Walton's Belshazzar's Feast: M Berkeley, BBC4

[Chris Newman]

Come off it, Michael Berkeley's got a full thatch - of course it's a repeat!

My ex wondered the same about Sir Andrew's full thatch when that programme first came out. She thought that widow's peak was just impossible.

For myself, I loved Sir Willard White's solo (best since Raimund Herincx) but thought that, as always with AD, the music went much too fast in the allegro bits. Mind you, this was much more under control than his LNOPTP version with Bryn Terfel which must have broken all records.

[Caliban]

Nope. no soaps here. have stuck with Walton from the beginning this evening! Er, there is a Corrie omni ... Sundays. As to what is on - try the Radio Times!

Err... yes, I always watch the Corrie omni, Anna! Early Saturday morning, actually - now relegated to ITV2 (to the cast's fury: lower repeat fees... ). Phone calls interrupted the Walton, so I'm going to resume.

Lady W came across as a poppet, didn't she (she and Andrew Davis were the best in that extract from 'Façade' I thought - Willard White surprisingly poor!) but she was tough as old boots. A former law firm of mine acted for the Waltons, and I had dealings. Her approach to matters legal was... crisp!!

My Agèd P performed 'Façade' with the Northern Sinfonia when I was about 8. I remember the rehearsals with the lady speaker with whom he performed it, in our dining room, and then P reciting them non-stop around the house. His half of the work is still engraved in my brain... I can do the 'Tango-Pasodoblé' from memory even now. I loved the rhythmic, evocative, exotic words...

"Through trees like rich hotels that bode
Of dreamless ease fled she,
Carrying the load and goading the road
Through the marine scene to the sea."

[salymap]

I recorded the programme and must watch it later.

Lady W's approach to everything/everyone was 'crisp'. She even terrified Malcolm Sargent I believe

[Caliban]

I recorded the programme and must watch it later.

Lady W's approach to everything/everyone was 'crisp'. She even terrified Malcolm Sargent I believe

[ferneyhoughgeliebte]

Presumably you're recording it because you are watching that other great North Eastern cultural product, Corrie

North Eastern???

[Caliban]

North Eastern???

I was trying to be clever with Manchester and Oldham but settled for a compromise and the Friday evening brain let me down. Glad you pointed it out! Don't want the world silently thinking me an ignoramus!

[vinteuil]

Don't want the world silently thinking me an ignoramus!

... he thinks the world would be silent ?!!

[Petrushka]

This performance of Belshazzar's Feast was issued on a BBC Music Mag CD coupled with the Tallis Fantasia taken from the Masterworks series and both recorded in the location of their respective premieres, Leeds Town Hall and Gloucester Cathedral.