Walter Meyer <[log in to unmask]> wrote:

>If so, I must confess to feeling sheepish and humbled on learning that
>[BBC Radio 3's] programming, which I had thought imaginative and innovative,
>might actually be an example of "dumbing down".  Maybe, because of the time
>zone difference I would wind up listening when its broadcasts were different
>from those by which its local listeners would judge it, but as one who
>thought himself familiar w/ most classical "war horses", "chestnuts", and
>"top 40s, 50s, or 100s) I discovered a large number of new and unfamiliar
>works being broadcast.

Have you caught any of the 'Through the night' programmes? Not that Radio
3 doesn't broadcast new and unfamiliar music at other times.  I have had
reason over the last year or so to be very grateful for the all-night
vigil.  Quite a lot of the music comes from other broadcasting companies
(can anyone explain why so much of it is performed by Canadians?) There
are certain minor composers whom the programmers are especially fond of -
Clerambault and Hellendaal are two that spring to mind (useless fact: I
was married in the church in whose graveyard the latter is buried).  And
I've heard Strauss' first horn concerto at least twice.  Most appropriate
piece of music I've ever heard on 'Through the Night': Nessun Dorma, of
course!

As for 'How I Started', can't really give much of an answer.  There was
classical music around in moderate quantities at work and school and I
gravitated to it.

Virginia Knight
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http://www.ilrt.bris.ac.uk/~ggvhk/virginia.html