Many column inches (should that be pixels?) elsewhere about Roger Norrington's vibrato-less Elgar. But I'm not planning to add to the comment I made after hearing the concert - "it destroys the music". The whole 'controversy' smacks to me of a manipulative PR stunt by the BBC. Would Norrington and his Stuttgart Orchestra have been invited to 're-engineer' an Elgar symphony at the Proms if the same conductor had not been the star of the Last Night and a judge on the BBC's inexcrable Maestro TV reality show? Would the Observer have devoted a major article to the 'controversy' if one of their group music journalists was not a Radio 3 Proms presenter? I fully expect (adult advisory) a Zenra orchestra to be the highlight of the 2009 Proms.As Elgar said to a conductor who believed in good vibrations - "My reputation is safe in your hands".
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2 comments:
Oh please BBC2 what on earth do you hope to achieve with Maestro? I truly do despair that a conductor like Norrington would associate himself with this type of trashy TV. As for the ubiquitous Alex James. What is he for? Not content with writing drivel in the Spectator we now have him attempting to conduct. Dear BBC2 enough is enough!
Alan, my sentiments entirely.
For many years I have greatly admired Norrington's Beethoven symphony cycle with the London Classical Players.
But I will never be able to listen to those CDs again without thinking of BBC TV's Maestro and thirty pieces of silver.
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