2MBS-FM Classical Blog

These days, with CDs and easy downloads, so that when one really wants to listen to music one can chose then when and where, how often do we really listen to music on radio? One of the problems of scheduling music – and it’s common to classical music stations throughout the world – is whether listeners, or many listeners, actually use radio as a medium for serious listening, or mainly as background music. Some people enjoy having classical music on, quietly, while they’re working, or rather louder when they’re driving, but no longer carefully look through the radio guides marking up concerts they actually want to hear. The announcement of a broadcast of a rare and perhaps unrecorded work, or a very new one, may be sought out by some; but the impression is that for most people broadcast music is mainly for having on while doing something else.

This is actually serious stuff. Apart from the fact that it perhaps cheapens the music of Mozart or Beethoven or Brahms to treat it just as wallpaper, agreeable background noise, how should programmers at stations like 2MBS react? Should they be saying ‘No Shostakovich quartets in the afternoon – it upsets the accountants; Bartok interferes with the thought processes of office workers, so cut it out’? Should we in other words only broadcast the most melodious and unadventurous music, which works as background noise? Almost everyone would (one hopes) say ‘in theory, no’. But in practise?

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In case you’ve never heard of it - and I wouldn’t be surprised if you haven’t since it’s only broadcast on the 5th Sunday of the month, should there be one - Pet’s Choice is a program whimsically dedicated to the musical requests of listeners’ pets. It’s dangerously popular among the furry cognoscenti, who pester their owners to write in requesting gems like The Flight of the Bumblebee or excerpts from The Carnival of the Animals.

Unusually for 2MBS, Pet’s Choice is hosted by two presenters, Mike Smith and Debbie Scholem, who fully exploit the most moth-eaten banter in the repertory on the subject of animals and music. It draws a swag of favourable comments from listeners (prompted no doubt by their four-legged charges) including Doug Anderson, media critic of the SMH who recommended it in his column recently. Clearly programs like this strike a chord: one correspondent wrote, “Listeners want and need more ‘personal contact’ with presenters, and nowhere have I found this better done… than through the interplay between Mike and Debbie on Pet’s Choice.”

But popular appeal does not guarantee permanence at 2MBS, and some fear that perversely the program may be in danger of being ‘put to sleep’ (or only to be heard every February 29th). Already there are moves afoot to restrict it to one presenter. I suspect the control freaks at the Puritan Tendency have got it in for Pet’s Choice not only for its lack of pretension and gravitas, but dare I say it, because Mike and Debbie appear to be having too much fun by half!

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Did you have a happy Rieu-mas? Are you looking forward to a Happy New Rieu? He seemed, didn’t he, to be everywhere during the festive season. The only TV channels on which that handsome, smiling face did not appear were the Weather Channel and the Cooking Channel (and since he travels with his own team of chefs, one wouldn’t have been surprised to find someone giving out the recipe for Turkey Fritters á la Rieu).

Well, you might say, he’s only making himself a living, isn’t he? - and doing so, clearly, by giving enormous pleasure to an enormous number of people. So what is it about him which makes it imperative for so many of us to leap to the off-switch at the first glimpse of the opening credits? ‘Well, you’re a man,’ said one of 2MBS’s most respected female presenters, accusingly, when I announced my intention of not rushing to buy tickets for Rieu’s Sydney concert. But it’s not that, is it? His enormous audiences seem, if TV is to be trusted, to be split about half-and-half, men and women. So though unquestionably a proportion of them would be happy to tighten the strings on his bow, his sexual charisma can’t be responsible for all that adulation.

So can it be – perish the thought – that he is actually a good musician? There is no good reason to doubt that; but so was Liberace (there are surprisingly good recordings made at the very start of his career), and though Mr Rieu has some way to go before he assumes the spangles and faux diamonds, on the basis of some of his spectaculars (choirs of ‘little angels’ and the ladies of the orchestra dressed in the manner of the late Marie Antoinette) it may not be a very long way. All the same, are his extramusical antics really enough to justify the way in which so many of us shudder and sneer, recalling the comedian’s old cry of ‘Pass me the sick-bag, Norman’? One listens to Kreisler playing some old slushy encore and thinks ‘such taste’, ‘such finesse’, ‘such beauty of tone’ – but one listens to Rieu playing the same thing and thinks ‘over-blown sentimental crowd-pleaser.’

Could it be that by switching off quite so quickly we’re just showing ourselves to be downright slap-up snobs? What gives us the right to put down André Rieu because his music pleases more people? Why should we turn up the lip at a man because he contrives to please most of the people most of the time?

Snobbery? Well, is it?

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I have a confession. I can’t remember the last time I saw the Sydney Symphony.

Last Friday I attended the Sydney Symphony in seats close enough that I could see the facial expressions of the performers and the conductor – and I don’t remember ever seeing Gelmetti at the helm before.

With the human condition tied to visual stimuli (over 70% of communication is through visual means) I often close the eyelids at concerts to allow the aural experience to take over. But not last Friday. With Gelmetti’s enthusiastic whole-body gestures and genuine enjoyment evident all over his face, I thought closing my eyes might miss seeing his large frame in full flight falling off the conductor’s platform (apologies for not using the proper musical name – whatever it may be!) and rolling into the first row of the stalls.

It’s contagious. Being able to see the love, enthusiasm and enjoyment in the faces of the performers and conductor just adds to the experience. I did close the eyes but much less than usual – in all a very enjoyable night out!

Are you an eyes open or eyes shut patron? Has a conductor’s physical presence ever been more enticing than the music?

