Classic F M Hall Of Fame Aaaaaaaaagghhhhhh !!!!!

[joggerjayne]

What the ...

Lark Ascending is Nr.1 again in the Classic FM Hall Of Fame.

Come on !! ... Recount !!

Okay, it's not a "terrible" tune, but ... Number One ?

Really ??

To make things worse, I've just seen that Stephen Fry, like me, thinks it should be Tannhauser.

Of COURSE it should be Tannhauser.

Now I suppose we're going to be inundated with Ralph bleeding Vaughan bleeding Williams for another year.

Aaaaaaaaagghhhhhh !!!!!!!!!!!!!

[joggerjayne]

CFM are quite big on movie themes, aren't they, C2

I think you have to allow them in. They are written for a specific purpose, ie the movie, but then lots of classical works were written for specific celebrations of this that and the other.

Paganini wrote music just to show off his own violin virtuosity, and make money. He asked Berlioz to write some music for him and, when he thought it didn't show him off enough, they had a big bust up.

[joggerjayne]

Of course that doesn't qualify, DT

Although I can't really explain why.

[joggerjayne]

I'm drinking a glass of whisky.

Just mentioning it, coz it's a really unusual drink for me.

[DTCwordfan]

Seadogg will be most upset....

[seadogg]

Of its genre it's rather good, so is "I'm a Salty Dog" which Ottilie Paterson used to sing with Chris Barber In Humphrey Lyttletons Jazz Club in the 50's. I wouldn't subsume either of 'em under Classical Music though.

[joggerjayne]

I suppose we all have an idea in our heads of what we count as classical, but it's quite hard to actually define.

[DTCwordfan]

Larks Ascending ain't classical - it's Beeb pseudo-pop.

[joggerjayne]

Good argument, DT

[gingejbee]

Does anyone else find the output of Classic FM very repetitive....the same few ads, the same limited choice of "tunes", the same bland chummy links and , of course, the words "Classic FM" repeated over and over and over.......

[seadogg]

Last Friday's "Afternoon on 3" 0n iPlayer has a sympathetic rendering of Rach 2
btw.

[joggerjayne]

gjb ... it's true, they do play the same selection a lot.

I guess that's all part of their ethos of making classical music a bit more "pop".

[joggerjayne]

I'm not sure that I have a preferred Rach 2

There's a clip of Hélène Grimaud playing it, on YouTube. It's hard to argue with anything Hélène G does.

[joggerjayne]

I'm surprised The Blue Danube only made the 90s.

The Top 20 feature thing like ... Soule's Elder Scrolls, Kirkhope's Banjo Kazooie, Bruch's 1st Violin Concerto, and Jenkins's The Armed Man ...

... and The Blue Danube only made 96?

I wouldn't want to hear it played by Andre Rieu, but I can't believe The Blue Danube is not more popular. If everyone heard the V Phil play it at the Vienna New Year's Day Concert, I'm sure it would have got more votes.