Concert Intervals on R3

[mercia]

personally I find music can clean the palette as well as an obscure esoteric talk completely irrelevant to the surrounding concert - and the music always seems to be chosen intelligently. e.g. in the recent Maxwell Davies orchestral concert the interval was one of his choral works, in the Whitacre choral concert the interval was one of his orchestral works, in the F S Kelly chamber concert the interval was one of his orchestral works, before the Strauss Symphonia Domestica there was a recording of the Deutsche Motette, in the piano etude concert the interval was made up of orchestral etudes. Its not as if they just bung on any old CD that happens to be lying around the studio.

In that Envy of the World book there's a bit where John Drummond (I think) asks one of his producers if he ever listens to the concert interval talks, to which the reply is along the lines of 'God no, I always take the dog for a walk'.

[teamsaint]

Its still not clear to me why interval chat about the music being played on a concert would expensive at all.
There is a presenter , producer and technical gear in position, fees and salaries already accounted for.There must be a good supply of musicians, academics , journos prepared to get themselves face on the radio for a pretty modest fee.
That of course might not be the same as a quality "Discovering Music" type feature, but would surely be more in keeping with the structure of a concert. It is what they do for Proms, as a rule.

[Opsimath]

A modest fee maybe, but when multiplied by the number of intervals across a year probably a large enough figure to show to the accountants as a significant saving on the balance sheet.

[french frank]

In that Envy of the World book there's a bit where John Drummond (I think) asks one of his producers if he ever listens to the concert interval talks, to which the reply is along the lines of 'God no, I always take the dog for a walk'.

He did say that (p 325) but his point was that he wanted the interval features to be related in some way to the concert programme, not that he wanted to do away with them completely and play more music. He mentioned a feature in the opera (Wozzeck) interval by George Steiner on Büchner's Woyzeck and a concert from Turin in which the talk was about arts funding in Italian cities ...

He also said that no one at the BBC higher than Radio 3 took any interest in anything he was doing, so mutatis mutandis it might be thought that he was criticising producers who took no interest, rather than invoking their support for his own views :-)

But I take the point that R3 'can't afford them' - and that seems to me to be the point to take up.

[Sir Velo]

A modest fee maybe, but when multiplied by the number of intervals across a year probably a large enough figure to show to the accountants as a significant saving on the balance sheet.

That, of course, presupposes that there is no waste anywhere else in Radio 3. Personally, I would look at some of the salaries paid to some of the "big name" presenters for starters. Cutting down on one or two of these would save thousands for quality interval features. And why do they need to be new commissions? There are thousands of talks in the archive which could be broadcast at little or no incremental cost.

Then there are the "celebs" we get on all the daytime shows. Why not drop them and their expense slush fund from the budget? I could easily go on. The money is there; it's just a question of where and how it's spent. Don't fall for management's gloss.

[french frank]

That, of course, presupposes that there is no waste anywhere else in Radio 3. Personally, I would look at some of the salaries paid to some of the "big name" presenters for starters. Cutting down on one or two of these would save thousands for quality interval features. And why do they need to be new commissions? There are thousands of talks in the archive which could be broadcast at little or no incremental cost.

Then there are the "celebs" we get on all the daytime shows. Why not drop them and their expense slush fund from the budget? I could easily go on. The money is there; it's just a question of where and how it's spent. Don't fall for management's gloss.

I don't think several points are quite right. In the PAC's review 'The efficiency of radio production at the BBC', Radio 3 came out of it very well. It was only on figures like 'Cost per listener hour' that it looked expensive, while Radio 2 looked almost as if it cost nothing because it attracts huge audiences. 'Big name' presenters (I can only think of Aled Jones and Katie Derham) tend(ed) to work across several BBC services, radio and television, so their salaries would not have fallen entirely on Radio 3 but on the BBC. 'Celebs' are very unlikely to get huge fees for appearing on Radio 3 - especially if they're delighted to plug something they're selling. Non-celebs' fees would be nugatory.

Commissions are a bit different: I just don't know what might be available that had both suitable content and a 'suitable' broadcasting style <smirk> :-).

