Sunday Morning

[ardcarp]

Three items struck me as rather special this morning. (SM is a programme I usually miss for one reason or another).
1. Ravel's Chansons madécasses for soprano cello and flute.
2. The Phoenix and the Turtle by Huw Watkins sung by Stile Antico (Watkins being far from the Whitaker tendency)
3. Tallis's Videte Miraculum...making one realise how excellent Parrott's Taverner Choir was.

[Master Jacques]

Such a pleasure this morning to hear Mathias's delicious Celtic Dances popping up, albeit in the somewhat antiquated Arthur Davison/Lyrita version. There's a better-recorded performance (rec. 2009), just as well played, from the NYOW under Owain Arwel Hughes, on the Diversions (= Divine Art) label. It is coupled with a neat RVW London Symphony:

https://www.amazon.co.uk/gp/product/B001PSJT6C

[AuntDaisy]

Steven Isserlis' Twitter comment seems appropriate for this Sunday Morning thread...

Steven Isserlis @StevenIsserlis
Strangest experience just now: I switched on the radio and heard the Dvorak cello concerto. Right from the opening tutti, I thought: 'This isn't me - but I agree with a lot of it.' I asked my partner to look it up. 'Oh dear - it's someone you don't like,' she said. 'Who?' 'You!'
11:32 AM · Mar 9, 2025 · 16.1K Views

Today's "Lunchtime Concert" (as was) Wigmore Hall recital looks good.

[smittims]

People can be notoriously unable to identify themeselves on recordings. My father was an early tape-recording enthusiast and recorded his aunt telling dialect stories. On hearing it played back she said 'That's never me. Your machine's out of flunter!'

[Ein Heldenleben]

Steven Isserlis' Twitter comment seems appropriate for this Sunday Morning thread...





Today's "Lunchtime Concert" (as was) Wigmore Hall recital looks good.

Stephen Kovacevich was listening to piece on the radio. ( possibly Brahms ) and thought to himself “ lovely… one simply doesn’t hear playing with such freedom these days .” Turned out to be one Stephen Kovacevich.

[Serial_Apologist]

People can be notoriously unable to identify themeselves on recordings. My father was an early tape-recording enthusiast and recorded his aunt telling dialect stories. On hearing it played back she said 'That's never me. Your machine's out of flunter!'

Simlar experience of family members replaying a reel-to-reel of home footage from when I was 16 - the f's for th's, ch's for t's that they forgot to elocute out of my speech patterns when they wanted me for Purcell anthem choral solos. One just accepted what surrounded one as the norm - the surprisingly broad Teesside vowels Mum lost in later years as she and Dad involved themselves more and more in local Tory politics!

[Ein Heldenleben]

Simlar experience of family members replaying a reel-to-reel of home footage from when I was 16 - the f's for th's, ch's for t's that they forgot to elocute out of my speech patterns when they wanted me for Purcell anthem choral solos. One just accepted what surrounded one as the norm - the surprisingly broad Teesside vowels Mum lost in later years as she and Dad involved themselves more and more in local Tory politics!

Interesting phenomenon that. Most people listening back say their voice is higher pitched than they hear . And they’re right - it’s because their skull puts in resonances making your ear “hear” it bassier . It’s also why partly why presenters always want the Bass lifted and never reduced. That and cut through.
I read somewhere that female TV and Radio presenters have voices that are bassier than average. Some are almost as deep as male voices.

[Serial_Apologist]

Interesting phenomenon that. Most people listening back say their voice is higher pitched than they hear . And they’re right - it’s because their skull puts in resonances making your ear “hear” it bassier . It’s also why partly why presenters always want the Bass lifted and never reduced. That and cut through.
I read somewhere that female TV and Radio presenters have voices that are bassier than average. Some are almost as deep as male voices.

Hence the to-all-intents-and-purposes "more authoritative Margaret Thatcher" phenomenon!

At church, Mum would sing in the same register as the males. "I reckon you must be a natural tenor", Dad would tell her, "not a tenor-baritone, like myself"!

I'm trying to remember a composer - it might have been John Tavener - who spoke of needing someone capable of singing half an octave lower than anyone else in the male choir for whom he had composed a work which used voices to simulate the low reverberating sounds of Buddhist chanting. An acquaintance told hm "We have the very man you need". It turned out that the man in question was a chain smoker!

