Jury's out on 'new' Radio 2 by Arthur Kaptainis
Source : Montreal Gazette
Bland content of CBC's classical radio show is matched by the delivery
September 3, 2008
Yesterday was called the official launch day of the new Radio 2, even though classical music had essentially been banished from the CBC evening schedule in March 2007.
Now the four shows that used to span the daylight hours have been tossed overboard in favour of two adult-contemporary mix emissions (Radio 2 Morning and Radio 2 Drive are the imaginative titles) and a sprawling midday classical program dubbed (with comparable creativity) Tempo.
Julie Nesrallah is our host, from 10 to 3 - the time best suited to a genre of music supposed by our new, culture-free, diversity-hugging CBC executives to be of interest only to shut-ins. To judge by the inaugural show, the content is firmly grounded in the Three Bs: bland, bland and bland.
Whether the playlist or the announcer is more to blame is a vexed question. Erik Satie's Gymnopédies, Gabriel Fauré's Pavane, the finale of Bach's Italian Concerto are some of the Top-40 delights to which we were subjected. To hear Luciano Pavarotti's rendition of Puccini's Nessun Dorma in the first 15 minutes was particularly discouraging. If the most familiar of all tenor arias gets airtime, why not find a version by someone other than the most familiar of all tenors?
Of course, predictable programming can be redeemed by fresh commentary. This is what we got from Nesrallah on Nessun Dorma: "I just think that is so thrilling." About a Handel pastiche by the pianist Gabriela Montero: "There is only one word to describe what she does: Amazing." Well, if there is only one word, thank heaven Nesrallah found it.
We might have expected more from this Ottawa native and McGill graduate, once a mezzo-soprano of promise. Might a singer not be expected to say something about Pavarotti's style or the lyrical appeal of the aria? Maybe a word about the opera, Tuandot?
None of this egghead rot on the new Radio 2. Even Handel's Ombra mai fu - a hit that was probably in Nesrallah's repertoire - passed without comment.
The performer in this case was Lorraine Hunt Lieberson, an American mezzo-soprano who rightly enjoys a cult following. Taken at age 52 by cancer, she was awarded a Grammy posthumously for a recording of music written by her husband, Peter Lieberson. Interesting? I think so, but nothing about performers is said on Tempo. Many are not even identified.
Nor does comment about the music itself rise above the banal. Regarding Mozart's Symphony No. 41, we hear the old refrain about the hardship of the composer's final months. The most compelling point to be made about Saint-Saëns's Symphony No. 3? Clearly that the theme of its finale was appropriated by the movie Babe.
Tempo is underproduced in other, basic ways. There were periodic stumbles that could have, and should have, been dubbed over in retakes. Nesrallah identified the Orchestre Métropolitain as the "Montro ... Metropolitan Orchestra" - a rare case of a double fault, as she tripped over a translation almost never used.
It appears that we will also have to deal with periodic house ads for evening shows of no interest to classical listeners. It does not help that the announcer sounds like a light-night television pitchman for kitchen knives.
All this is rough justice after one hearing. Obviously the show, and its host, have time to improve. But it was instructive to listen last Friday to a rebroadcast of the first installment of DiscDrive, one of the daytime CBC shows eliminated to the disgust of the network's faithful listeners. Host Jurgen Gothe eventually developed an earthier voice and a more spontaneous sense of humour. But his genius was apparent in 1985.
Tempo will get better. To keep even a fraction of the CBC midday audience, it must.
© Montreal Gazette
Now the four shows that used to span the daylight hours have been tossed overboard in favour of two adult-contemporary mix emissions (Radio 2 Morning and Radio 2 Drive are the imaginative titles) and a sprawling midday classical program dubbed (with comparable creativity) Tempo.
Julie Nesrallah is our host, from 10 to 3 - the time best suited to a genre of music supposed by our new, culture-free, diversity-hugging CBC executives to be of interest only to shut-ins. To judge by the inaugural show, the content is firmly grounded in the Three Bs: bland, bland and bland.
Whether the playlist or the announcer is more to blame is a vexed question. Erik Satie's Gymnopédies, Gabriel Fauré's Pavane, the finale of Bach's Italian Concerto are some of the Top-40 delights to which we were subjected. To hear Luciano Pavarotti's rendition of Puccini's Nessun Dorma in the first 15 minutes was particularly discouraging. If the most familiar of all tenor arias gets airtime, why not find a version by someone other than the most familiar of all tenors?
Of course, predictable programming can be redeemed by fresh commentary. This is what we got from Nesrallah on Nessun Dorma: "I just think that is so thrilling." About a Handel pastiche by the pianist Gabriela Montero: "There is only one word to describe what she does: Amazing." Well, if there is only one word, thank heaven Nesrallah found it.
We might have expected more from this Ottawa native and McGill graduate, once a mezzo-soprano of promise. Might a singer not be expected to say something about Pavarotti's style or the lyrical appeal of the aria? Maybe a word about the opera, Tuandot?
None of this egghead rot on the new Radio 2. Even Handel's Ombra mai fu - a hit that was probably in Nesrallah's repertoire - passed without comment.
The performer in this case was Lorraine Hunt Lieberson, an American mezzo-soprano who rightly enjoys a cult following. Taken at age 52 by cancer, she was awarded a Grammy posthumously for a recording of music written by her husband, Peter Lieberson. Interesting? I think so, but nothing about performers is said on Tempo. Many are not even identified.
Nor does comment about the music itself rise above the banal. Regarding Mozart's Symphony No. 41, we hear the old refrain about the hardship of the composer's final months. The most compelling point to be made about Saint-Saëns's Symphony No. 3? Clearly that the theme of its finale was appropriated by the movie Babe.
Tempo is underproduced in other, basic ways. There were periodic stumbles that could have, and should have, been dubbed over in retakes. Nesrallah identified the Orchestre Métropolitain as the "Montro ... Metropolitan Orchestra" - a rare case of a double fault, as she tripped over a translation almost never used.
It appears that we will also have to deal with periodic house ads for evening shows of no interest to classical listeners. It does not help that the announcer sounds like a light-night television pitchman for kitchen knives.
All this is rough justice after one hearing. Obviously the show, and its host, have time to improve. But it was instructive to listen last Friday to a rebroadcast of the first installment of DiscDrive, one of the daytime CBC shows eliminated to the disgust of the network's faithful listeners. Host Jurgen Gothe eventually developed an earthier voice and a more spontaneous sense of humour. But his genius was apparent in 1985.
Tempo will get better. To keep even a fraction of the CBC midday audience, it must.
© Montreal Gazette
