Alan Davey, new controller, R3

[french frank]

Very few people sit down in front of the 'wireless' and listen, most people live in noisy environments (I don't but i'm odd in that way).

But - as you imply - your friends are doing it in their various ways. BBC Radio broadcasts to people who are listening to the 'wireless' with at least half an ear. The challenge is to produce radio programmes, albeit with additional materials available.

[mercia]

sorry, by my peculiar understanding of the words 'live concerts' - 4 live evening concerts + 5 live lunchtime concerts = 9 live concerts

[MrGongGong]

But - as you imply - your friends are doing it in their various ways. BBC Radio broadcasts to people who are listening to the 'wireless' with at least half an ear. The challenge is to produce radio programmes, albeit with additional materials available.

Indeed
which IS one of the things that the BBC actually does rather well.

Listening as an active process (not as a background to something else) is something that is often neglected (hence the rather wonderful "Minute of Listening" project, and others) and is something that those in Sound Art, Acoustic Ecology and Electroacoustic music spend much time thinking about. It often strikes me that many more 'mainstream' musical organisations never think about what it means to listen or even what we mean by the word.

[Honoured Guest]

sorry, by my peculiar understanding of the words 'live concerts' - 4 live evening concerts + 5 live lunchtime concerts = 9 live concerts

Only Monday's Lunchtime Concert is live.

[french frank]

It would be much easier to contextualise this music if wasn't broadcast live because worthwhile talk about the music could then be delivered, at any appropriate length and in any suitable form, around the music.

That sounds like what happened in 2007, when all the live transmissions were dropped and every night there was recorded music 'contextualised live' in the studio from 7pm.That is what caused so much complaint http://www.theguardian.com/culture/c...-live-concerts .

[french frank]

Cutting the number of specially BBC-recorded concerts (by replacing one weekly full-length concert with EBU music)

I've lost track of what you're talking about. 'Live in Concert' refers to live transmissions, not 'specially BBC-recorded concerts': 'live' as in 'listening to the concert on the radio at home at the same time as the orchestra is performing somewhere else, by the miracle of wireless'. And 'EBU music' can in this context only properly refer to music that has been broadcast at some time in the past, on a European radio station, by a member of the European Broadcasting Union. It isn't clear which method Radio 3 is toying with, but a Concertgebouw concert recording isn't necessarily the same as 'EBU music' unless the EBU has negotiated the broadcasting rights. Or am I wrong?

[mercia]

Only Monday's Lunchtime Concert is live.

ah yes of course, and the fact that the other four are not live obviously doesn't bother anybody - perhaps the same is true of the evening concerts. I very much enjoyed last night's live concert from Leeds but if it hadn't been live I wouldn't have minded. The previous schedule arrangement of compacted recorded concerts with no intervals and a start time of 7pm suited me fine and it freed up more time in the evening schedule for other things. I thought Wright changed to live evening concerts as a result of demand from listeners, indeed didn't he say so at the time ?

[french frank]

I thought Wright changed to live evening concerts as a result of 'pressure' from listeners.

There were live evening concerts before Wright took over. He was the one who dropped them completely and replaced them with - not just the recorded concerts, but the 'live studio commentary' in between all the separate pieces of music - which reduced it to being pretty much the same format as the afternoons. What people appreciated was the format of 'going to a concert in the evening' not just listening to separate pieces of music.

His decision to do that so upset his staff at Radio 3 that it was leaked to the press before the official announcement. I was asked to comment on it by the Evening Standard - but I wouldn't because I thought they were mistaken and had misunderstood something. The 'pressure' came from a wide range of people, including the radio critics like Charlotte Higgins, Robert Hanks, Stephen Moss ... So then Roger said (4 years later): 'Oh all right - in fact we'll have live concerts EVERY NIGHT OF THE WEEK - even the evenings when there wasn't a concert at all.'

The lunchtime concerts are (usually) chamber concerts which pleases those who appreciate an entirely different repertoire. I would look for stronger reasons for not doing something than that 'some people don't like it'/'I don't like it'/'I couldn't care less one way or the other'

[mercia]

if the Radio 3 staff were upset by not having live evening concerts then presumably the current schedule of live-every-night-of-the-week pleases them greatly (or are they the sort of people who are never happy ?). Likewise those people who appreciate 'going to a concert in the evening' should be well satisfied currently. Personally the afternoon format is absolutely fine by me, I don't see anything as being 'reduced' in being similar to it.

