Oops — sorry, Sir Edward
Just received this postcard of Elgar from a friend, in response to my post on the ECO’s Elgar concert (where I described the Nursery Suite as ‘fairly fluffy stuff’)…
He also says:
The ‘Nursery Suite’ was almost the first classical music that I ever knew — from the BBC afternoon test cards in the early 1960s. The other pieces were ‘España’, ‘Valse Triste’, a waltz from ‘Eugene Onegin’ … and … the ‘Rosenkavalier’ waltzes…
Thanks, Grahame! So you never can tell what’s going to hook you in.
Dear BBC (and everyone else), please, don’t ‘dumb down’ — keep scattering the seeds of classical music and there might at least be a few new listeners in future generations. Otherwise the entire cultural heritage of our civilisation will just dribble away before anyone notices.
Tags: BBC, civilisation, Elgar
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October 22, 2007 at 4:33 pm
Jonathan
Your plea to the BBC to keep scattering the seeds of classical music made me laugh. I am a member of a choir, here in Ontario Canada, and most of the other members are a wee bit more highbrow than myself. (at 43, i’m also one of the youngest members, which is sad)
Anyway. One evening, during the break, we were discussing our first exposure to classical music. You can imagine the looks I received, when I told the other ladies that mine came via Bugs Bunny cartoons, and Gilligan’s island.
Those seeds should continue to be scattered, whether through public radio, or cartoons.
Love your musings, Jonathan