How many cock-ups can be squeezed into two hours of music?


A recent post explained how grovelling to 5% of your audience drives away 8%. Now if you think my criticism of the dumbed down BBC Radio 3 is extreme, try this one for size. On February 12th a Radio 3 broadcast of Elgar's The Dream of Gerontius was introduced by presenter Kate Molleson as being conducted by "Sir Edward Davis". OK, we all make mistakes. But bear with me, because it gets worse. At the end of Andrew Davis' moving performance the final 'amen' died away to be followed seamlessly and without a linking announcement by another performance of the complete Prelude. OK, we all make mistakes, and perhaps the Radio 3 presenter was just having a bad Gerontius day and accidently let the music play on. But bear with me, because yet again it gets worse.

This could not have been a continuity error. Because the Gerontius complete with fore and aft Preludes fitted exactly into the allocated time slot: if it had been Ms Molleson's mistake the programme would have overrun by ten minutes. The duplication must have originated when the scheduling software was programmed. Music at the station is played in from a server and the Davis/BBC SO Gerontius would have been ripped from the Chandos double CD which includes as a final bonus track the concert version of the Prelude. So the complete Chandos CD including bonus track was ripped, and amazingly nobody at Radio 3 knew that Gerontius does not end with an orchestral postlude.

OK, we all make mistakes, and perhaps the programme editor was also having a bad Gerontius day. But bear with me, because, yet again, it gets worse. At the end of the second Prelude Kate Molleson back announced Gerontius referring to "that solemn amen", completely oblivious to the ten minutes of orchestral music between her back announcement and the solemn amen in question. Did this presenter for what was once the world's most respected classical station not know how Gerontius - a mainstream masterpiece - ends?

Yes, we all make mistakes. But I'm running out of excuses for this blatant incompetence, as still nobody at Radio 3 has realised that Gerontius does not end with an orchestral postlude. Because currently the uncorrected Gerontius broadcast is available on the BBC iPlayer* not only with the erroneous conductor attribution at 1:15:45 but also with the gratuitous Prelude starting at 2:49:45. To think BBC Radio 3's predecessor the Third Programme used to be the envy of the world. I could weep; particularly as the BBC has just announced an increase in the license fee for the second year in succession. But, as an earlier post lamented, classical music's biggest problem is that no one cares.

* The Radio 3 Afternoon Concert including The Dream of Gerontius is on BBC iPlayer until March 11th. Any copyrighted material is included as "fair use" for critical analysis only, and will be removed at the request of copyright owner(s). Also on Facebook and Twitter.

Comments

David Hill said…
A few years ago now, the Early Music Show featured Bach's Art of Fugue, and played extracts from various different instrumental and ensemble recordings. Shortly after playing a performance of one particular Contrapuntus, Ms Skeaping announced the next fugue in the sequence, and proceded to play exactly the same fugue that had just been played, albeit from a different performance. Apparently nobody noticed that it was the same movement before broadcast, yet I expected that when the programme was repeated some while later, someone would by then have noticed, and perhaps responded to complaints from musicologist listeners, but the repeat also featured the repeated fugue, as it did the next time it reappeared. Presumably they think that all the fugues sound the same anyway.
5:20 pm
Philip Amos said…
Is at least part of the problem that these programmes are pre-recorded, with the host going off for a chat, ciggie or tissue-restorer while the music is playing and never, one would suspect, listening to the finished product -- not that that means the likes of Pet Rock Trelawney would notice anything amiss. Such was the way even back in about 1970 when, on visit to Canada, I heard the host of a programme announce Brahms' Piano Concerto No. 2. And in a sense, so it was, if you didn't mind hearing the movements in the order 3, 4, 1, 2. That was in LP days, of course, and plainly the master of the turntable had put on Side Two first. Equally plainly, no one was listening in the studio, and at that particular radio station, I guarantee no one would have been able to tell the difference. Now I'm not sure anyone at Radio 3 would. And now even less at the Canadian Broadcasting Corporation's Radio 2, once akin to the BBC's Third Programme, now far worse than Radio 3 -- no mean achievement.
1:59 pm
Pliable said…
Philip, I try to be as fair and methodical with these posts as possible, although that is very difficult.

After researching I discounted the pre-recorded explanation for the cock-ups as Kate Molleson actually acknowledged her 'Sir Edward Davis' error in the linking announcement between parts 1 & 2 of Gerontius. Examination of her Twitter feed for the day shows she was informed of her error on Twitter and acknowledged it - https://twitter.com/snowythepyro/status/963071145422540802

Which does raise the question of whether Radio 3 presenters should be checking their scheduled music is correct rather than hanging out on Twitter.

