The BBC rewriting of history, inspired by George Orwell’s Nineteen Eighty-Four, rumbles on. Our thanks to Mike P for this. An extract:
The BBC has announced the names of five “forgotten” women whose work they will now record and broadcast: Leokadiya Kashperova, Marianna Martines, Florence Price, Augusta Holmès, and Johanna Müller-Hermann.
In some cases, their pieces will be heard for the first time in a century; others will be played in public for the first time ever.
Alan Davey, controller of BBC Radio 3 and classical music, said it was “incredibly exciting” to “shine a light” on the composers, explaining:
“It means that we are not only expanding the canon of classical music, but also actually helping to redress its historic imbalance when it comes to gender and diversity. Can I talk off the record now? Thanks. Why has nobody ever heard of these women before? Because the quality of their work is bloody woeful compared with the work of the best male composers of their generations. But hey, this is the sort of crap you have to do to keep your job at the BBC these days, with the feminazis and manginas running everything. As I said, off the record, right?”
Justice for Men & Boys 
They were “lost” for good reason
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The BBC is turning into a Sunday morning children’s entertainment style program. it just can’t be taken seriously any longer.
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I suppose one could do worse than to wonder why they were ‘lost’ and ‘forgotten’ in the first place.
It’s a mystery.
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They were probably ‘forgotten’ for a reason.
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As a musician, I would say this to the BBC:
You’ve forgotten Hildegard of Bingen, Clara Schumann, Germaine Tailleferre, as well as Lilli and Nadia Boulanger, whose compositions surpass by far the women you have identified as “lost”.
There are plenty of male composers who deserve more recognition (Allegri, Froberger – who effectively created the keyboard suite, Marpurg, Frescobaldi, Lully – who invented the Overture form which the symphony evolved, Buxtehude – a virtuoso organist who greatly influenced Bach, Corelli – who invented the concerto, Rameau, Clarke, Telemann – the most prolific composer in history with over 3000 works, Tartini, Hasse, Stamitz, Quantz, Albrechtsberger, Dittersdorf, Paisello, Martini, Clementi, Cimarosa, Salieri, Cherubini, Dussek – who greatly influenced Beethoven, Wesley, Süssmayr, Hummel, Field – who invented the Nocturne, Alkan, Berwald, Glinka, Borodin, Balakirev, Lyadov, Liapunov, Arensky, Scriabin, Glazunov, Reger, Kreisler, Chabrier, Wely, Widor, Satie, Fanelli, Roussel, Milhaud, Honegger, Busoni, Gaubert, Enescu… the list goes on).
Most importantly, it doesn’t matter if the composer was male or female.
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No, but it sure seems to help if you were born with a penis.
Remember, the Muses are female and prefer the opposite sex.
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“There are plenty of male composers who deserve more recognition (Allegri, Froberger – who effectively created the keyboard suite…”
C’om on buddy… don’t go disrupting a conspiracy theorist with your evidence…
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I used to be a regular listener to BBC Radio 3, but gave up after it became insanely politically correct. Loved “Mr Davey’s” comments.
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Back in the day, Radio 3 used the services of an ‘Announcer’ to inform the listener of the next musical installment. Sadly, the Announcers were sacked years ago. Now, we are obliged to endure the wittering of a Radio 3 ‘Presenter’.
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When I was at junior school in the 1950 s, the school bought 6 recorders to give us an opportunity to learn Just one catch you had to be a girl. I have been a self employed musician now for 40 years do you think the BBC would be interested in doing a feature on my struggle to overcome the barriers that society placed in my way?
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No.
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I watched the New Years day concert from Vienna on BBC 2 The host Petroc Trelawny commented that there were fewer women in the orchestra than last year (The Vienna Philharmonic) he then said “going backwards”.. Well it speaks volumes about attitudes at the BBC.
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