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We all know from experience that your mood affects your enjoyment of music – you know when you’ve had one of those annoying, highly frustrating, totally painful days at the office that it can be hard to ‘get in an appreciative mood’ for a concert that night.

Now there’s empirical proof that the greater the disparity between your emotional state and the emotion the composer/performer was trying to express – the greater the dislike.

So you now have an ‘official’ reason for a couple of glasses of bubbly (inducing a happy-go-lucky mood!) before a concert of light-hearted, uplifting music and a great excuse to be a grumble-bum before a dark, dramatic musical evening – you’re just aligning your emotional state to the music’s for greater appreciation! Could be a fantastic excuse (sorry, reason) for a whole host of behaviours! (though I can’t think of a single thing I could possibly do to help me ‘appreciate’ Phillip Glass’ compositions – ugh!)

For more details about the research from UNSW music psychologist Emery Schubert, go to http://www.unsw.edu.au/news/pad/articles/2007/jul/Music_for_dags.html

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So what do you think Michael Nyman, Le Corbusier, Gustav Holst, Gerald Hoffnung, Philip Glass and Barrie Kosky have in common? Yes, they are/were all creative people at the top of their respective fields, but more significantly, they all have/had a penchant for ostentatiously round spectacles. This fact, and this fact alone in my humble opinion, is the secret of their success. All the more so, I might add, given the paucity of Round Spectacle Shops. You try walking into Paris Miki in Chatswood of a Saturday afternoon and demanding a pair of Corb’s finest on Medibank, and you’ll be shown the door (well, they don’t actually have one, but you know what I mean) in next to no time.

So where can they be obtained? If mainstream opticians don’t stock them maybe one should look to art institution gift shops. Anyone seen any Kreative Kits comprising round spectacles, pipes and bow ties on sale at the Opera House or AGNSW shops recently? Answers, on a postcard (don’t trust those spammers) to me at 2MBS-FM, 76 Chandos Street, St.Leonards, NSW 2065.

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With the federal election campaigning now in full force, there are copious amounts of promised money being thrown around by the major parties.

Hospitals, schools, roads, telecommunications, environment – all worthwhile, all promised funding (even if you might need to wait till after the next election term to receive it). But what about the Arts in Australia – where are the billion dollar promises to provide more opportunities for expression through music, song, film, paint, word, speech, and movement?

I mean, we can’t all express ourselves with a tennis racquet and a soccer ball, and for some the idea of ten hours of cricket would be torture; but a day of fine music would be total bliss.

I suppose it’s all in the government-of-the-day’s positioning of what is an Australian. From the amount of copy in the citizenship handbook, Australians are four times more interested in sport than the Arts - if you’re not does that make you less of an Australian? From reading the handbook you could be forgiven for thinking the small (they list only six people) Australian arts community ceased in 1943 with Arthur Streeton’s death – but what about post World War II? Isn’t Dame Joan worthy of a mention? Or Richard Bonynge? Or Simone Young? Or Ian Munro? Or Richard Tognetti? Or (insert your internationally recognised artist here) – maybe it’s a posthumous thing? (or, more cynically, you can’t fit any more in just one column in the handbook)

So go on Kev and Johnnie, start a more balanced view of Australian Arts and let’s see a promised funding war breakout for the Arts! (just going outside now to watch the flying pink elephants).

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Last night I had the pleasure of attending a very gratifying performance by a talented orchestra under an exceptionally talented conductor and an exceptionally talented pianist.

I’m certain I wasn’t the only one (male or female) to be distracted by the plunging neckline of her dress - and not just when she took her bows. Every grand chord was accompanied by the vibrato of quivering mammary tissue; every journey to the high treble and low bass registers of the keyboard was an exercise in courting a Janet Jackson style wardrobe malfunction.

Of course she would not be the first in any profession to use physical attributes to enhance appeal. But I do wish, personally, that the performance and the music could have been presented free from the added value elements.

Any thoughts?

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We recently attended the Fine Music Aria Awards at the Conservatorium of Music. The format of the evening – more music performances than awards and the high probability of copious amounts of clapping – meant we chose to bring our three-year old as well (her clapping is world standard!)

It was a lovely night and daughter enjoyed the music for the whole hour or so (the ACO was the favourite) behaved beautifully and didn’t talk during the performances.

What we found strange was the ‘dagger’ looks from some of our fellow attendees. Whether it was scorn for her being up a little late or general scorn that we would think to include her in the evening, I find it strange that the arts community continually bleats about how hard it is to encourage younger audiences yet would disapprove of her attending such an event.

Maybe this is how to get younger audiences involved; let them experience live classical music and jazz along with the toddler standbys like The Wiggles and Hi-5. Fine music then becomes an accepted part of their musical world and grows with them.

And if you have a chance to see the expression on the face of a small child when they first hear live violins or live opera or live ‘any music’, you’ll understand the impression it really does make.

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So Dead Man Walking has ended its Sydney season. Did you see it?

Is this entertainment? Rape, murder, incarceration and finally legalised murder. Why spend a small fortune and a perfectly good evening looking these issues in the eye?

Did you enjoy the music, the singing, the pecs and go home to a good nights sleep? Did you avoid seeing it because you really wanted a fun night out?

Then why do audiences accept and return to performances of works like the St John Passion (JSBach) with it’s images of flagellation and crucifixion, a Stabat Mater, or operas like Aida and Salome where we have come to expect and accept gruesome deaths as part of entertainment?

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