Radio 3 schedule changes (‘edging away from speech')

[AuntDaisy]

If you can find it Tim McInnerny’s relatively recent reading of A Nocturnall Upon St Lucie’s Day and one of the Emma Gifford poems - I think it was At Castle Boterel - was amongst the best reading of poetry I’ve ver heard. I mean staggeringly good . So moving we almost had to pull the car on a long night drive over to pull ourselves together. What a voice …

I'm guessing the Donne & Hardy are from "This Haunted Land", October 2020. Would that fit?
Yes, fine readings both - his MR James was also excellent (although the preceding piece jars (but not five)).

[Ein Heldenleben]

I'm guessing the Donne & Hardy are from "This Haunted Land", October 2020. Would that fit?
Yes, fine readings both - his MR James was also excellent (although the preceding piece jars (but not five)).

thanks v much AD . It was indeed the haunted edition in our case sensorily enhanced by darkness and lashing rain on the A38.

[Nick Armstrong]

The older Words & Music tended to have actors & voices that were more familiar, along with decent producer's notes (which helped to unify the pieces).

Imagine being able to attract the likes of Derek Jacobi, Diana Rigg, Samuel West, Jeremy Irons, Anna Massey, Imogen Stubbs, Bill Paterson, Juliet Stevenson, Kenneth Cranham, Heathcote Williams, Claire Higgins, John Shrapnel, Anton Lesser, Bob Peck, Alison Stedman, Andrew Sachs, Fiona Shaw, Henry Goodman, Alex Jennings, Sian Thomas, Timothy West, Freddie Jones, Toby Jones, Amanda Root, Olivia Colman, Toby Stephens, Adjoa Andoh, Robert Glenister, Mark Strong, Hugh Bonneville, Adrian Scarborough, Maxine Peake, Harriet Walter, Don Warrington, David Jason, Eileen Atkins, John Rowe, Julian Rhind-Tutt, Michael Fenton Stevens, Josette Simons, Roger Allam, Peter Marinker, Tamsin Greig, Samantha Bond, Stella Gonet, Tim McInnerny...

I’m relieved to learn that I did miss something and W&M will still be in the schedule, thank you for pointing it out.

Re: your list, the edition with Freddie & Toby Jones on Fathers & Sons was perfection.

Recently (only a few weeks ago) a highlight was Tom Hollander’s marvellous, hypnotic way with readings on the subject of Perfumes (rather outclassing imho his fellow reader, the equally well-known Anna Maxwell Martin)

[Nick Armstrong]

I'm guessing the Donne & Hardy are from "This Haunted Land", October 2020. Would that fit?
Yes, fine readings both - his MR James was also excellent (although the preceding piece jars (but not five)).

What a pity the entire back catalogue of W&M isn’t available to listen to… What a resource that would have been

[AuntDaisy]

What a pity the entire back catalogue of W&M isn’t available to listen to… What a resource that would have been

I agree totally.
Although, given how they've chopped "The Early Music Show", I'm not hopeful that Auntie would have kept them intact.

And while I'm grumbling, Auntie has lost plenty of the producer's notes / listings from earlier programmes...
For example "The Gothic" used to have fascinating notes & details of the pieces played / read - which you can still read on the WayBack Machine.
Ditto "Young and Easy" on the WayBack Machine.
And, to a lesser extent, "Witches and Sorcerers" and the Producer's Notes on the WayBack Machine.

[It's the typical BBC snafu when they "improve" /programmes, Genome or the older PIPs, and the programmers / database designers don't bother to transfer all the fields / information properly.]

[Dave2002]

For me, the easiest and most flexible solution is to have an AV receiver that either has WiFi and Google Chromecast streaming built in, or has a spare HDMI socket I can plug a physical Chromecast device into. Then I can control it from my Android phone or tablet running the BBC Sounds app, or an internet radio app, or a podcast app, most of which are compatible with Chromecast streaming. I can also control it from the Chrome browser running on my PC. In the Apple world, you can do much the same thing with Airplay. If you don't have space for a full AVR + speaker setup, there are smaller self-contained networked speakers that support Chromecast or Airplay or both.

Because the apps are regularly updated and Google and Apple have an interest in maintaining the Chromecast and Airplay standards, you generally don't run into the sort of compatibility problems that some users of internet radio hardware devices have been caught by, as when the BBC discontinued the streams they relied on. And you can use this method for both live and on-demand services.

Unfortunately I don't think either Google - [Chromecast] or Apple are reliable at maintaining standards etc. A few years ago there was a Chromecast audio device, which supposedly gave better quality sound. I think it did - but the device was withdrawn. Also some of the software support was very "iffy". I don't think Apple is significantly better either.

