Mikael Rasmusson said:

>I wasn't to impressed by Andrew Davies and the cellist (Paul ....) I missed
>the Walton program, but the Britten program was very good with Sir Colin
>Davies, Ian Bostridge and Roger ......?

I saw the Belshazzar feast program.  I thought it was excellent.  So
interesting to have the background and historical context to a work.

>Don't you get the feeling that a certain "major" composer is missing, or
>have I missed something? Who is responsible for the selection? Michael
>Berkeley?

It's always a bone of contention who the BBC pick for these things.  I
was a bit naffed that they excluded Haydn and Brahms from their master
composers series recently.

The same thing happened at the Proms where there was hardly a work by Haydn
for years.  Then suddenly they featured loads of him in successive seasons.
I can only conclude that someone must have complained.

Generally, the BBC are very conservative in what they select.  I reckon
it's a bit boring featuring all the Beethoven symphonies each year in
the proms.  But fair do's the programmes are more catholic this year.

Also (I hope I don't get in trouble for saying this) the works in
Masterworks series are not really mainstream.

It probably is Berkley he seems to be behind most things.

Bob Draper
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