A good week for listeners as Afternoon on 3 regularly provided a most effective antidote to the prevailing inclement weather.   I particularly enjoyed a rare outing, nowadays, for Berlioz's Requiem with Donald Runnicles - his return to our shores eagerly anticipated - conducting the BPO and Atlanta Chorus.  This was complemented by Suk's Asrael Symphony, Suisse Romande Orchestra/Jiri Belohlavek - themes of life and death in both works.

A sprightly Il Trovatore on Tuesday afternoon, if not the finest four singers in the world.

A stark performance of Strauss's Elektra with the VPO, conducted by Herbert von Karajan, in 1964.   A reminder of past glories with Astrid Varnay (Elektra), Martha Modl (Klytemnestra), Eberhard Waechter (Orestes) and James King (Aegisthus).   

The week has just ended with Bruckner's Sym No 9, Barenboim/ Berlin Staatskapelle.    A combination and a form indeed.

Performance on Three.    A concluding and rather variable Mahler cycle by LSO/Valery Gergiev but last night's "live" performance from St Paul's Cathedral was stunning and the starting time of 20.00 hrs gave me a sense of the immediacy of the occasion and even the delayed start had its own frisson!   So, please, Mr Wright,  let common sense prevail and schedule COTW at 19.00 hrs and let us settle down at a more convenient time, an hour later, for the evening concert, preferably live.   Last night's post-performance discussion would also be a welcome innovation.

Altogether, an outstanding week on Radio 3 and I'm only disappointed by the lack of discussion on this MB when another bout of internecine warfare took precedence but, PLEASE, enough already, eh?   

Dear Stanley, I just love the Berlioz Requiem and agree totally about the starting time of Concerts, my problem is that working full time I can never seem to catch up with R3's output.

I also agree with you re discussion of broadcasts, but does no-one listen to R3 anymore?  Looking at the Rajah figures it seems not a lot do, certainly very little is posted here.

One of my "must listen to" used to be CE (because on Wednesdays I was the only one on The Third Floor Executive Suite  ).  Since it moved to Sunday I have rarely heard it because too much competes for listen again air time.  Still, come September it'll be back on Wednesday.

Do you have the Humphrey Carpenter book about R3 "The Envy of the World?"  Very interesting.

Actually, I would have to disagree with John W.  This MB was not set up as a sanctuary for Waffledom but as an alternative MB for R3 listeners after the draconian measures by the Mods on the official R3 MBs.  The fact that few now comment on R3 output I think reflects the dwindling number of listeners.

 Thank you, George, for your comments.   The delayed start was due to limited doors accessibility and the bottleneck created by too many people trying to get in those which were open.   Petroc Trelawny covered very well with additional comment on the symphony.  The post-performance discussion also included comments by guests, including Edward Seckerson, who had attended the performance on the previous evening and could confidently discussed the points you also made about the problem with the resonant acoustics, compared to what he heard on the broadcast last night.   A quite different experience.

Yes, indeed, I also recall a performance of the Berlioz Requiem at St Paul's and, unless my memory is playing up (again), I seem to recall Bernstein as the conductor!

Anna and John.   Wasn't it Capulet who rebuked Juliet,   "You'll set a cock-a-hoop, you'll be the one."  No, Anna, it WASN'T Mrs Ogmore -Pritchard:  "Tell me your tasks, in order."   She could retort, "In the garden - or - In the woodshed, if you please."

Anyhow, I had set MY tasks for the evening.    (i)   Record Nuppen's BBC 4 documentary, "We Want the Light: the Jews and German Music", at 20.00 hrs, before making a further recording on Wilhelm Furtwangler, "Taking Sides" on BBC at 23.35 hrs tonight.   This would leave me free to listen to Performance on 3/ Mahler 9, at the clumsy time of 19.00 hrs.   Please, BBC 3, your revised schedule in February 2007 has not attracted more listeners.   Programme the evening's highlight at 19.30 or 20.00 which should prove a more attractive proposition and this will be even more popular if you favour "live" performances.   Later studio broadcasts cast a dead-hand over the occasion.

I made the mistake of having a quick shufti at the MB and read your joint response.   Fatal!   I had to get my copy of "The Envy of the World" off-the-shelves whilst feverishly searching for an attractive 2 audio cassette casing for Scotland's Music (1992) produced by Linn Records.  At this time, R3 also did a supplementary series on Scottish music (Saturday afternoon?) and I doubt whether they would commission such an enterprise today. The music of Robert Carver, Robert Johnston and James Lauder was given a good airing.  The gap of 15 years has, in many ways,  detrimentally changed the direction of the network towards a Classic FM touchy-feely blandness and this is now being carbon copied by Radio Times.

