The music blogs go round and round


Nice to see On An Overgrown Path, and several other fine music blogs, mentioned in the Gramophone's November e-newsletter. This is written by the magazine's editor James Jolly, who is also a BBC Radio 3 presenter. A warm welcome to new readers arriving at this "provocative and informed" blog from the Gramophone. You can check today's top stories in the right side-bar.

See the rest of my header photo here, and take a look at the Chinese equivalent of the Gramophone here.
Photo (c) On An Overgrown Path 2007. Report broken links, missing images and errors to - overgrownpath at hotmail dot co dot uk

Comments

Jay said…
wow congrats on the mention!
2:05 am
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David Munrow - more than early music

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'David Munrow and the Early Music Consort of London transformed our view of medieval music. The impact of their performances far surparssed any that had gone before: by demonstrating how medieval music could sound normal, they created a niche for it in the concert hall and on record that it has never lost' ~ From Daniel Leech-Wilkinson's notes for Music of the Gothic era May 15 2007 is the thirty-first anniversary of the death of David Munrow. His contribution to the acceptance, understanding and performance of early music almost defies summary. He was born in 1942, and learnt the bassoon and recorder as a child. Between school and university he travelled and taught in South America , and started the collection of ethnic instruments that were to give him, and the world, a new perspective on early music making. He read English at Pembroke College , Cambridge, and was encouraged by Thurston Dart to take an active role in the music-making of that most musical of cities. ...
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Mahler 8 - Symphony of a Thousand Mistakes?

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What stunning sound the BBC engineers achieved for their live broadcast of Valery Gergiev's Mahler 8 with the London Symphony Orchestra this evening. Yes, the close miking of the instruments necessitated by the very long resonance of the building was evident. But St Paul's Cathedral is one of the most difficult spaces in the world both to perform and record in, and the BBC Radio 3 technicians produced some of the best sound I have heard from my B & W Nautilus 803 loudspeakers for a long time. Valery Gergiev's operatic approach to symphonies is not usually to my taste, but it worked a treat with Mahler's flawed but exhilarating Eighth. Quite unmissable radio, catch it for the next seven days here. One of the talking heads introducing the performance recounted how the work fell out of favour after Mahler's death and how surprising it was that the work was considered for a time to be lacking the genius of the composer's other symphonies. Well that is a view t...
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BBC Radio 3 audience crashes by 11.4%

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Latest RAJAR figures for UK radio audiences report that the BBC Radio 3 audience dropped by a whopping 11.4% year on year. This was a loss of 233,000 listeners from Q3 2024 to Q3 2025. Average hours per listener were also down, by 4.9% to 7.7. (Elsewhere, in an attempt to boost Radio 3 and talk down the loss, R3 presenter Norman Lebrecht compares the latest quarter - Q3 2025 - with the previous quarter - Q2 2025. As any industry insider knows, this is a meaningless comparison as radio audiences vary substantially by season. Most importantly Q3 audience is always boosted by Proms listeners compared to Q2.)  This dismal performance comes as no surprise. It was inevitable that Radio 3's strategy of aping Classic FM  would result in short term gain followed by the long term pain which is starting to emerge. Classical radio - and classical music in general - needs to build a strong distinctive franchise with  a loyal audience that is prepared to be challenged . BBC Rad...
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Soundtrack for a porn movie

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Classical music's biggest problem is that no one cares

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No such thing as an unknown Venezuelan conductor

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