University Challenge

[ferneyhoughgeliebte]

[Serial_Apologist]

Like many television programme a surfeit of confidence seems to be the required qualification.

And not just many a television programme........

[LMcD]

Tonight we watched 2 of the poorest teams we've seen in a very long time, their performance reflected in a very low aggregate score. The answers to the music questions were laughably wide of the mark.

[LezLee]

You'd think each team would choose someone who knew a bit about music, though I did think the pieces were not exactly common these days. Very unlikely to be chosen by young people. Can't remember when I last heard the dreary Mascagni and I got the Elgar wrong - I thought it was Chanson de Matin!

[ferneyhoughgeliebte]

Robert the Bruce????!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

I won't add anything more here as it will spoil one of the most breathtakingly higgerant answers to any question ever offered on UC for those who were listening to the Prom.

[underthecountertenor]

Robert the Bruce????!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

I won't add anything more here as it will spoil one of the most breathtakingly higgerant answers to any question ever offered on UC for those who were listening to the Prom.

Placing Nashville on the shores of Lake Erie ran it close though.

[underthecountertenor]

And the failure to find even an appropriate pair for Charles the Bold suggested that they weren’t even capable of listening intelligently to the question.

[LezLee]

It was unfortunate having two rubbish teams together 'cos it meant one of them going through. Still they're unlikely to get any further.

[LMcD]

You'd think each team would choose someone who knew a bit about music, though I did think the pieces were not exactly common these days. Very unlikely to be chosen by young people. Can't remember when I last heard the dreary Mascagni and I got the Elgar wrong - I thought it was Chanson de Matin!

I often get Elgar's 'salon pieces' confused, but on this occasion I noted that the connection was favourite pieces played at weddings, so I assumed (hoped?) that 'Salut d'Amour' was best suited to the occasion

[Richard Tarleton]

All I can remember from last week's episode - which wasn't too bad - is....ears.....4 pairs.....

Have yet to watch last night's....

Kerry Andrew's blog still off-air - I miss reading her take on things - very best wishes to her.

[underthecountertenor]

All I can remember from last week's episode - which wasn't too bad - is....ears.....4 pairs.....

Have yet to watch last night's....

Kerry Andrew's blog still off-air - I miss reading her take on things - very best wishes to her.

The ears were extraordinary, but I think I also saw a grown man cry. Chap furthest from the captain on the losing team, who made a couple of incorrect interruptions near the end, when they lost by 5 points. Watch the closing credits closely. I felt for him, but it’s only a game.

[underthecountertenor]

Yes - I was very pleased that the winning team last week lacked any of these "this is my moment on telly, and I'm going to milk it" characters. Mr Wang's self-indulgent showing-off is typical of not a few recent team members, and it's really putting me off watching.

He was the one who said something like ‘ok fair enough’ whenever he was told the right answer, wasn’t he? My TV screen barely survived the experience unscathed.

[ferneyhoughgeliebte]

He was the one who said something like ‘ok fair enough’ whenever he was told the right answer, wasn’t he? My TV screen barely survived the experience unscathed.

- as if he were charitably allowing someone else to get away with substituting a mediocre fact for his more creative - if wrong - suggested answers!

[Richard Tarleton]

Placing Nashville on the shores of Lake Erie ran it close though.

Not to mention identifying Liberia as Uganda - OK there are lots of smallish W. African states to have a guess at if you don't know, but Uganda? I think that was the genius who also came up with Robert The Bruce

Lamentable, as Paxo said. A drawn-out car crash of a round, though Mr Burns of St Johns was perhaps the honourable exception.

I'm amazed to hear that the Intermezzo from Cav is played at weddings. Is this really so? I'd like to put in a good word for it, and the opera, which I'm very fond of. In an interview in the programme for the WNO Cav and Pag (prod. Elijah Moshinsky) conductor Carlo Rizzi described the orchestration for the opera as like a concerto for oboe and orchestra. The programme also includes a 1986 article on Cav by Stephen Oliver reprinted from Opera vol.37 no.10, which includes a long and interesting paragraph on the Intermezzo which I can't be bothered to type out but which I'm sure can be looked up.

[underthecountertenor]

Not to mention identifying Liberia as Uganda - OK there are lots of smallish W. African states to have a guess at if you don't know, but Uganda? I think that was the genius who also came up with Robert The Bruce

Lamentable, as Paxo said. A drawn-out car crash of a round, though Mr Burns of St Johns was perhaps the honourable exception.

I'm amazed to hear that the Intermezzo from Cav is played at weddings. Is this really so? I'd like to put in a good word for it, and the opera, which I'm very fond of. In an interview in the programme for the WNO Cav and Pag (prod. Elijah Moshinsky) conductor Carlo Rizzi described the orchestration for the opera as like a concerto for oboe and orchestra. The programme also includes a 1986 article on Cav by Stephen Oliver reprinted from Opera vol.37 no.10, which includes a long and interesting paragraph on the Intermezzo which I can't be bothered to type out but which I'm sure can be looked up.

I'm very fond of Cav too - always draws a tear from my usually dry eye (especially if Elena Zilio is giving her Mamma Lucia at the ROH). I hadn't thought of the prominence of the oboe in the score before, but will listen out next time, bearing in mind Rizzi's words.