Prom Previews

[Ferretfancy]

The latest R3 wheeze is to broadcast extended extracts on the Breakfast programme from a work to be given at that evening's Prom. For example we had the second movement of Beethoven's 7th in a performance conducted by Barenboim, who is of course not in charge tonight.
This was introduced as " funereal", although the term only referred to the performance in this case! The movement is marked allegretto!

Why they do this ? It really is very irritating, and in what way will it serve to attract people to the concert? This is an extension of the practice in virtually all TV documentaries where they spend the first ten minutes telling you what you are going to see.

I despair sometimes.

[salymap]

I agree ferret. The excerpt seemed to go on for ages. The next thing is we will get bits of what we heard the day before to make sure we heard it. Text us, email,listen on iPlayer.......

How things have changed. The Third Programme it ain't.

[Ventilhorn]

The latest R3 wheeze is to broadcast extended extracts on the Breakfast programme from a work to be given at that evening's Prom. For example we had the second movement of Beethoven's 7th in a performance conducted by Barenboim, who is of course not in charge tonight.
This was introduced as " funereal", although the term only referred to the performance in this case! The movement is marked allegretto!

Why they do this ? It really is very irritating, and in what way will it serve to attract people to the concert? This is an extension of the practice in virtually all TV documentaries where they spend the first ten minutes telling you what you are going to see.

I despair sometimes.

I suspect that, for those who remember, this movement was played continuously on Radio as King George V was "sinking peacefully to his end" and the "Funereal" epithet has stuck to it ever since 1935.

VH

[salymap]

I remember it well. I even remember his earlier Christmas broadcast[s].

Was this when he was reported to reply "B..ger Bognor, when his physician suggested a nice holiday there?

However AT 4 OR 5 afraid I didn't identify the Beethoven symphony played.

[mercia]

Bognor Regis was originally named just "Bognor", being a fishing (and one time, smuggling) village until the 18th century, when it was converted into a resort by Sir Richard Hotham. Tourism gradually took off over the next hundred years, the area being chosen as an ideal location for King George V to convalesce in during 1929, the King and Queen actually staying at Craigwell House, Aldwick; as a result, the King was asked to bestow the "Regis" ("of the King") suffix on "Bognor". The petition was presented to Lord Stamfordham, the King's Private Secretary, who in turn delivered to the King. King George V supposedly replied, "Oh, bugger Bognor." Lord Stamfordham then went back to the petitioners and told them, "the King has been graciously pleased to grant your request."

A slightly different version of the "Bugger Bognor" incident is that the King, upon being told, shortly before his death, that he would soon be well enough to revisit the town, uttered the words "Bugger Bognor!" Although there is little evidence that these words were actually spoken in this context, and although the sea air helped the King to regain his health, it is certain that the King had little regard (to put it mildly) for the town.

well that's what wikipedia says anyway. sorry to sidetrack the thread. where were we?

[barber olly]

I remember it well. I even remember his earlier Christmas broadcast[s].

Was this when he was reported to reply "B..ger Bognor, when his physician suggested a nice holiday there?

However AT 4 OR 5 afraid I didn't identify the Beethoven symphony played.

Well it couldn't have been the famous NYPO Toscanini version as it wasn't recorded until 1936 and with his style would not have been thought of as funereal!

[Ferretfancy]

barber oily,
In the 7th Symphony, Toscanini is the only conductor I've heard who honours Beethoven's marking for the trio of the third movement scherzo.. It's marked assai meno presto, a little less fast, but for some reason everybody except Arturo slows the whole thing down.

[amateur51]

Bognor Regis was originally named just "Bognor", being a fishing (and one time, smuggling) village until the 18th century, when it was converted into a resort by Sir Richard Hotham. Tourism gradually took off over the next hundred years, the area being chosen as an ideal location for King George V to convalesce in during 1929, the King and Queen actually staying at Craigwell House, Aldwick; as a result, the King was asked to bestow the "Regis" ("of the King") suffix on "Bognor". The petition was presented to Lord Stamfordham, the King's Private Secretary, who in turn delivered to the King. King George V supposedly replied, "Oh, bugger Bognor." Lord Stamfordham then went back to the petitioners and told them, "the King has been graciously pleased to grant your request."

A slightly different version of the "Bugger Bognor" incident is that the King, upon being told, shortly before his death, that he would soon be well enough to revisit the town, uttered the words "Bugger Bognor!" Although there is little evidence that these words were actually spoken in this context, and although the sea air helped the King to regain his health, it is certain that the King had little regard (to put it mildly) for the town.

well that's what wikipedia says anyway. sorry to sidetrack the thread. where were we?

He certainly didn't say it in the fillum 'The Queen's Speech'