Raff on Classic FM tonight

[Mark Thomas]

The UK's "easy listening" classical station Classic FM is featuring Raff, his mentors and successors in a two hour programme tonight at 8:00pm, presented by John Suchet. I'm not expecting any startling insights, but it'll be interesting to hear what Suchet has to say and the selection of music is appropriate. The Raff being played is D'Avalos' recording of Im Walde, bookended by music from Mendelssohn, Liszt, Sibelius and Clara Schumann.

[Alan Howe]

Kudos to Classic FM! Let's hope a shedload of listeners tune in.

[brendangcarroll]

I will be one of the 'shedload' ! Certainly preferable to the highly predictable "First Night" of the so called Archive Proms on Radio 3.

[Gareth Vaughan]

I missed it, alas! Was it any good?

[Justin]

In my opinion, an excellent choice for them to pick the D'Avalos recording.

[Mark Thomas]

I missed it, alas! Was it any good?

It depends who you are. For most of us here, I suspect, it will have added nothing to our knowledge of Raff - only about six minutes of John Suchet's links covered Raff in the most general of terms, sometimes garbling the few facts that were offered, and only Im Walde was played. That said, we aren't the target audience. Suchet's attitude towards Raff and his music was consistently positive and, judging from the comments I've had from non-UC friends who've contacted me, they came away with a very positive impression, so that's all to the good.

[Alan Howe]

Classic FM doesn't exactly expand one's knowledge - it's simply that they sometimes play some rarely heard music. As Mark says, we're not their target audience. When I do listen in - usually when I'm in the car - they're playing HIP Beethoven which drives me round the twist.