| Product: |
Classic FM Magazine |
| Date: |
28/03/02 (102 review reads) |
| Rating: |
 |
Advantages: Glossy, Makes you want to read it
Disadvantages: Not much depth to the articles or reviews, A plug for Classic fm
Classic FM magazine is, as you might imagine, connected to Classic FM, the radio station. Along with BBC Music magazine (produced by he BBC – again, as I’m sure you can tell!) these two titles are the most popular, and most easily available monthly classical music magazines.
Class FM always has a goodlooking, glossy cover, with stars of classical music (often female) flatteringly photographed and presented against a white background – not quite Harpers, but very classy nonetheless.
The features are not always solely about music. For instance an interview with an artist is quite likely to feature one of their recipes (in Joan Sutherland’s case, smoked chowder).
Similarly, the newsy pieces at the beginning of the magazine are often very loosely connected to music. One item about Health tips seemed to be included merely because a programme on the subject was about to be broadcast on Classic fm.
This type of angle means that the magazine verges on the women’s magazine / supermarket magazine kind of territory at time.
Just going back to the plugging of Classic fm radio... although expected, is one of the main faults of the magazine – one of the most annoying things about it for me, at any rate. It means that there’s a 2-page section which is unashamedly promoting their programmes. A page entitled “What’s on” is only about Classic Fm – making it incomplete. A following page, on the highlights is similarly restricting. So, nothing on, and no highlights on Radio 3 this month then?
There’s a reviews section, which covers the following sections:
Opera and Vocal
Orchestral
Instrumental and Chamber
Compilations and Soundtracks
Reviews are brief, and do not always help you decide whether a CD is worth buying or not. A rating system would help, but all there is is a “Best Buy” selection each month, with the 6 best CDs from th
e month. This seems pretty hit and miss – in a month of excellent releases, the CD that comes seventh may well have merited 1st place the next month.
There is an index of albums reviewed, but as the review pages only stretch to 10 pages, there doesn't seem much point.
David Mellor does a regular piece on “If you liked that...” where he takes an example of a composer, and gives pointers to other music, by other composers, that may find favour with fans. The articles are always brief, with scant research, but could be a good way of inspiring music fans to broadening your horizons.
So here’s one example of an ex-MP/ would be TV star finally finding his niche.
Some issues of the magazine have an item on hi-fi equipment, but it isn’t a regular feature.
There’s a prize crossword each month, but you really have to know your classical music to stand a chance with it.
The free CD’s, which come with each issue, are worth getting – they often contain short snippets, rather than whole works,so are not as cohesive as some of the BBC ones. However, CD’s such as the “Best of 2001”, featuring tracks from some of the best albums released that year, (January 2001 issue) and French discoveries (February 2001 issue) have been played at lot by me.
At £3.99 it’s very expensive, and usually less than 100 pages – quite a bit less than the BCC Music magazine, which sells at the same price.
Yes it’s glossy, attractive, and inviting to read, but ultimately it’s like a Chinese meal, enjoyable at the time, but not very substantial.
Summary:
|
|
