Classical Music Channels

[phil]

I've been an XM Classical Music fan for 5 or more years, and they've ruined these channels too. Too much repetition, sometimes I will hear the same work played three days in a row. Some symphonies you hear almost every other night! Of course, I do have it on 24/7, but you would think they could program some variety. XM was doing a much better job prior to the merger.

Also, too much yakkity yak on these channels. This isn't a music appreciation class; please just play the music.

I wish that DirecTV would drop Sirius/XM and go back to the MusicChoice, and I would drop Sirius/XM in a second! MusicChoice had excellent programming, and no talk. Great for background music all day.

I'm testing Slacker to see if it will please me. Otherwise, I'll dig out my seldom used Sony 60 disk CD player and load it up. It will give me more variety than I am getting now from Siruius/XM.

Oh, for the good old days BM (before Mel).

 

[radioman148]

I couldn't agree with you more. Sirius (Mel) has ruined XM.

 

[Ai4i]

I respectfully differ. My favorite programs include Exploring Music with Bill McGlaughlin, Millennium of Music with Robert Aubry Davis, Boundaries with Paul Bachmann, APMG programs Pipedreams with Michael Barone, and Symphonycast with Brian Newhouse.

I want to hear about What Brahms was doing with Clara Shuman and how von Bulow, Cosima Liszt, Wagner, and Mahler all interrelated. What chemical imbalances haunted Sybil of the Rhine and just what did The Red Priest teach to all those juicy young morsels he worked with?

Tell me why Mahler wrote his greatest piece at that particular time in his life and what prompted Maurice Ravel to come up with that crazy Bolero when he did. Why did Shostakovitch give Bernstein a big hug when the later completely reinterpreted a symphony from the former?

 

[CTListener]

I respectfully differ. My favorite programs include Exploring Music with Bill McGlaughlin, Millennium of Music with Robert Aubry Davis, Boundaries with Paul Bachmann, APMG programs Pipedreams with Michael Barone, and Symphonycast with Brian Newhouse.

I want to hear about What Brahms was doing with Clara Shuman and how von Bulow, Cosima Liszt, Wagner, and Mahler all interrelated. What chemical imbalances haunted Sybil of the Rhine and just what did The Red Priest teach to all those juicy young morsels he worked with?

Tell me why Mahler wrote his greatest piece at that particular time in his life and what prompted Maurice Ravel to come up with that crazy Bolero when he did. Why did Shostakovitch give Bernstein a big hug when the later completely reinterpreted a symphony from the former?

I agree 100 percent. Symphony Hall is actually an improvement over XM Classics. The only thing I don't care for is the stilted, pretentious delivery of Martin Goldsmith, and he's an XM holdover. I wish they could find another host like Preston Trombley -- lively, informative, even funny at times -- and get him or her to voicetrack that 6 am to noon shift now hosted by Goldsmith.

By the way, am I correct in assuming that nobody is ever actually in the studio when these shows air, that all of them are voicetracked well in advance, either at the studio or from home?

 

[phil]

I agree, the announcements have to be voice-tracked. If not, some of those guys are working 12 hour days, 7 days a week. Maybe they don't even work there any more?

Because of the repetition of some of the works played.....I wonder if maybe whole segments aren't repeated every 6 or 7 days. Or a giant "shuffle play" by computer maybe once a week. I don't listen closely enough to know if certain songs follow each other. If my tuner readout was close where I could read it without getting up, I would start keeping a log of what is played.

I also miss not being able to know what is going to be played on each channel in advance, so I could switch to hear preferred works. For some strange reason, the list operas in advance, so you know what is coming up.