One of the reasons I try to be fair is that I once worked for BBC Radio and made mistakes. One memorable one was on Two-way Family Favourites - does anyone remember that? This linked London and British forces radio in Germany. As technology was very crude in those days the music was played from disc both in London and Germany due to the poor quality of the landlines.

Don McLean's American Pie was riding high in the charts at the time (it must have been 1971) and there were two versions of the song. The German end of the programme played the 8 minute LP version and I played the 4 minute single version. Meaning the London studio was left with 4 minutes of dead air to fill while the LP version played out in Germany.
2:38 pm
David Hill said…
The announcer, Andrew Timothy once told me that he was introducing a live concert by the BBC SO in the 50s, where Sargent took the podium, bowed, raised his baton, and then put it back down and left the stage, to murmurings in the hall and band. He disappeared for a full five minutes, and Tim had to fill what would otherwise have been dead air by talking about the music, the band, the weather, anything, for what he described as the longest, agonising cold sweat of five minutes of his entire life. Sargent returned, with no explanation given, to more applause and began conducting. Tim later learned that he had forgotten to pee before the concert.
4:00 pm
mathias broucek said…
I once listened in awe to an old-school R3 announcer deal with a stuck piano at the proms. All done seamlessly despite not knowing how long he'd need to "busk" for
11:04 pm
Post a Comment

Recent popular posts

David Munrow - more than early music

Image
'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.
Read more

Master musician who experienced the pain of genius

Image
On that sleeve for his 1985 recording of the Goldberg Variations , Scott Ross is seen standing in the grounds of Château d'Assas in Languedoc. It was here that many of the harpsichordist's great recordings were made. Then, as today, the château dwelt in the twilight zone between grandeur and dereliction, and thirty years ago the recording sessions were regularly interrupted by the sound of rats scurrying across the floor. Scott Ross was born in Pittsburgh in 1951, and moved to France with his mother following the death of his father in 1964. He studied at the conservatoires in Nice and Paris, and first came to Château d'Assas in 1969 to give music lessons to the grandson of its owner Mme. Simone Demangel . When an early music academy was established at the Château d'Assas, Scott Ross gave masterclasses and became a frequent visitor. At first he stayed in a room in one of the towers, but from 1983 he rented a small house across the road from the château. The photos b
Read more

Soundtrack for a porn movie

Image
"No, you have not landed on Slipped Disc by mistake. Respected electronic music pioneer Klaus Schulze tells the story himself.  The origins of " Body Love " are quite funny. I received a call from a movie producer named Manfred Menz and I wound up becoming his principal composer for a period of time. Amongst others, I composed the "Barracuda" soundtrack for him [1978, previously unreleased on album]. This led to a friendship which lasts till today. Menz now lives in Malibu, California where I visited him a couple of years ago. Anyway, this guy calls me and asks if I would compose the score to a porn movie. I said: "Porn? Nah, I don't do that kind of thing".  As it turned out, the director of the movie, Lasse Braun, had already shot it and had used my albums " Timewind " [1975] and " Moondawn " [1976] as a kind of "working soundtrack". This was obvious because the couples in the film were moving in time to my gro
Read more

All aboard the Martinu bandwagon

Image
Depressing, but predictable, to see the mainstream media scrambling aboard the Bohuslav Martinů bandwagon as soon as BBC Radio 3 announces a cycle of his superb symphonies . Equally depressing, but a sign of the times, to see the Independent publishing an appreciation of the composer's symphonies by a writer who confesses elsewhere to never having heard a single note of them. As Norman Lebrecht famously wrote in the Evening Standard back in 2006: ‘... until bloggers deliver hard facts … paid for newspapers will continue to set the standard as the only show in town’. Sadly the hard facts now show that Norman is no longer at the Evening Standard , and, as from next Monday, the Evening Standard will no longer be a paid for newspaper . But you can find pre-bandwagon appreciations of Martinů here and here . Any copyrighted material on these pages is included as "fair use", for the purpose of study, review or critical analysis only, and will be removed at the request of
Read more

Classical music has a lot to learn

Image
In June and July 1945 Yehudi Menuhin performed at camps for “displaced persons” – Holocaust survivors – including outside where the demolished Bergen-Belsen concentration camp had stood. He was deeply shocked by what he saw; yet in 1947 he returned to Germany to perform with the Berlin Philharmonic conducted by the recently de-Nazified Wilhelm Furtwängler. Menuhin was the first Jewish musician to perform in post-World War II Germany, explaining that he did so in order to support the rehabilitation of German music and to help heal the spirit of the German people.  My header photo shows Menuhin playing Mozart's Violin Concerto No. 5 in 1966 with the Vienna Philharmonic conducted by the  now fashionably-reviled Herbert von Karan. The Jerusalem Cinematheque - Israel Film Archive describes that collaboration as an example of how "how music can still contribute to reconciliation today". Coincidentally, or possibly not, both Menuhin and Karajan were yoga practitioners. Menu
Read more

Is syncretic music the future?