[aeolium]

ah yes of course, and the fact that the other four are not live obviously doesn't bother anybody - perhaps the same is true of the evening concerts. I very much enjoyed last night's live concert from Leeds but if it hadn't been live I wouldn't have minded. The previous schedule arrangement of compacted recorded concerts with no intervals and a start time of 7pm suited me fine and it freed up more time in the evening schedule for other things. I thought Wright changed to live evening concerts as a result of demand from listeners, indeed didn't he say so at the time ?

I'm perfectly happy with recorded concerts, as long as they are complete and (musically) unedited. What was awful about the recorded lunchtime "concerts" was the way pieces from separate concerts were mixed together to make a new programme, so that what might have been a carefully constructed theme or link between pieces was quite lost. That seems to have been abandoned in recent weeks in favour of a return to the integral concert. I would be happy to see Opera on 3 return to Saturdays (preferably with more broadcasts from European opera houses), with a concert from a European orchestra (recorded or not) on a Monday. When RW brought in the "live concerts every night of the week" concept what mainly struck me was the sameness of the repertoire we were hearing - for sadly most UK concert programmes are pretty unadventurous these days.

[french frank]

if the Radio 3 staff were upset by not having live evening concerts then presumably the current schedule of live-every-night-of-the-week pleases them greatly (or are they the sort of people who are never happy ?). Likewise those people who appreciate 'going to a concert in the evening' should be well satisfied currently. Personally the afternoon format is absolutely fine by me, I don't see anything as being 'reduced' in being similar to it.

If I may say so, I think that is being a little perverse: not being allowed sweeties might be cause for complaint; having to eat nothing but sweeties, ditto. I'm not too clear where the source of your disagreement lies. I think there is a perfectly valid case for opposing the dropping of lunchtime concerts - that would deprive listeners who like chamber music of their guaranteed one hour a day.

I agree absolutely with what aeolium says, and am pleased to hear that the whole recital seems to have returned to lunchtimes.

Btw:

"[ ... ] the majority expressed particular appreciation for the concerts and recitals (one proviso being that they should be ‘complete’ as performed, not compilations put together from various different occasions), and ‘live’ was also appreciated." FoR3 SURVEY PT I, pg 5.

No need to suppose the survey caused a change of policy: it could simply be that the Controller knows a good idea when he thinks of it ...

[Don Petter]

Five letters in today's Times in response to Catherine Nixey's article.

The longest, and leading, one is from Alan Davey (and he's pinched my vellum joke).

[Nick Armstrong]

Opinion piece by Catherine Nixey, Times radio critic, on p. 26 today, welcoming the abandonment of the populist agenda. Now, finally, things seem to be improving, but there is much to do......

Indeed there is:


BBC Radio 3 @BBCRadio3 31m31 minutes ago
#EssentialClassics challenge clue 2 (1/2): During my lifetime I was better known as a conductor than a composer...

BBC Radio 3 @BBCRadio3 31m31 minutes ago
Clue 2 (2/2): ...holding positions at the Vienna Court Opera, New York’s Metropolitan Opera and the New York Philharmonic.
0 retweets 0 favorites

BBC Radio 3 @BBCRadio3 25m25 minutes ago
Final clue (no pressure): The Adagietto of my 5th Symphony was made famous when it was used in a film starring Dirk Bogarde.
0 retweets 0 favorites
















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[french frank]

The longest, and leading, one is from Alan Davey (and he's pinched my vellum joke).

He looks in on the forum, obviously! Radio64 will be pleased with him

I liked: "I have made some changes because I want Radio 3 to do what it does well even better. I want to reflect the values of the Third Programme but to welcome anyone who loves music and culture."

Have pointed out (on Fb) that the BBC Trust said it's the BBC's responsibility (not Radio 3's alone) to do this. Other services should do more and they aren't because they have their earbuds shutting out everything but popular music. Deafing up, rather than dumbing down.

[ferneyhoughgeliebte]

Indeed there is:


BBC Radio 3 @BBCRadio3 31m31 minutes ago
#EssentialClassics challenge clue 2 (1/2): During my lifetime I was better known as a conductor than a composer...

BBC Radio 3 @BBCRadio3 31m31 minutes ago
Clue 2 (2/2): ...holding positions at the Vienna Court Opera, New York’s Metropolitan Opera and the New York Philharmonic.
0 retweets 0 favorites

BBC Radio 3 @BBCRadio3 25m25 minutes ago
Final clue (no pressure): The Adagietto of my 5th Symphony was made famous when it was used in a film starring Dirk Bogarde.

Was it Lulu?