University Challenge

[Nick Armstrong]

Paxman's quip: Who remembers Hanslick nowadays? is the standard way of getting at critics but Hanslick is one of the few critics who actually is remembered. After all, he did get a question on UC.

That's what I thought too!

Best moment of the show was the Third Proclaimer's comedy jump at his neighbour's buzzer!!!

https://v.cdn.vine.co/r/videos/01201E9A001265433723327909888_33bd5532a4b.1.5.14390292642398613350.mp4?versionId=lTqx7nv1dqsAhbDlKpK66n5b.yxN3Npu

[Richard Tarleton]

Hanslick is one of the few critics who actually is remembered.

With a little help from Wagner - from one of Ronald Taylor's essays in Barry Millington's The Wagner Compendium:

In Die Meistersinger von Nürnburg Wagner then cast Hanslick as the pedant Beckmesser, soulless small-minded symbol of anti-art. Invited to a reading of the libretto of the opera which Wagner gave to a group of friends in Vienna in 1862, Hanslick...became increasingly incensed, until finally he stormed out of the room, unable to blind himself to the lampoon and convinced that the whole occasion had been engineered merely in order to humiliate him

[ferneyhoughgeliebte]

Indeed - and wasn't Beckmesser originally going to be called "Hans Lick"?

It's a shame that Hanslick's comments on the works of Brahms (and, indeed, his complimentary remarks on Bruckner's Masses) aren't available; I think they'd show a much wider intellect than the sheer volumes of gaffes he produced would suggest.

[Richard Tarleton]

So farewell then, sphincters and lapdogs - they turned out to be insufferably dithery.The Southampton team were good. Their captain had swallows on her dress. The opening bonus questions were on...swallows.

[ferneyhoughgeliebte]

they turned out to be insufferably dithery.

The Southampton team were good.

Their captain had swallows on her dress. The opening bonus questions were on...swallows.

<gulp>

[Pabmusic]

Ironic that Southampton overcame the Belles of St Mary's.

Those boarders who know Southampton might get this (and it's not to do with football, either).

[Stanfordian]

So farewell then, sphincters and lapdogs - they turned out to be insufferably dithery.The Southampton team were good. Their captain had swallows on her dress. The opening bonus questions were on...swallows.

Hiya Richard,

Conspiracy theory or coincidence maybe?

[teamsaint]

So farewell then, sphincters and lapdogs - they turned out to be insufferably dithery.The Southampton team were good. Their captain had swallows on her dress. The opening bonus questions were on...swallows.

Disappointing that she chose swallows, when the university mascot is a Bassett Hound, IIRC

Southampton Alumnus TS Jnr # 1 has expressed the hope that His Alma Mater can do the UC/ Boat race double this year.

[Richard Tarleton]

Disappointing that she chose swallows, when the university mascot is a Bassett Hound, IIRC

A surprising number of hits if you google "Bassett hound design" - a bit niche though

[gurnemanz]

When someone suggested John Williams instead of Vaughan Williams, I misheard it for a moment and thought they had guessed right.

[mercia]

identifying different Baroque recorder composers was a bit tricky I thought, in the latest UC - except for the Brandenburg Concerto

[Nick Armstrong]

identifying different Baroque recorder composers was a bit tricky I thought, in the latest UC - except for the Brandenburg Concerto

I spotted the Handel fingerprint, as did the Norwegian youngster; and yes, the B'burg was a give-away. But I also thought the Telemann was Bach; and I've forgotten what the Starter question was...

[Mary Chambers]

identifying different Baroque recorder composers was a bit tricky I thought, in the latest UC - except for the Brandenburg Concerto

I've played quite a lot of recorder music in my time, but didn't do very well on this. I got the Telemann, but not the Handel. I really should have done. I've played lots of Handel.

[Richard Tarleton]

I spotted the Handel fingerprint, as did the Norwegian youngster; and yes, the B'burg was a give-away. But I also thought the Telemann was Bach; and I've forgotten what the Starter question was...

Vivaldi, which I guessed...but not the Handel or Telemann....

Another team given to having extended (timewasting) conversations among themselves, which when you're ahead is bad form.

[Nick Armstrong]

The combined older and supposedly wiser heads of the Christmas UC teams - including luminaries such as Robin Lane Fox - were scarcely more impressive than their youthful counterparts at classical music.

In the Christmas Eve edition, even Paxman scoffed when composer Hannah Kendall (who she? Ed. ... she was announced as having featured on Composer of the Week - presumably the portmanteau week on women composers) thought Bach's B minor Mass was by Handel. Having said that, the Magd. Coll. Oxon lot (esp Louis Throux) did guess some random Saint-Saens and spot the obvious Vivaldi Gloria