My eye caught a delicious anecdote in "Envy of the World" (1996) by Humphrey Carpenter.   He spoke about Patricia Hughes's flawless style at the microphone and contrasted this with the eccentricity of another member of the announcing team - a refreshing contrast to today's presenter babble - 'The divine Tom Crowe' said Cormac Rigby.   Hans Keller also admired his humour.    He noted that one morning in June 1971, Crowe had opened up Radio 3 with the remark:  "Good morning to you.  It's seven o'clock, I'm afraid."      To which Keller commented: "Inspired."

Most people at TOP seem to have found Gergiev's Mahler 9 tonight rather awful, but I must say my experience of it was far from that. I found it quite amazingly alive and felt I heard so much in the music that I hadn't before. It began in a chaotic, rough-edged sort of way with nothing like the serenity or beauty say of Barbirolli, but nonetheless it seemed to go to a fantastic place full of bleakness and cosmic breezes, and of futility and creation.
 
Perhaps it is not considered very Mahlerian conducting, but  even though it is deemed to be a mess by people who probably know it better than I do, it was for me a vibrant and beautiful mess, pretty much feeling like it was powered directly by the chemical reactions at the heart of the sky-sized event that this symphony seems to be. I felt I was aware of every thorn on every briar and the almost dreamy countersubject-like overlapping of ideas all very connected to its epic-ness. I am always very grateful when I hear such a performance even though it is clearly poorly considered by some.

The Mahler 10 in the same concert did not however quite plug into my vitals in the same way, although I enjoyed it.

[edited for a late night spelling of Barbirolli]

I caught the end of the scherzo of Gergiev's Mahler 5 earlier in the week- it struck me as competent but phoned in-the last movement is a tasteful romp, the slow movement has al manner of associaitions, and none of that seemed to come across. He also sped up the last page or so of the scherzo for no discernible musical reason at all, a bit of a hackneyed trick. Years ago I remember a cool and evocative Prokofiev 6 at the Proms with Rotterdam Phil, and I wonder what's happened-does he have the air of a weary showman now perhaps? KInd of ironic for Mahler if so.
My gig of the week was the Maria Schneider Orchestra at the Barbecue Centre-a woman whose conducting style evokes the Beatles line '...Changing my life with a wave of her hand'. Intricate subtle writing for 'big band' with the flexibility and dynamic range of a baroque orchestra. Entirely her  originals of which 'The Pretty Road', reminscences of Minnesota childhood , and 'Cerulian Dawn (Ithink that's right-birdsong commuting from Amazon to Central Park en  masse) particularly brilliant. Soloists all top notch notably 2 trombonists and  Ingrid Jensen, trumpet/ flugel.

Last year, I imposed a moratorium on listening to my collection of Mahler recordings but it was short lived when I heard Abbado's performance of Symphony no 3 at The Proms and this, in turn, prompted me to get his DVD recordings of the symphonies with the Lucerne Festival Orchestra; further stimulated when I read a review of Berlin SK recording of Mahler 9 with Barenboim.  A new cycle began as Zinman and his Tonhalle band also caught my attention.    "Enough, no more..." didn't quite serve my purpose.

However, I was most impressed by the Gergiev/LSO Mahler 8 and totally absorbed by Mahler 9 last night.   Earlier, in the week, I thought that Symphonies 2 and 5 were patchy but still worth hearing.  It's rather like attending yet another production of "Hamlet" - and I've seen several dozen - even in a lacklustre performance, there is always something to engage my attention.   It may be a Laertes, Ophelia, Player King, or Osric; the evening suddenly catches fire; you note a new name.  This week we have almost been given an embarrassment of riches on Radio 3, day and night, and I want to express my appreciation.   My dearest wish is for more of the same with the evening concert presented "live" around 19.30 hrs, or, 20.00 hrs.  Thursday night's broadcast from St Paul's cathedral really was something special in so many ways.      C'mon, Roger Wright, you KNOW it makes sense! 

It was certainly imaginative scheduling in aim. Generically, church  performance imho is an  Object lesson in balance, tempi: acoustic and lovely sonic potential as well as an aesthetic rightness in so much mainstream rep.  Hence it requires a bit of forethought by the conductor. When I was a lucky kid many of the  student bands in which I played had ex-chorister conductors for whom this was in the blood.