classical music.

I have recently discovered a recording by sir Anthony Hopkins (the actor)what I think is a lovely peace of music, which he wrote and composed...all this talent...he has....it is called.. AND THE WALTZ GOES ON,, by the Birmingham city orchestra....if you go on to Amazon music store put in this information and you will be able to listen to a free sample or purchase it.

I was about to say - they rarely play a whole work. So whilst a bit of the Armed man may get played, it really needs to be listened to as a whole.

Dare I admit, I find faure's requiem a bit boring. So many people love it. After a month of rehearsing it I had had enough. DBH doesn't even need the score at all, he has sung it so often.

Sorry, what I meant to say was that they played the Agnus Dei which I almost remembered all the words to! Remember the whole of the Requiem? I wish! Pushed to remember my own name these days!

I find youtube better, because you can plan your own classical concert. And sometimes watch it too if there's a video. Can't always hear it though if you're working in the next room.

CFM played the Faure' Requiem a couple of times last week - by the second time, I had remembered most of the words! Last year they never seem to stop playing The Armed Man. They do tend to repeat things so that you can almost predict, when they announce a composer, which piece they are going to play! As has been said, one man's meat, but why do they think we only want to hear two or three of the most popular of, say, Vaughan Williams' works, and never his wonderful Norfolk Rhapsodies or In the Fenland or his choral pieces. There are only so many times you want to listen to Lark Ascending or The English Folk Song Suite. I'd like to hear them play more English light music.

Karl Jenkins has written some great music.
I love his Ave Verum- I have it on a CD,sung by Bryn Terfel and Simon Keenlysides. It's a beautiful setting.
We are currently learning Philip Ledger's Requiem for a performance on Good Friday. It's a work I'd not heard before but it's lovely- a bit like John Rutter. Maybe Classic Fm could play that one!

I'm just back from one of my choir's Easter concerts. We did Faure's Requiem, and also Karl Jenkins' 'The Armed Man, a mass for peace'.

So many people loved it, and wondered why they had not heard it before. It's certainly wonderful to sing. I can't say I have ever heard it on Classic FM.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=LTktcc4NqO4

In case you would like to listen to something a bit different. It has quite a variety of sound in it, including a moslem call to prayer.

I listen to Classic FM a lot, and agree about the repetition.
The type of music that irritates me is the modernish film music . eg last night we watched 7 Years in Tibet, and the theme music came up - you know it - dumdiddi da, di da daaaa....- and it put me off . It wasn't too invasive though.

I quite like Elgars cello concerto, janerowena, - it's just that they always seem to be playing it. And I like the Elvira Madigan, but Classic fm don't seem to have realised that Mozart wrote 26 other piano concertos. And that they have 2 faster movements, as well as a slow one in the middle.

The worst time is just after they have issued the list of the top one hundred requests - every presenter seems to work through the list in reverse order, so you get the same pieces again and again and again.

That's the problem, isn't it. So many of these are the favourites of so many people, and they are good, it's just that we hear them over and over again and they start to become sound wallpaper.

I don't mind that so much, it was my father's favourite.

They always seem to be playing Elgars cello concerto when I switch it on.

It does get rather repetitive. I remember when Classic FM first came on air, I used to listen in the car on the way home and for days on end they played Eine Kleine Nachsmusik until I thought they really needed to send someone out to the nearest CD shop for more varied stock! I still hear it occasionally, but fortunately not enough to make me hate it.

They played The Piano once too often for my sanity. I had to give myself a break from it. I used to love it! However, after not having listened to it for almost two years, I did think that they are now playing pieces that aren't quite so 'popular'. DBH used to swear that they were playing the same 50 pieces over and again.

I meant to add Mozart's Piano Concert no 21 - the famed Elvira Madigan theme.

Yes, they do like to play the slow movements - rather like Lucia (in Mapp & Lucia) who only played the slow movement of the 'Moonight' Sonata - the rest being beyond her. Really they should play the whole work or nothing in my far from humble opinion.

Still, you are often in for a good tune or two with the second movement - Mozart's Clarinet Concerto or Beethoven's Fifth Symphony for instance.

Hello Teetime, I too am a Classic FM listener. I have it on quietly in the background, all night as I have insomnia. But I sometimes wonder if anyone checks the playlists of music given to the presenters. So many of the pieces come up regularly, the piece that bugs me most is 'Out of Africa'. There are lots more but sadly I can't spell them without a little research. And why is it always the 2nd movement of a concerto they play, why can't we hear the first or last movement. And lastly, I hate those ads where they read the ad at a proper speed then read the terms and conditions so fast you can't possibly hear what is being said. Don't they know how stupid it sounds? But perhaps we're not meant to because its the equivalent of the small print in contracts.

Thank you - I am not brilliant at pitching the first note after a break, so I have to do an awful lot of homework!

Love classical music a lot. Janerowena good luck! Also love to sing, but my skills are poor.

Talking about Simon Rattle, I am singing with this lot again in May

www.oae.co.uk/about/biography/

but I have never managed to sing with them when he is conducting. I would love to. Although a friend tells me he has a bit of a short fuse.

Good to hear many of you tried the Berlin Philharmonika web site. Even though I haven't paid for a full concert I get regular emails with different excerpts to watch and listen to, which I do each morning while drinking my first cup of tea of the day.it does seem to put me in a gentle state of mind.....I think other orchestras will be putting themselves online eventually, nothing like a good bit of competition...

Thank you! What a lovely idea.

He is at the moment, but due to move on soon.

Thanks for that link - I've tried it and seems I can get the concerts!
Is Simon Rattle the resident conductor?