[Opsimath]

That, of course, presupposes that there is no waste anywhere else in Radio 3. Personally, I would look at some of the salaries paid to some of the "big name" presenters for starters. Cutting down on one or two of these would save thousands for quality interval features. And why do they need to be new commissions? There are thousands of talks in the archive which could be broadcast at little or no incremental cost.

Then there are the "celebs" we get on all the daytime shows. Why not drop them and their expense slush fund from the budget? I could easily go on. The money is there; it's just a question of where and how it's spent. Don't fall for management's gloss.

I make a point of never falling for management's gloss. I was merely suggesting that, when scaled up, a 'modest fee' can help someone to reach their savings target however ill advised that target might be.

[Honoured Guest]

I understand that listeners to evenings concerts used to enjoy a change of gear to the interval talk, and then back to the concert. But it was quite irritating for people tuning in specifically to hear the talk to have to wait (and wait and wait, sometimes) until the interval was finally reached and the talk could begin. And even more annoying when the interval came early and we missed the start of the talk. The current scheduling of talks at a regular and reliable time on five nights of the week is a vast improvement.

[teamsaint]

I understand that listeners to evenings concerts used to enjoy a change of gear to the interval talk, and then back to the concert. But it was quite irritating for people tuning in specifically to hear the talk to have to wait (and wait and wait, sometimes) until the interval was finally reached and the talk could begin. And even more annoying when the interval came early and we missed the start of the talk. The current scheduling of talks at a regular and reliable time on five nights of the week is a vast improvement.

The BBC could easily deal with the timing of talks by doing them as a podcast. Wouldn't cost much.

Back to the cost of interval talks. Lets say 150 concerts were selected for interval talks, and a fee of £200 allocated.(Is that unreasonable for an academic, say, to appear in what for them would be a high profile slot?) That would cost £30k a year. Desn't look a huge outlay for a serious improvement to a piece of cornerstone programming.
Also, presumably there are in house staffers who might do such work , where appropriate, at again modest cost?

The evening concerts are such an important part of the programming, and involve real commitment by the BBC, it surely makes sense to get the best out of them, as indeed they try to, (perhaps not always perfectly), with the proms.

[subcontrabass]

Its still not clear to me why interval chat about the music being played on a concert would expensive at all.
There is a presenter , producer and technical gear in position, fees and salaries already accounted for.There must be a good supply of musicians, academics , journos prepared to get themselves face on the radio for a pretty modest fee.

Having done such an interval chat some years ago (a live conversation with the presenter, Paul Guinery, while the BBC Singers had a much needed rest), I can confirm that the fees are extremely modest.

[Honoured Guest]

The BBC could easily deal with the timing of talks by doing them as a podcast. Wouldn't cost much.

Podcasts are an additional service, not intended to compensate for poor scheduling.

[french frank]

Podcasts are an additional service, not intended to compensate for poor scheduling.

On the other hand, scheduling a concert interval talk so that it meets the convenience of those who don't want to listen to the concert seems like the tail wagging the dog.

The Essay is a good addition to the schedule - but whether it should be the replacement for the interval talk raises other questions.

[Honoured Guest]

We might be talking at crossed purposes here.

Talks on subjects unrelated to concerts were scheduled in concert intervals because that was an available time-slot. A reliable regular time is preferable.

Talks, interviews and conversation related to the concert are scheduled in concert intervals because that's their natural place, but budget influences their number and too many intervals are plugged with recorded music.

The Essay is not an "addition" to Radio 3: it's the current place in the schedule for most talks.

[Pulcinella]

HG

How on earth do you think there can be a regular time slot for a concert interval?
Is all music in the first half to be so accurately timed and/or of a set length to conform to this bizarre notion?

[Honoured Guest]

Pulcinella, of course you're right. That's the whole point! If the interval broadcast is related to the concert, then people happily listen to it as an integral part of the entire Live in Concert programme, at whatever time the interval arrives. However, most unrelated Radio 3 talks have for many years been rescheduled from concert intervals and are now broadcast five nights a week, Monday to Friday, at 22:45, as The Essay, where they're only very rarely delayed by earlier live concerts.