Is there now too much vocal music on R3 in the evenings?

[Guest]

Has anyone else noticed that there seems to have been a significant increase in vocal music concerts during Radio 3 Live in Concert perfomances in recent months? I know that the Wagner/Verdi celebrations have probably been skewing things a little bit recently but this trend has been apparent now for most of this year.
Take this week for instance when only one night - tonight - is vocal music free and all of the other four nights are entirely or partly filled with opera, lieder or motet works. Given that Saturday is always given over to opera and Sunday genrally has a drama work, are we none-vocal music lovers now being short changed? Even the afternoon slots are now being often filled up with vocal musci and quite a few of the recent CotW programmes seem to have been filled up composers who major on songs and stuff.

Can I have my symphonies, concertos, chamber and instrumental music back please - I don't do the human voice unless its in music that predates 1700, and even then only in quite small doses.

Anyone care to comment?

[Nick Armstrong]

Has anyone else noticed that there seems to have been a significant increase in vocal music concerts during Radio 3 Live in Concert perfomances in recent months?

...

Given that Saturday is always given over to opera and Sunday genrally has a drama work, are we none-vocal music lovers now being short changed?

...

Anyone care to comment?

Yes, yes and yes!

I've loaded some recorded episodes of Through the Night onto the SD cards that play in the digital radios at home, episodes which were chosen largely because they consist of

symphonies, concertos, chamber and instrumental music

and these are playing this week rather than anything else.

One episode starts with the two Widor piano concertos - they've got a lot of airing lately, love 'em!

[marvin]

As someone who finds the human voice, as an instrument, extremely irritating in most cases (there are of course exceptions), I of course would like more orchestral and symphonic work on R3 and less vocal intrusions, to be honest.

[aeolium]

Surely it shouldn't really be a matter of R3 satisfying your personal taste (or any particular personal taste) but providing a range of different forms of classical music (plus jazz, world)? If you look at the schedule overall, orchestral music generally predominates over all other forms. Music with voices is not usually over-represented and some forms and genres - chamber music and contemporary music for instance - are arguably under-represented.

One reason why opera and song recitals are appearing more frequently this year might be that three major anniversary composers - Britten, Verdi and Wagner - composed more operas and other vocal music rather than purely orchestral music. But I doubt it significantly alters the bias in the schedules towards orchestral music.

[BBMmk2]

As far as TTN, goes, i think I must take in more of that programme, but I thinki it all depends, really, on taste.

[Wensleydale Blue]

[QUOTE=aeolium;297740]Surely it shouldn't really be a matter of R3 satisfying your personal taste (or any particular personal taste) but providing a range of different forms of classical music (plus jazz, world)? If you look at the schedule overall, orchestral music generally predominates over all other forms. Music with voices is not usually over-represented and some forms and genres - chamber music and contemporary music for instance - are arguably under-represented.

Of course R3 must satisfy my personal tastes. If it doesn't I'll go elsewhere - primarily to my CD collection. And, of course, I also accept that the station's programmers have got got to find a balanace that satisfies a wide range of tastes. The point in my OP is that over the last six months or so that balance seems to have shifted away from orchestral music, previously the predominant form of music in its evening output, to a greater concentration on vocal music in various forms. I regret this and, accordingly, like Caliban, have increasingly found myself not in R3's company for the majority of weekday evenings. I firmly agree with you about the dearth of chamber and contemporary music on the chanel and would welcome more, especially if was at the expense of the current 'singathon'.

Interstingly, while this topic hasn't had too many replies, suggesting that the majority are quite content with the way things are going, I am happy note that this week the station has relented and has cut the singing down to just 50% of its evening output.

[aeolium]

The point in my OP is that over the last six months or so that balance seems to have shifted away from orchestral music, previously the predominant form of music in its evening output, to a greater concentration on vocal music in various forms.

But do you have the evidence to support that, or is it just a feeling? For instance, in the schedule for the week commencing 13 May three of the five weekday evening concerts were of orchestral music, only one of vocal music. In fact, looking at the schedules generally for that week, orchestral music dominates the schedules for Through the Night, Essential Classics, Composer of the Week, Afternoon Performance and Performance on 3 (I haven't bothered to check the odds and ends in Breakfast) - so, the vast majority of the day. I do not compile statistics for the proportions of music genres in the schedules - Suffolkcoastal would be much better informed about that than I - but I think it highly likely that orchestral music continues to dominate most scheduled programmes in the R3 week.

I would agree with you that there have in the last few months or so been more concerts of vocal and chamber music broadcast in the evening than there used to be - and that may well have something to do with R3 budget cuts, the smaller-scale concerts presumably being cheaper. But I suggest that that is a change from an extremely small proportion to a larger but still small proportion compared with orchestral concerts (and bear in mind that the vast majority of the Prom concerts in the evening are orchestral concerts).

[french frank]

I would agree with you that there have in the last few months or so been more concerts of vocal and chamber music broadcast in the evening than there used to be - and that may well have something to do with R3 budget cuts, the smaller-scale concerts presumably being cheaper.

The previous Director-General's proposals for saving money (accepted by the BBC) included for Radio 3:

Broadcast around 25 per cent fewer live and specially recorded lunchtime concerts
Reduce the cost of evening concerts by broadcasting fewer orchestral concerts and replacing them with chamber and instrumental concerts
Less specially recorded contemporary music for Hear and Now

[amateur51]

The previous Director-General's proposals for saving money (accepted by the BBC) included for Radio 3:

Broadcast around 25 per cent fewer live and specially recorded lunchtime concerts
Reduce the cost of evening concerts by broadcasting fewer orchestral concerts and replacing them with chamber and instrumental concerts
Less specially recorded contemporary music for Hear and Now

And this was the noodle who wasted £100m on the now abandoned Digital Media Project :headslap:

[aeolium]

Reduce the cost of evening concerts by broadcasting fewer orchestral concerts and replacing them with chamber and instrumental concerts

Then irrespective of the reason for making that change I think it has been for the better. There were too few evening concerts of chamber and instrumental music previously, and too many orchestral concerts which covered the same repertoire over and over again.