I usually agree with Simon Hoggart, BUT...............

[Guest]

Simon Hoggart's account of going to a Paul Lewis recital in today's Guardian was mostly very positive, with this exception:

I have one cavil. Tradition apparently decrees that performer appears on stage, bows to the audience, and without uttering a word, sits down to play. I'm not suggesting that he should have yelled: "Hello, Liverpool!" even though it's his home town, but a few words about each piece – why he liked it, what the pitfalls were, a spot of history – would have been welcome and made us feel that we were listening to a human being, and not a sort of super-computerised pianola.

Is Hoggart a mate of the R3 management? This suggestion (over my dead body!!) must be influenced by the current direction of R3. I have been to all Lewis's Beethoven and Schubert recitals in his recent cycles. Let me repeat: I do not want to hear why he likes the music (the performance will convey that!) or "a spot of history" (probably in the programme if I want to know!).

It's good to see an obvious stranger to the concert hall enthusing about a performance, but let's keep the chat to R3 (or preferably not there either.)

Here's the full 'review':

http://www.guardian.co.uk/theguardian/2011/sep/30/simon-hoggart-week-liverpool?INTCMP=SRCH

[Mandryka]

Oh, dear. An attempt at exegesis before the music....no, thanks.

[french frank]

He doesn't sound as if he's much of a concert-goer. Impressed that a top flight pianist like Lewis can play Schubert's Wanderer perfectly - from memory.

But yes, he has probably dutifully ticked the box saying he would like to listen to R3 more if it weren't so, so ... inaccessible.

Is Hoggart a mate of the R3 management?

The Guardian is, full stop. A symbiotic relationship of doing each other favours.

[mercia]

well it's not totally unheard of for performers to introduce the works they are about to perform

[VodkaDilc]

well it's not totally unheard of for performers to introduce the works they are about to perform

Of course. I recall Gillian Weir doing it years ago; but I think it should be only needed in certain circumstances. A Piano Recital of standard repertoire is not one of them - at least to my mind.

[Serial_Apologist]

Of course. I recall Gillian Weir doing it years ago; but I think it should be only needed in certain circumstances. A Piano Recital of standard repertoire is not one of them - at least to my mind.

Indeed - I have Gillian Weir pre-announcing compositional and programmatic details to each movement of Messiaen's "Livre D'Orgue" and "La Nativite du Seigneur" before performing each work, but realising that it was indispensable to the listening experience.

[LeMartinPecheur]

I'm fully support the 'Less chat on R3' campaign, but wouldn't go as far as to want a ban on artists introducing what they are going to play 'live'. If they've got something to say and are relaxed with telling us, in my experience it helps establish a relationship with the audience. And I'm not ashamed to say that I sometimes learn something worthwhile.

After all, there's probably always going to be someone there who's never heard that particular work, or even is attending a classical concert for the first time.

I wouldn't argue with any artist who simply gets on and plays in the old-fashioned way, but will not demand a wholesale return to the marmoreal, silent, 'priest revealing the holy mysteries' style of old.

An artist in the same room as an audience is in a relationship with them in a way that a disembodied voice on the radio emphatically is not!

[Flosshilde]

well it's not totally unheard of for performers to introduce the works they are about to perform

Very desirable, in my opinion. Otherwise one has to buy a usually over-priced programme, full of adverts, which is usually thrown away afterwards. Of course, if concert halls provided a simple sheet of paper with a list of works and performers it would be helpful, but then people wouldn't buy the aformentioned overpriced etc.

[french frank]

Very desirable, in my opinion. Otherwise one has to buy a usually over-priced programme, full of adverts, which is usually thrown away afterwards. Of course, if concert halls provided a simple sheet of paper with a list of works and performers it would be helpful, but then people wouldn't buy the aformentioned overpriced etc.

Well, I don't suppose I'd be at the concert/recital at all if I didn't know what was going to be played and want to hear it.

[antongould]

shameful admission time but I have been to more pop/jazz/folk concerts than classical and on these other planets the level of "chat" varies dramatically. Connolly, Carrott et al have chatted their ways to new careers whilst we attended a superb Paul Simon concert when all he said from beginning to end was "Thank you - you are most kind"!
There I would have liked more and I don't necessarily disagree with Mr. Hoggart of the BBC Supporters Club Magazine that what the music means to the performer is interesting. But then I listen to R3 at 8.30 each morning and am therefore beyond the pale!