[smittims]

I believe Thatcher modelled her official voice on Glenda Jackson's portrayal of Elizabeth I in the 1970s Tv series Elizabeth R.

In the same way, we had a new boss in the 1990s who was clearly putting on an act, floppy silk hanky in his top pocket , deliberately vague aristo manner . I didn't understand tillI I saw Robert Hardy as Siegfried Farnon in All Creatures Great and Small.

[LMcD]

I believe Thatcher modelled her official voice on Glenda Jackson's portrayal of Elizabeth I in the 1970s Tv series Elizabeth R.

Rather ironic that Glenda Jackson went on to become a Labour MP.

[smittims]

There were three pleasant surprises this morning: a complete Haydn symphony (admittedly one of his shortest, but still...) and then a short piano piece by Lennox Berkeley, a composer very much out of fashion on today's Radio3 , despite the presence of his son as a regular broadcaster. And then , wonder of wonders, a historic recording! (Detroit Symphony/Paul Paray in the Hollander overture).

[smittims]

I complained to the BBC about their new habit of announcing a whole work and then playing only one movement, and their reply, after taking two weeks to consider it, is I think a masterpiece of 'wriggling out' of a tight corner.

They say 'only the adagio was broadcast, rather than the complete work. This is reflected in the official programme listing... while the introduction and closing announcement referred to the full composition, these were intended to identify the original work from which the excerpt was drawn, rather than to suggest that all three movements would be included in the broadcast'

A pretty feeble excuse, I think. In fact they did say they were playing the Toccata, adagio and fugue, which is the whole work. I think they don't really care whether or not what they say makes any sense any more. As far as I'm concerned, they've virtually admitted they're a lot of duplicitous what-dyou'call'ems.

[oddoneout]

I complained to the BBC about their new habit of announcing a whole work and then playing only one movement, and their reply, after taking two weeks to consider it, is I think a masterpiece of 'wriggling out' of a tight corner.

They say 'only the adagio was broadcast, rather than the complete work. This is reflected in the official programme listing... while the introduction and closing announcement referred to the full composition, these were intended to identify the original work from which the excerpt was drawn, rather than to suggest that all three movements would be included in the broadcast'

A pretty feble excuse, I think. In fact they did say they were playing the Toccata, adagio and fugue, which is the whole work. I think they don't really care whether or not what they say makes any sense any more. As far as I'm concerned, they've virtually admitted they're a lot of duplicitous what-dyou'call'ems.

But they've just made it even more obvious that accuracy isn't a consideration by admitting to the opening and closing announcements. All that is needed when those announcements are made is to say "here is [insert movement reference] from[insert title of work]" at the beginning and "that was [movement ref] from [title of work]". That would also help those who want to find a piece they have heard which is part of a longer work to locate it. Perhaps the BBC isn't aware that folks can be confused by the fact that popular classical 'tunes' don't necessarily appear as tracks on an album as they are used to, although I suppose the rise of the likes of Alexa and AI will make that go away. The chance to fulfill the inform and educate part of the remit, in this case the fact that a well known tune may be part of a longer work that the listener might just possibly like to try, if they only knew about it, evidently doesn't signify.

[LMcD]

I complained to the BBC about their new habit of announcing a whole work and then playing only one movement, and their reply, after taking two weeks to consider it, is I think a masterpiece of 'wriggling out' of a tight corner.

They say 'only the adagio was broadcast, rather than the complete work. This is reflected in the official programme listing... while the introduction and closing announcement referred to the full composition, these were intended to identify the original work from which the excerpt was drawn, rather than to suggest that all three movements would be included in the broadcast'

A pretty feeble excuse, I think. In fact they did say they were playing the Toccata, adagio and fugue, which is the whole work. I think they don't really care whether or not what they say makes any sense any more. As far as I'm concerned, they've virtually admitted they're a lot of duplicitous what-dyou'call'ems.

I think you're right - in fact, I'd go so far as to say I know you are! This probably also explains the '80 years of spying in Cheltenham' teaser for tonight's FMiMN.