BBCNOW tonight 12th November at 7.30

[ferneyhoughgeliebte]

I am content with what I hear and have no wish to judge a performance by what the meters and dials of this sophisticated(sic) equipment tell me I am supposedly missing. I suspect that the vast majority of Radio 3 listeners (particularly on their car radios) are also content with what they hear and have no wish to be told that they are missing something important

You may be right HS, but that should not mean that those people who are concerned that the the finest Music is best represented through the finest audio systems should be excluded from Forum Threads just because you "really [are] getting fed up with all this talk". If we all were to follow your wishes as expressed in your last phrase here, then about a quarter of Jayne's excellent postings would have to be censored.

I will, however, concede that there is some music being offered for our delectation and delight these days which would sound no worse if it were to be received on a crystal set.

HS

... which neatly turns the thread back on topic to Rachmaninoff!

[Bryn]

The Portsmouth Sinfonia is, sadly, no more. The disdain shown here for discussion of the relative merits and some of the technicalities involved in broadcast modes is, of course, to be expected on a U.K. based forum. That does not make such disdain any less tiresome. As to breaks in transmission via the the iPlayer, Jayne has often offered a solution via these boards. I exploit an alternative method via the Listen Again facility. However, that method is one best not discussed openly here. In the car I tend to access Radio 3 via DAB. It offers me a much more consistent signal than FM on long journeys. No sudden jumps at transmitter boundaries, etc. Disruption when passing close to mobile phone transmitters is an annoyance re. my DAB reception, however. It has been suggested here that an external rather than an windscreen aerial mind resolve the problem, however. I will try it some time.

[Oh, and re. the detachable bell. The screw thread is not the most friendly of contributions to the tone potential of the instrument, but perhaps that's a bit too technical.]

[Hornspieler]

The Portsmouth Sinfonia is, sadly, no more. The disdain shown here for discussion of the relative merits and some of the technicalities involved in broadcast modes is, of course, to be expected on a U.K. based forum. That does not make such disdain any less tiresome. As to breaks in transmission via the the iPlayer, Jayne has often offered a solution via these boards. I exploit an alternative method via the Listen Again facility. However, that method is one best not discussed openly here. In the car I tend to access Radio 3 via DAB. It offers me a much more consistent signal than FM on long journeys. No sudden jumps at transmitter boundaries, etc. Disruption when passing close to mobile phone transmitters is an annoyance re. my DAB reception, however. It has been suggested here that an external rather than an windscreen aerial mind resolve the problem, however. I will try it some time.
[COLOR="#0000FF"]

So all the Michael Nyman business is nonsense? But my point remains - if it works satisfactorily, use it.

[Oh, and re. the detachable bell. The screw thread is not the most friendly of contributions to the tone potential of the instrument, but perhaps that's a bit too technical.]

Poppycock! I used an instrument with detachable bell throughout my professional career. Good enough to broadcast as a concerto soloist and in public performances and recitals as well as holding principal horn chairs in four orchestras. I suggest that unless you are, or have been, a professional horn player, you are putting theory before practical experience.

HS

[Bryn]

Do pay attention. Michael Nyman played a cheap French horn of Chinese manufacture in the Porstmouth Sinfonia (Brian Eno played clarinet in the same ensemble). Michael's horn had a detachable bell the screw thread on which was not of the highest quality. It led to a fair bit of additional 'buzzing' which coloured the tone if the instrument. The orchestra, set up by students (mainly art students) of Gavin Bryars at Portsmouth Polytechnic, ran for a few years (roughly contemporaneously with the Scratch Orchestra) then disbanded. Its few recordings remain much sought after and command silly prices. Sometimes Mr. Nyman played the Euphonium in place of the French horn:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=PLsFGgfvx8o&feature=related

[Hornspieler]

You may be right HS, but that should not mean that those people who are concerned that the the finest Music is best represented through the finest audio systems should be excluded from Forum Threads just because you "really [are] getting fed up with all this talk". If we all were to follow your wishes as expressed in your last phrase here, then about a quarter of Jayne's excellent postings would have to be censored.



... which neatly turns the thread back on topic to Rachmaninoff!

Absolutely right, Fernie. But this is the Performance thread, not the radio reception thread.

Jayne's reviews are quite excellent, but surely all this stuff about reception quality, HD streams and kbps, belongs on the technical forum and has little to do with the conductor and orchestra's account of the music.

HS

[Bryn]

Absolutely right, Fernie. But this is the Performance thread, not the radio reception thread.

Jayne's reviews are quite excellent, but surely all this stuff about reception quality, HD streams and kbps, belongs on the technical forum and has little to do with the conductor and orchestra's account of the music.

HS

Nonsense. It has everything to do with hearing it as clearly as it possible. This is a Performance thread on the Radio 3 Forum. Of course it is well within the bounds of the discussion to consider the relative merits and demerits of the various ways of accessing the performance concerned.

[EdgeleyRob]

Jayne, I hope your wonderful reviews are printed somewhere and not just for these boards

Hear hear,they deserve a wider audience,quite brilliant.

