Eurovision 2008

quote:

Originally posted by ewemon:
Personally I think we should pull out of the competition...

Eurovision and competition ... oxymoron.

Smilie failure I think I spotted earlier.

If the United Kingdom decides to put in an entry for the 2009 Eurovision song contest - and that is one big "IF" - I do wonder who they are going to find who is daft enough to put themselves up for selection. It certainly is not going to enhance your CV and I think that is,even now,beginning to dawn on Sir Tel.

Thew following page ....
Scoreboard: Eurovision Song Contest 2008 Semi-Final (1)
... gives the results for Dustin .. He came 15th.

James H.

quote:

Scoreboard: Eurovision Song Contest 2008 Semi-Final (1)

The link I gave does not appear to work but putting the above string in quotes ["..."] into Google should get you there.

Research indicates that voting cliques go back further than the entry of the Balkan or Soviet Block countries:

http://arxiv.org/abs/physics/0505071


regards, Tam

There are certain countries (UK,France,Germany etc) who automatically get a bye into the final because they effectively bankroll the "competition".
A practice which should now cease.
If the eastern bloc are going to exploit the political vote to the extent that they are now doing perhaps it is time that they "put their money where their song is".

The UK auto entry to the final is a result of the the BBCs membership of the EBU,
& the expanding EU creating a need for semi-finals.
The other 'senior' members of the EBU also get an auto finalist.

The BBC, & therefore the viewers & listeners,
benefit greatly from its association with the EBU.
However this years winner hosts the next 'contest' at their expense,
& the figure for this is vast.
That's why Ireland got it's fingers burnt with their run of wins.

Irealnd could always try again next year with Fr Ted and "My Lovely Horse" -- it can't do much worse.

quote:

The BBC, & therefore the viewers & listeners,
benefit greatly from its association with the EBU

How?

'How' to you too;
I didn't know you were from America Bob!

How!

Who did win this? It passed me by at the time! George

Would you believe me if I said: UK?

I'll give you a clue, here are some other musical dudes that come from that neck of the woods

Mikhail Glinka
Pyotr Ilyich Tchaikovsky
Alexander Taneyev
Alexander Kopylov
Sergei Taneyev
Mikhail Ippolitov-Ivanov
Nikolay Sokolov
Alexander Gretchaninov
Alexander Glazunov
Alexander Scriabin
Sergei Rachmaninoff
Reinhold Glière
Nikolai Medtner
Nikolai Myaskovsky
Igor Stravinsky
Maximilian Steinberg or was he from Lithuania who didn't win, but voted for the winners
Sergei Prokofiev
Dmitri Kabalevsky
Dmitri Shostakovich
Julian Scriabin
Vladimir Shainsky
Nikolai Kapustin
Yury Chernavsky
Yakov Kazyansky
Evgeni Kostitsyn
Andrei Krylov

Posted by ROTF:

Would you believe me if I said: UK?

I'll give you a clue, here are some other musical dudes that come from that neck of the woods

Mikhail Glinka
Pyotr Ilyich Tchaikovsky
Alexander Taneyev
Alexander Kopylov
Sergei Taneyev
Mikhail Ippolitov-Ivanov
Nikolay Sokolov
Alexander Gretchaninov
Alexander Glazunov
Alexander Scriabin
Sergei Rachmaninoff
Reinhold Glière
Nikolai Medtner
Nikolai Myaskovsky
Igor Stravinsky
Maximilian Steinberg or was he from Lithuania who didn't win, but voted for the winners
Sergei Prokofiev
Dmitri Kabalevsky
Dmitri Shostakovich
Julian Scriabin
Vladimir Shainsky
Nikolai Kapustin
Yury Chernavsky
Yakov Kazyansky
Evgeni Kostitsyn
Andrei Krylov

Dear ROTF,

I'll add one to the list! Henryk Klonowsky! At a time when no one in England [or anywhere else] took English musicians seriously, Henry Wood [Wood equals Klonowsky, apparently] produced his Bach arrangements for his Prom Concert series under that Russian pseudonym, so the work would be taken seriously!

Perhaps this serves Mr Putin right for opening up Russia to Western influences in the artistic sphere!

Have a look in my Great Music Arranged for Klonowsky's arrangement of Bach's Toccata and Fugue in D Minor. Much better than "Stokowsky's" rather famous arrangement!

It might be an interesting excercise for some to find out what Stokowsky's Christening name was!

ATB from George

PS: Wood's arrangement of the Toccata and Fugue in D Minor may be found here.

Dear George

I have listened to both the Wood and Antoni Stanisław Bolesławowicz orchestral arrangements of Bach's Toccata and Fugue in D Minor, albeit through YouTube.

However I'll be frank, I would not want the Leopold Stokowski, it was OK, but I didn't think that is truly great music. However, move over to Sir Henry Wood and it is truly magnificent, you forget YouTube is the player and are just drawn in. I have got to get of copy of this and listen to it on a proper system.

I have to admit to listening to an organ version of the piece played by Helmut Walcha and enjoying that most of all.

I'll post this on the correct thread. I'm not knowledgeable in this area of music. So can only comment superficially, but I can say I really liked Henryk Klonowski.

Many thanks Rotf

Better than Rasputin! George

Dear ROTF,

Here is the back-ground to the false rumour that Stokowki's name was something else again! I am old enough to remember when this rumour passed as truth and hunting the real truth was not a few clicks away on the internet!

"After he had achieved international fame with the Philadelphia Orchestra, unsubstantiated rumours circulated that he was born "Leonard" or "Lionel Stokes" or that he had "anglicized" it to "Stokes"; this canard is readily disproved by reference not only to his birth certificate and those of his father, younger brother, and sister (which show Stokowski to have been the genuine Polish family name), but also by the Student Entry Registers of the Royal College of Music, Royal College of Organists, and The Queen's College, Oxford, along with other surviving documentation from his days at St. Marylebone Church, St. James's Church, and St. Bartholomew's in New York City."

The general back-ground and short biography may be found here:

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Leopold_Stokowski

He was a great and highly individual musician, who was and is not to every taste, but he was crucial in his time to moving music forward in the USA.

ATB from George

PS: Here is the story of "Paul" Klenovsky and Henry Wood!

"His [Wood's] orchestrations of other composers' works drew frequent criticisms, so when in 1929 he made an orchestral transcription of Bach's Toccata and Fugue in D minor, he presented it as a piece by a Russian composer called Paul Klenovsky. It was a great success. Only several years later did he confess to the little joke."

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Henry_Wood_(conductor)

My memory failed me on the issue of Henryk rather than Paul!