The Eternal Breakfast Debate in a New Place

[french frank]

yesterday on Breakfast PT was able to give an exact date when a piece he had just played was last broadcast on R3 (eleven years previously apparently). which led me to suppose that they must have some sort of database at their fingertips which lists every work that has ever been broadcast and frequency of broadcasting - could this be so ?

I understood that was the case. Before the latest changes they used to show recent airings on one page.

Playlist editor failed to include 'Vasilievich' in Rachmaninov's name so the software didn't recognise it (I hypothesise) and failed to provide a Rachmaninov link - ah, they still list the airings here since 2008 of the piece displayed (to the right of the bio).

(Good opportunity to provide a big advert for the Proms too.)

[BBMmk2]

They had Girl Crazy on again!!! There's a multitude of music that GG wrote besides the narrow choice that R3 seems to have?

[Crowcatcher]

I listened for a few minutes, just before 8am today, to find out if there were still any reasons for me not to listen to Breakfast any more, and witnessed a new depravity from SMP, very much in the fashion of barely watchable TV programmes - "and coming up a bit later in the programme......." followed by a list of later items.

so back to my recording of TTN.

Can it get any worse?

[Bax-of-Delights]

There is now an obvious and determined strategy being used primarily in Breakfast but also in Essential Classics and that is to squeeze in as many listener name-checks as possible. Over and above the listener phone call at 7.35 there are a constant stream of tweets and emails quoted which one assumes is conducted as part of an "inclusivity" exercise. The playing of the music and its content are now playing second fiddle to the listener "interaction". Add in the news segments spouted every 15 minutes and the endless prattling of S M-P and you have the Breakfast programme summed up.

And on Tuesdays just how many times does S M-P have to say "Specialist Classical Chart"? Is there some stipulation that she must repeat this mantra at least 30-50 times?

[french frank]

And on Tuesdays just how many times does S M-P have to say "Specialist Classical Chart"? Is there some stipulation that she must repeat this mantra at least 30-50 times?

It occurred to me that Radio 3 did get some sort of payment for publicising these discs. After all, the chart itself is a marketing tool of the record companies and retailers in the hope of selling more CDs. Radio 3's high profile promotion must be very welcome.

[french frank]

This is from today's offering:

Johann Strauss II: Csardas
RVW: Greensleeves
Eric Coates: Three Elizabeths suite (one movt)
Verdi: La Trav: ‘Libiamo’
Respighi: 4 mins of the Ancient Airs and Dances
Gounod: Symph No 1 (1st movt only)
Handel: Silent worship
Jimmy Shand: Polka
Haydn: Symph No 6 (1st movt only)
Lehar: ‘Meine Lippen so [sic] kussen so heiss’ from Guiditta [sic]
Gershwin: Piano concerto (2nd movt – part of)

[NB All omitted diacritics are their own]

That accounts for 11 of the 22 works. Expect more of this standard as we approach Proms season (I think it was last year's programmes that had full page adverts for Breakfast on them). I fancy I read somewhere that people who go to concerts don't necessarily listen to Radio 3 - to which there is no answer (in the words of the immortal Eric).

[Beef Oven]

This is from today's offering:

Johann Strauss II: Csardas
RVW: Greensleeves
Eric Coates: Three Elizabeths suite (one movt)
Verdi: La Trav: ‘Libiamo’
Respighi: 4 mins of the Ancient Airs and Dances
Gounod: Symph No 1 (1st movt only)
Handel: Silent worship
Jimmy Shand: Polka
Haydn: Symph No 6 (1st movt only)
Lehar: ‘Meine Lippen so [sic] kussen so heiss’ from Guiditta [sic]
Gershwin: Piano concerto (2nd movt – part of)

[NB All omitted diacritics are their own]

That accounts for 11 of the 22 works. Expect more of this standard as we approach Proms season (I think it was last year's programmes that had full page adverts for Breakfast on them). I fancy I read somewhere that people who go to concerts don't necessarily listen to Radio 3 - to which there is no answer (in the words of the immortal Eric).