[jayne lee wilson]

The technical and the musical have always gone hand-in-hand for me. When I listened to Radio 3 on my Dad's first stereo (rest of the family came to see the garage-doors and ping-pong balls, then didn't bother much - good for me!) I wondered why some concerts were clear, others so hissy. The thin wire that constituted the aerial was hung over the curtain-rail...

Seeing the Winter Hill and Moel-y-parc transmitters, distantly visible under a clear blue winter sky, the idea of music transmitted to the rooftops, or the shiny steel telescopics of your Grundig, always had a certain romance. My Chimney Aerials went from 2 to 4 to 8 elements - then I was happy, even a Leak Troughline was quiet (4.5 millivolts was just enough)!
Later I felt betrayed by the awful choice between heavily compressed FM and low-bitrate DAB, and almost gave up R3 concerts after 2006. Not Hi-Fidelity, but Infidelity on both sides.

So my return, on August 17 2009, listening to Stravinsky's Orpheus played by the BBCSSO/Ilan Volkov on Listen Again at 192 kbps AAC - alerted to the possibility by The Guardian and HiFi News - was a grand rapprochement. That day I'd been into town to buy a Cambridge DacMagic, just for that specific purpose. (It led to other things...)

The present "HD" webstream has only been running 2 years or so. It's a kind of European flagship for what lossy ADSL systems can do, so we should be both grateful and proud of it. It's a symbol of a broadcasting organisation that takes classical music seriously. Not that THAT will ever be front page news.

It's a little corner of excellence in a world that largely turns away to more sensational pleasures. Mind you, the relevant performance of the Rachmaninov Symphonic Dances might have benefited from a little more of the latter.

(I didn't hear part one by the way - as so often I was back too late to settle down for it...)

[Bryn]

... (I didn't hear part one by the way - as so often I was back too late to settle down for it...)

That's no excuse. Do try to catch it via/from the iPlayer 'Listen Again' facility, especially the Elgar. Your post reminds me of when I first moved up to an FM Yagi (not above the roof but in my bedroom!). What a transformation, and that was in Penge, South London.

[salymap]

As I posted earlier I really enjoyed the performance of Cockaigne but couldn't see anything on iPlayer about HD or any other details. As an oldie I find the changes in iPlayer are a step backwards - everything is made more complicated.

I like the Rach too and hope to access it later.

[Alison]

Would Jayne or someone be able to explain a bit more on the I tunes link, please ?

Where exactly is that found ? I was pleased to discover during my search building a library podcasts easily available but not what I assume to be a Radio 3 live stream.

[Sir Velo]

For anyone who has yet to listen to the HD facility; the simplest, non-technical explanation I can give is that it is essentially the same quality as CD. If your FM reception, or other mode of listening, provides equivalent sound quality then fine. If not, then as JLW and Bryn testify, I recommend listening to the HD feed, either Live or on Listen Again. Extremely easy to set up a feed through one's amp, and no, I've not had a problem with interruption to the feed either!

[Bryn]

As I posted earlier I really enjoyed the performance of Cockaigne but couldn't see anything on iPlayer about HD or any other details. As an oldie I find the changes in iPlayer are a step backwards - everything is made more complicated.

I like the Rach too and hope to access it later.

Apologies for not responding to your earlier message. The trick is to access the iPlayer via the icon with the two overlapping squares ("Listen in pop-out player"), just to the right of the main loud speaker icon on the page linked to below:

http://www.bbc.co.uk/programmes/b01nt1vh

That brings up a window which not only indicates whether HD sound is in use but also gives you the opportunity to switch between 'HI' and 'LO' bandwidth (and thus resolution).

[Richard Tarleton]

The disdain shown here for discussion of the relative merits and some of the technicalities involved in broadcast modes is, of course, to be expected on a U.K. based forum.

I certainly didn't mean to indicate disdain - rather, a sort of weltschmerz at being constantly outstripped by the technology, and my house having evolved in entirely the wrong way. We were on a slow dial-up connection here (very rural) until 2008, when broadband arrived. Receiving a digital R3 signal via our satellite box back in 2001 seemed a huge advance on FM, and I upgraded my hifi system a few years later. But the (desktop) computer with its attachments (including tiny speakers) and (since 2008) broadband connection evolved in one room - a sort of office - and the TV and hi-fi system in another. Receiving R3 online in the living room would mean major domestic upheaval. That's my problem - I just wanted to understand what was being talked about. So thanks to all for the explanations.

I too love jayne's reviews - I just skip over the tecchie bits

[Bryn]

Receiving R3 online in the living room would mean major domestic upheaval.

Aha, I think you might find a solution to that if you went for a Wi-Fi router and considered something like a Squeezebox. It did look as if Logitech was abandoning the devices but very recently they have been promoting them again and have just launched some new accessories aimed at Windows 8. johnb is the man who knows what's what re. the Squeezebox. I have one but have still not got round to installing it. Maybe if and when I get some real holiday time ...