Standards are standards - except when one organisation which considers itself to be a market leader abandons them - and in some cases [quite often] replaces them with something less good.

[oddoneout]

All good points OOO. Just checked the BBC press release - WAM from April will be 18.00 to 19,15 . Which suits me fine as I’m usually cooking then and the US culture / identity politics obsession of The Sunday Feature is usually the cue for a Qobuz session. My one major problem with Radio 3 is its fixation with US culture and contemporary social issues and the way European Culture (apart from its music) is largely ignored . And yet we (now ) have far more in common with the French and Germans than we do with the US. Something that is about to appear only too clearly if Trump gets in. What would be really adventurous would be a Yeats , Goethe or Sartre weekend - not more US academics .

When I had a chance to hear it I enjoyed Inside Music - good episode with a bassoonist recently but again too many US voices - other countries employ musicians who speak pretty good English.

Drat! I've just realised that after all my mutterings to myself(it's Berginald not Reginald...) I still managed to spell the poor chap's name wrong.
As I mostly listen just to the music based programmes I'm not in a position to comment on a possible US bias but in terms of speaking good English what I find can cause problems is when the vowels and stresses are very different, such that I can't make out what a given word is. Mr Rash was a case in point - he spoke clearly and not overly fast but I had to pass several times on parts of the content of a sentence due to not being able to decipher words - it's possible his American-Irish origin made a hybrid that I found harder than the two separately. A programme that I really wish I could hear again - he said much of interest that I did decipher and the chance to make something of the bits I didn't catch would have been good.
Your mention of French and German made me smile as I listened to PP with Raymond Blanc a couple of weeks ago - and his accent is so strong, even after all his years in this country, and especially when he's excited (which is quite a lot of the time), that at times he sounded like a comedian's imitation of a french man speaking. In contrast the track of a French song that was one of his choices was so clear I could have used it a a dictation exercise with a fair degree of accuracy.

[Nick Armstrong]

…given how they've chopped "The Early Music Show"

This seems to have gone under the radar, btw… (no mention on the Early Music boards here, for example, nor anywhere else I’ve seen)

Is Hannah French (having also lost Record Review Extra) going the way of Penny Gore and Ian Skelly, into relative unemployment on R3…?

[french frank]

This seems to have gone under the radar, btw… (no mention on the Early Music boards here, for example, nor anywhere else I’ve seen)

Is Hannah French going the way of Penny Gore and Ian Skelly, into relative unemployment on R3…?

I thought Hannah French was continuing on EMS, but no sign of Lucie Skeaping?

[LMcD]

This seems to have gone under the radar, btw… (no mention on the Early Music boards here, for example, nor anywhere else I’ve seen)

Is Hannah French going the way of Penny Gore and Ian Skelly, into relative unemployment on R3…?

Early Music Show with Hannah French 1700-1800 on Sunday according to the BBC Media Centre announcement.

[oddoneout]

I thought Hannah French was continuing on EMS, but no sign of Lucie Skeaping?

That is how I understand it. The hour slot, albeit at a different time, as now, but of course we don't get the full hour thanks to the "News" intrusion.

[Nick Armstrong]

Early Music Show with Hannah French 1700-1800 on Sunday according to the BBC Media Centre announcement.

Ah ok thanks.

Still con interruzione, I imagine

[oddoneout]

Ah ok thanks.

Still con interruzione, I imagine

Oh undoubtedly. The "best" we can hope for on that front is for it to be at the end of the broadcast as has happened recently - or for repeats of pre Mark Seow episodes.

[AuntDaisy]

This seems to have gone under the radar, btw… (no mention on the Early Music boards here, for example, nor anywhere else I’ve seen)
Is Hannah French (having also lost Record Review Extra) going the way of Penny Gore and Ian Skelly, into relative unemployment on R3…?

Sorry, I meant the Early Music Show "Podcasts" were chopped, often down to ~20mins.
I hope we haven't lost dear Lucie Skeaping - star of EMS, Music Restored...

Ian Skelly said on Twitter :

Ian Skelly @Ianskellyradio3
Thank you for all your questions and concern. To clarify, I’m not leaving @BBCRadio3
at all. I’m based in London not Salford so have had to take a difficult decision but lots to look forward to. Maybe even a surprise or two.
8:17 PM · Feb 26, 2024·19.2KViews

[Old Grumpy]

EMS podcasts have always been "chopped", they last longer than the full programme (which stays available for 30 days on BBC Sounds) - I assume the "chop" is due to rights issues.