BBC Visionaries
"Is Philip Glass the most visionary?" This is the question the BBC poses in its 7 week series during which each week it pits one "visionary" composer from each era against another.
Bach v Handel
Beethoven v Mozart
Chopin v Verdi
Shostakovich v Takemitsu
Boulez v Glass
Then winners will be announced according to fan voting. There are little vignettes about each composer. Please go to the link and vote with conviction for whoever your favorite composer is. It begins airing on BBC August 30th (BBC World News in the US). By my calculations the Glass profile will be aired on the American East Coast Week 5, September 27 (6:30am, 9:30am, 4:30pm,10:30pm)
Below are the links:
Duh,...gee,...what a decision--who should I vote for? (For anyone who might take me seriously, this is a joke!)
Posted by: Fran | August 19, 2008 at 12:25 PM
Totally inane. The BBC should be better than this.
Posted by: litefoot2 | August 25, 2008 at 02:05 PM
Why reduce the creative works of past genius's to a competition. How stupid can one get... and to skip through the romantic period with a mention of Chopin and Verdi... no mention of Schubert! my god what kind of program is this.. to jump to Gershwin who doesn;t even figure in my mind as a composer of worth... And Glass...! ?
I switched off..
Posted by: Mark Titchener | August 30, 2008 at 06:58 AM
This is stupid.. But I'm afraid Glass is going down! I'd take Le Marteau sans Maître over Satyagraha any day.
Posted by: TheBlackPage | August 30, 2008 at 09:13 AM
I see we got some opinions of quastionable taste here... (all imo of course and) I wont go into anydetails but let's just say they affect more than Glass.
That said, of course the competition is silly - but it's also very fun and helps to expose people to different classical music periods and their composers. Having a bigger list would have turned people off so as as of now it just seems like a good little project.
Posted by: Proman | August 31, 2008 at 09:02 AM