I’m a Classic FM convert

Michael Henderson on Radio

IT IS EASY TO PATRONISE CLASSIC FM. People have been looking the other way for 30 years, and congratulating themselves on their refinement. “Easy listening,” they scoff, which is partly true. You don’t tune in expecting to hear a blast of Busoni. Only partly true, though. Countless hours of listening during the year of plague brought considerable pleasure, and it has hardened into a habit. Unfashionable or not, Classic FM deserves a fairer hearing. SOME THINGS SHOULD BE SAID at once. Dvorak’s cello concerto is a great work, and Rimsky-Korsakov’s Scheherazade is a masterpiece. But those composers wrote many other lovely things, which listeners would surely enjoy if they were given an extended opportunity. Also, it is not compulsory to play the Enigma Variations and the Fantasia on a Theme of Thomas…

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The Critic (Digital) - 1 Issue, December 2021

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