange coincidence I have just discovered that Virgin are showing a complete performance of Messiah on their UHD channel this evening. It was recorded in the Palace of Versailles, and features Le Concert Spirituel conducted by Hervé Niquet, with Sandrine Piau, Anthea Pichanick, Kresimir Spicer and Bozidar Smiljanic.

Quite enjoyable so far, although some of the pronunciation is ‘interesting’. Picture and sound are superb.

[oddoneout]

Was this evening's effort a scholarly m/s alternative to Thou Shalt Break Them, or just a cobbled up bit of recit. tacked on to He That Dwelleth in Heaven ?

Well neither appeared in the broadcast. I think the final count was 17 out of the 56 items available, and each of the soloists got one spot. It was different, although I didn't hate it, just got a bit disorientated by the big gaps.Given how very spread out the chorus was and distanced from the orchestra I think it was a wise move to have them singing from memory.

[jonfan]

After tonight's effort from the Colosseum one could quite see why Handel threatened to throw an opera singer through a window. Quite a disgrace all round with gigantic egos and vibratos on display. With all the random cuts it just wasn't worth doing.
But what a heavenly relief to go to King's and hear people who can actually sing the music in front of them in an appropriate manner - and what a fantastic offering that was, quite the best in my memory. It all seemed austere, quite fitting for the season and and most of the material was for Passiontide anyway. Thank you!!

[ardcarp]

Well neither appeared in the broadcast

Possibly you missed it Odders. It was very missable! Just a few recit-type nptes to 'Thou shalt break them like a potter's vessel' just before the Hallelujah Chorus.

Apart from that (which I think was a fudge and not at all scholarly) I don't want to be too rude about that 'condensed' Messiah. A typical choral-society audience would probably think it was great. Such an audience can become restive if every jot and tittle of Messiah is done. There are a few bits which can IMHO be left out. But if a 'bleeding chunk' of Messiah is needed, Part II from No. 22 (Behold the Lamb of God) to No.33 (Lift up your heads) is very effective as part of a Passiontide/Holy Week concert...and you only have to pay for 2 soloists! No surgery needed...but no Hallelujah of course.

Although playing on modern instruments and at A440, the small band did its best to play in 'early music' mode. I did wonder why the conductor didn't like the semiquaver upbeats, eg in Behold the Lamb of God. They almost became crotchets at times! Surely this was a 'French Overture' convention that Handel would have absorbed with his mother's milk. And talking of overtures (or should I say the talked-OVER-ture) he didn't like the semiquavers there either! I also wonder why early straight trumpets were chosen. I love them, and their players are amazing, but in that dry acoustic the soloist in The Trumpet Shall Sound (sorry mate!) just sounded a bit weedy...and rushed a bit. Given that all the other instruments were 'modern', I think a couple of valved D trumpets in the tutti and one for the solo would have made a better impression. In fact the ensemble was a tiny bit flaky at times (at one point in the Hallelujah Chorus for instance) but given the spread-out disposition of the forces, I guess that had to be expected.

OK so having been ruder than I intended to be, it was great that all those ENO musicians actually had some paid work to do in these straitened times.

[PeterboroughDiapason]

I thought the clock had been turned back 60 years. At least they weren't giving the ENO treatment to the St Matthew Passion.