"Classical Live" was once Afternoon Concert

[Rcartes]

Apologies if this is covered elsewhere (if it is, I can't find it), but yet one more regular programme has had the Classic FM treatment.

What used to be Afternoon Concert, (and a whole Opera one afternoon a week, I think Thursdays?) has been junked and we now get the usual mess of single movements ripped out of whole works and the usual inane chatter: dismal!

Add to this the shifting of Record Review from Saturday to some (where?) backwater and its substitution by another set of drivelling stuff blundered through by Tom Service, and there's precious little left for serious listening: on my count, only the Evening Concert, though even that has its problems.

For me, it's getting to the point where Radio 3 is dead and buried.

[cria]

For me, it's getting to the point where Radio 3 is dead and buried.

... well, most forum members are much the same ...

[vinteuil]

... well, most forum members are much the same ...

yeah, but we can still make quite a noise

[smittims]

After the Walton Symphony yesterday we had an advert for Doctor Who and two songs by Sondheim. Classical? Live? Neither.

[AuntDaisy]

Classical "Live" has also butchered the Lunchtime Concert.

[kernelbogey]

For me, it's getting to the point where Radio 3 is dead and buried.

I've very nearly stopped listening to BBC Radio Three.

[LMcD]

Apologies if this is covered elsewhere (if it is, I can't find it), but yet one more regular programme has had the Classic FM treatment.

What used to be Afternoon Concert, (and a whole Opera one afternoon a week, I think Thursdays?) has been junked and we now get the usual mess of single movements ripped out of whole works and the usual inane chatter: dismal!

Add to this the shifting of Record Review from Saturday to some (where?) backwater and its substitution by another set of drivelling stuff blundered through by Tom Service, and there's precious little left for serious listening: on my count, only the Evening Concert, though even that has its problems.

For me, it's getting to the point where Radio 3 is dead and buried.

Today's Classical Live included Walton's Viola Concerto (27 minutes), Mozart's Prague Symphony (28 minutes) and de Falla's Nights In The Gardens Of Spain (25 minutes) together with complete shorter works.

[french frank]

Today's Classical Live included Walton's Viola Concerto (27 minutes), Mozart's Prague Symphony (28 minutes) and de Falla's Nights In The Gardens Of Spain (25 minutes) together with complete shorter works.

Not a concert though, is it? Different orchestras, different conductors, different performers, piano solos, chamber music, songs. Why is Radio 3 so against broadcasting complete concerts and recitals, telling listeners in advance just what will be performed?

Previously, concerts were 'introduced' (or announced): now they have to be Presented by a Presenter. "Oh, good. Presented by Fiona today. I like Fiona. I can't abide that [insert name here]."

[gurnemanz]

Classical "Live" has also butchered the Lunchtime Concert.

I echo those rage icons and would add a few more. Lunchtime Concert was frequently the highlight of a Radio 3 day for me - along with CotW a reason to tune in at mid-day. Now, with the pervasive random playlist + disc jockey approach, I tend not to bother at all.

[AuntDaisy]

I echo those rage icons and would add a few more. Lunchtime Concert was frequently the highlight of a Radio 3 day for me - along with CotW a reason to tune in at mid-day. Now, with the pervasive random playlist + disc jockey approach, I tend not to bother at all.

Yes, the Lunchtime Concert was a real highlight. There'd usually be something worth listening to - AND they were full pieces, not too many of them and with proper presentation & minimal waffle.

[oddoneout]

Today's Classical Live included Walton's Viola Concerto (27 minutes), Mozart's Prague Symphony (28 minutes) and de Falla's Nights In The Gardens Of Spain (25 minutes) together with complete shorter works.

But without times for those items how do you get to hear them "live", ie as broadcast? Three hours is a long time to have the radio on with an ear cocked to pick up when they appear. Back in the day there was a concert format and/or timing indications, and of course not the chat'n'ads.
It goes without saying that the assumption is that music afficionados will use catch up services to access the bits they want - if they can be bothered - which makes even more of a nonsense of the Classical "Live" programme name, which is no more live than the preceding hours, ie live presenter and recorded music.
It occurred to me yesterday, when I realised that I had listened to both the Lunchtime Concert(as it was a Monday, so there was one) and the evening concert, the first time that's happened for very many months, that perhaps the catch-up assumption is why the few remaining proper programmes have been dumped into arbitrary spots in the schedule. They aren't aimed at the refreshed/new listener so are just slotted in round the programmes that are, on the basis that they won't be/aren't listened to as broadcast anyway.

[LMcD]

But without times for those items how do you get to hear them "live", ie as broadcast? Three hours is a long time to have the radio on with an ear cocked to pick up when they appear. Back in the day there was a concert format and/or timing indications, and of course not the chat'n'ads.
It goes without saying that the assumption is that music afficionados will use catch up services to access the bits they want - if they can be bothered - which makes even more of a nonsense of the Classical "Live" programme name, which is no more live than the preceding hours, ie live presenter and recorded music.
It occurred to me yesterday, when I realised that I had listened to both the Lunchtime Concert(as it was a Monday, so there was one) and the evening concert, the first time that's happened for very many months, that perhaps the catch-up assumption is why the few remaining proper programmes have been dumped into arbitrary spots in the schedule. They aren't aimed at the refreshed/new listener so are just slotted in round the programmes that are, on the basis that they won't be/aren't listened to as broadcast anyway.

I was merely pointing out that there were very few 'bleeding chunks' - it's still a mess! The removal of the Lunchtime Concert as a feature in its own right may well prove to be the most damaging part of the 'refresh'. On weekdays, once I've finished listening to 'Breakfast', I tend not to return to Radio 3 until 10.00 p.m.

[pilamenon]

Previously, concerts were 'introduced' (or announced): now they have to be Presented by a Presenter. "Oh, good. Presented by Fiona today. I like Fiona. I can't abide that [insert name here]."

Nowadays everything is 'curated', dontcha know?

[smittims]

I admit yesterday was better, with the Messiaen Variations and a Haydn trio (all three movements, not just truncated to make way for a tango!), a little more like 'Through the Night'. I'd like to think Penny Gore had something to do with this.

[oddoneout]

I was merely pointing out that there were very few 'bleeding chunks' - it's still a mess! The removal of the Lunchtime Concert as a feature in its own right may well prove to be the most damaging part of the 'refresh'. On weekdays, once I've finished listening to 'Breakfast', I tend not to return to Radio 3 until 10.00 p.m.

Yes there are still complete works; they managed to do that in the previous version as well, but the inclusion of a bigger work at 3pm as a regular feature made it marginally easier to home in on the peripheral pieces.that might have been of interest. Now I just don't bother at all.Like you the radio goes off after Breakfast but, unlike you, rarely goes back on again as the evening concerts of interest are very few - perhaps one work every now and then, but not the whole thing - and the other programmes are also not particularly my thing.