Image
Western classical music's search for a new more inclusive paradigm has led it to world music. Many, including Philip Glass , leading critics and this blog , have said the world music is the future. But so many east meets west project sound like awkward forced marriages . Yet beyond world music the path leads onwards towards a destination which may be a mirage or may be the future. Syncretism is the process of reconciling contrary beliefs and involves melding practices of differing schools of thought. Syncretic music has been around for many centuries, notably in the blend of the three monotheistic religions in Moorish Spain, as captured by Jordi Savall and many others . The Middle East is also home to musical syncreticism and the recent budget re-release of Sister Marie Keyrouz and L'Ensemble de la Paix performing Hymns from Lebanon , which sets Christian texts in Arabic using early Eastern music scales is an excellent example. More recently French gypsy musician Titi Robin
Read more

Albert Baez, scientist, pacifist and parent

Image
Albert Baez (left) has died age 94. A remarkable scientist and pacifist, he was also father of folk singers Joan Baez and Mimi Fariña . Follow this link to the San Francisco Chronicle for an excellent celebration of a remarkable life. Now read why we aren't marching in the streets anymore. Any copyrighted material on these pages is included as "fair use", for the purpose of study, review or critical analysis only, and will be removed at the request of copyright owner(s). Report broken links, missing images and other errors to - overgrownpath at hotmail dot co dot uk
Read more

The Berlin Philharmonic's darkest hour

Image
Wilhelm Furtwängler was born on 25th January 1886. He was Music Director of the Berlin Philharmonic from 1923 to his death in 1954, and held this position for the twelve years that Hitler was in power. In January 1945 he was conducting in Vienna, and fled from there to Switzerland where he remained until the Battle of Berlin ended in the defeat of the Nazis. The musicians of his orchestra remained in Berlin during its darkest hour. Here is their story: On 28th March 1945 the Russian forces commanded by Marshal Georgy Zhukov were just twenty miles to the east of Berlin. A month previously Albert Speer had been replaced as Nazi armaments minister after trying to persuade Hitler that defeat was inevitable. Speer now turned his energies to preventing the musicians of his adored Berlin Philharmonic from perishing in the inevitable final battle. Reich Commisioner Dr Joseph Goebells, who was in charge of the defence of Berlin, had ordered the entire orchestra to be drafted into the Vol
Read more

Classical music should exploit its healing power

Image
Classical music cannot stand still; so that means it must find new audiences. Western classical music has evolved into a highly dualist art form with clearly demarcated boundaries around its core offering of the orchestral and operatic repertoire. There is little debate that this repertoire must - and will - remain central to the art form. But it can be argued that to open up new markets the current watertight boundaries around that core offering must become porous. An example of a blurring of these boundaries would be an entry into the mind, body and spirit market; a market which a post here in 2011 pointed out was then worth around $11 billion annually in the US, compared with $200 million for classical album sales. It is tempting to dismiss the mind, body and spirit market opportunity as no more than 'Mozart for meditation' and 'Gregorian Chant for the soul', but that would be a mistake. As my earlier post noted , the spiritual dimension is found in many of cl
Read more

Classical music's biggest problem is that no one cares

Image
These photos were taken by me in 2008 at independent record retailer Prelude Records in Norwich. Jordi Savall's impromptu viol recital and signing session preceeded two performances at the Norfolk and Norwich Festival. One was a solo recital by Jordi in Peter Mancroft Church ; the other was an immensely moving performance of his visionary Jerusalem multicultural project at the Theatre Royal*. As reported here Prelude Records closed earlier this year; it was a victim of predatory online retailing, and today its premises stand empty awaiting occupation by a mobile phone or E-cigarette retailer. The Norfolk and Norwich Festival has been the victim of savage funding cuts , but continues in a more modest form due to the dedicated work of its small management team. A few days ago I wrote about a two-thirds empty Snape Maltings concert and proposed that classical music's heartland is facing a perfect storm caused by the convergence of the shifts in consumer tastes and the r
Read more