University Challenge

[ferneyhoughgeliebte]

What an excellent round last night - two cracking teams. The losers more or less certain to be back, with a score like that. Not sure about the eye-liner but he does do drama, and gave some good answers.....

- best game in a very long time, I thought. (Interesting that Liszt and Mahler could be identified by their silhouettes, but not Wagner or Brahms.)

[Richard Tarleton]

An odd contest tonight - nobody had scored anything much until nearly half way through.....

Salieri - the first vol of Alan Walker's 3-vol biog of Liszt describes how Salieri, by now over 70, came to teach the 11-year-old Liszt, free of charge, in 1822, and how kind he was. Unbeknownst to the boy or his father, Salieri wrote to Prince Esterhazy (Adam Liszt's employer) describing with great delicacy the pair's precarious circumstances in Vienna. "...this gruesome legend [poisoning Mozart] which merely stains the reputation of its perpetrators." [Walker op cit]

[Nick Armstrong]

An odd contest tonight - nobody had scored anything much until nearly half way through.....

Salieri - the first vol of Alan Walker's 3-vol biog of Liszt describes how Salieri, by now over 70, came to teach the 11-year-old Liszt, free of charge, in 1822, and how kind he was. Unbeknownst to the boy or his father, Salieri wrote to Prince Esterhazy (Adam Liszt's employer) describing with great delicacy the pair's precarious circumstances in Vienna. "...this gruesome legend [poisoning Mozart] which merely stains the reputation of its perpetrators." [Walker op cit]

Agreed.... and the Salieri - Liszt connection was surprising (the Salieri - Meyerbeer connection too, come to that). I had no idea who wrote the overture (the third of the four question components). But I had more idea than the lad from Oxford who kicked off strongly with the Starter, then faded badly (Hindemith, Dvorak )

[Beef Oven!]

It’s not available on iPlayer yet

No spoilers, please

[Nick Armstrong]

It’s not available on iPlayer yet

No spoilers, please

I tried to keep it as vague as possible!

[Beef Oven!]

I tried to keep it as vague as possible!

Indeed. You have a touch of class that is missing in many of us.

[Nick Armstrong]

Indeed. You have a touch of class that is missing in many of us.

Too kind... (A touch of vagueness, more like! )

[Richard Tarleton]

the Salieri - Liszt connection was surprising

Salieri was his theory teacher (at 11, when Adam Liszt brought his son to Vienna from rural Hungary), Czerny his piano teacher. Both were extraordinarily kind and generous to the boy, which Liszt never forgot - 60 years later he said of Salieri "He still has my deep gratitude".

[Nick Armstrong]

Remarkably easy "Radio 3 Ten Pieces"-based music round today...

[Richard Tarleton]

Remarkably easy "Radio 3 Ten Pieces"-based music round today...

Another uninspiring round. I hate it when they drift off into time-wasting conversations amongst themselves - didn't the girl on Robinson say something like "wasn't that what we were talking about yesterday" . I'd never actually heard of Robinson College, but as a squeamish type I was quite glad they won.

[Richard Tarleton]

Curious - SOAS were fined 5 points for an incorrect answer over that Art Deco question near then end, but Paxo had finished the question - seems you can be fined for buzzing too quickly even if the question is finished? As it turns out it was a dead heat but both teams almost certainly go through, but SOAS could have won. What is Paxo playing at?

[ferneyhoughgeliebte]

Curious - SOAS were fined 5 points for an incorrect answer over that Art Deco question near then end, but Paxo had finished the question - seems you can be fined for buzzing too quickly even if the question is finished? As it turns out it was a dead heat but both teams almost certainly go through, but SOAS could have won. What is Paxo playing at?

This has happened (quite often) before, contestants penalized for "interrupting" when all the words in the question have been said. Most unfair - as if they've lost points for interrupting his question mark!

[Nick Armstrong]

a dead heat

Alas, rather too true. Very sadly, Mr Bostock of SOAS was making a posthumous appearance on the broadcast.... https://www.soas.ac.uk/news/newsitem114853.html

[ferneyhoughgeliebte]

Alas, rather too true. Very sadly, Mr Bostock of SOAS was making a posthumous appearance on the broadcast.... https://www.soas.ac.uk/news/newsitem114853.html

Oh, that is terribly sad news; poor bloke, and his poor family and friends.

[Dave2002]

Oh, that is terribly sad news; poor bloke, and his poor family and friends.

Indeed sad. I knew a David Bostock once many years agao, but I think he was slightly older, and not based in the area mentioned in the programme. I suppose it isn't a very uncommon name.

I felt that SOAS were robbed, but they will hopefully come back, and they do really need a scientist on board to match up with some of the other teams. They were very good on obscure material which is perhaps to be expected.

The question about scientists who played instruments seemed easy - are there not some more interesting examples? I suppose Patrick Moore and the xylophone might just count. Are there any others to make things more lively? Not that the question or a variant will come round again in a hurry.