I apologise for barging in, ill-informed and not grasping the real issue, but I want to air my view.

Most people (unlike us in here) can't, and/or won't concentrate on a piece of music beyond 2/3 minutes.

How is radio3 supposed to maintain itself in the next 100 years when the likes of us are all gone?

[amateur51]

I apologise for barging in, ill-informed and not grasping the real issue, but I want to air my view.

Most people (unlike us in here) can't, and/or won't concentrate on a piece of music beyond 2/3 minutes.

How is radio3 supposed to maintain itself in the next 100 years when the likes of us are all gone?

I haven't listened to Breakfast for years now, because of the piecemeal approach and the natter that permeates it now. Occasionally i'll listen at the weekend when thoughtful people with a professional approach like Martin Handley and Ian Skelly tend to be given their heads. in that sense, I am already lost to Radio Three at Breakfast-time and I resent it bitterly.

CFM is infinitely worse of course because of the adverts and even greater inanities but I'd say that Radio 3 is heading in that direction in the mornings too with all those 'trails'. Between them these radio stations have created a 'no choice' situation for me domestically which I solve in other ways, e.g., i-player or other European/American stations, CDs or ... silence

[cloughie]

I apologise for barging in, ill-informed and not grasping the real issue, but I want to air my view.

Most people (unlike us in here) can't, and/or won't concentrate on a piece of music beyond 2/3 minutes.

How is radio3 supposed to maintain itself in the next 100 years when the likes of us are all gone?

OK Classic FM is their bag then - let them get on with it - meanwhile let's have COMPLETE on Radio 3
Eric Coates: Three Elizabeths suite
Respighi: (A full suite of) Ancient Airs and Dances
Gounod: Sym 1 (What lovely music)
Haydn: Sym 6
Gershwin: Piano concerto
and Beethoven:Sym 9 (movts 1 2 & 3) - well the full thing would crash the pips.

[Beef Oven]

OK Classic FM is their bag then - let them get on with it - meanwhile let's have COMPLETE on Radio 3
Eric Coates: Three Elizabeths suite
Respighi: (A full suite of) Ancient Airs and Dances
Gounod: Sym 1 (What lovely music)
Haydn: Sym 6
Gershwin: Piano concerto
and Beethoven:Sym 9 (movts 1 2 & 3) - well the full thing would crash the pips.

And when we're pushing up the daisies, what then?

[cloughie]

And when we're pushing up the daisies, what then?

We'll have had our last Breakfast!

[french frank]

Most people (unlike us in here) can't, and/or won't concentrate on a piece of music beyond 2/3 minutes.

'Most people' are never going to be listening to Radio 3 anyway. Why cater for those least able to cope?

How is radio3 supposed to maintain itself in the next 100 years when the likes of us are all gone?

If there becomes no need for Radio 3, close it down and be done with it. Don't fool people by turning it into something else gradually. In the meantime, they could cease to marginalise classical music, at least on BBC television and radio, by confining it to ghettoes which become progressively more popularised (cf the Lachenmann point about BBC Four).

Radio 3 (the Third Programme) educated generations of music lovers who replaced those who had ended up 'pushing up the daisies'. Why has it abandoned that role?

[mercia]

SPM must be knowledgeable, she has a Cambridge 1st (hons) in music and a Masters in musicology

[Bax-of-Delights]

S M-P: "Proms, blah blah blah, proms, blah blah blah, proms proms proms, blah blah blah - a bit of music - proms, blah blah blah, tweet, email - a bit of music - proms proms proms" (und so weiter...)


What always puzzles me is the phrase often used by Rob Cowan and others concerning a piece of music:

"This is a piece that doesn't get played enough".

So, er, why don't you play it more often rather than the usual CFM Top 100? What's stopping you?

[Beef Oven]

If there becomes no need for Radio 3, close it down and be done with it.

That's just it! That's where we're heading!

What's wrong with modernising and sustaining Radio 3 for future generations?