Radio 3 Unwind starts on the 4th of November

[hmvman]

....did you know Haydn wrote a work with the word 'Sweatshirt' in it - can't remember what it was now!

BTW I love the silence before the (AI?) announcer too...a sort of automated 'Ultimate Calm' type voice!

I'll have to listen out for that Haydn 'sweatshirt' piece...

I'm fascinated by the announcer's voice and how he (it?) often ends sentences in a sort of whisper - almost like an exhaling of breath. I'm sure it would be impossible to hear if you were listening in the car!

[Roger Webb]

I didn't listen much over the Xmas period so missed the Parsifal ident. I haven't found a translation of the page but I can usually determine what the music is and the names of the composers and performers. (Funny enough, though, if the cookies permission box comes up there is an English option on it!)

One other thing I meant to mention about Klassinen is that there is also a decent silence between the end of the music and the announcements and between the announcements and the start of the music.

The reason I mention a translation is that from the web page you can find a complete listing of the programme's running order with timings. Even when listening via streamer on an 'aggregator' (vTuner) I can use my tablet (android) to bring up the web page and google translate does the rest.....with hilarious results....did you know Haydn wrote a work with the word 'Sweatshirt' in it - can't remember what it was now!

BTW I love the silence before the (AI?) announcer too...a sort of automated 'Ultimate Calm' type voice!

[Hitch]

I'm not sure if anyone here has seen this BBC document about the introduction of the new radio stations, including Unwind. The PDF file was published on 21st November. Sections 3.5., 5.3 & 5.7, containing the Unwind proposal and budget, seem to be the most relevant. My apologies if this is old news.

PDF file link: BBC New Music Radio Stations: Public Interest Test Submission

[LMcD]

I didn't listen much over the Xmas period so missed the Parsifal ident. I haven't found a translation of the page but I can usually determine what the music is and the names of the composers and performers. (Funny enough, though, if the cookies permission box comes up there is an English option on it!)

One other thing I meant to mention about Klassinen is that there is also a decent silence between the end of the music and the announcements and between the announcements and the start of the music.

Yet another reason for tuning in. I'm starting to recognize the Finnish for various instruments by clicking on the 'Now Playing' link.

[hmvman]

Listening to YLE right now...what a wonderful varied programme it is too. I pride my self on a fairly decent knowledge of the classical repertoire, by I can sometimes go a whole morning without recognising the name of a single composer....Nápravnik and Bonporti to come this morning!

The 'ident' you mention got a little tedious over Xmas as they kept repeating the Parsifal one, but infinately better than Radio 3 adverts. My Finnish is non existent too, but I'm sure they just give the composer, work and performers. Do you get a translation of the running order page?

I didn't listen much over the Xmas period so missed the Parsifal ident. I haven't found a translation of the page but I can usually determine what the music is and the names of the composers and performers. (Funny enough, though, if the cookies permission box comes up there is an English option on it!)

One other thing I meant to mention about Klassinen is that there is also a decent silence between the end of the music and the announcements and between the announcements and the start of the music.

[Roger Webb]

Same here. As far as I can tell the announcements between the music are simply a description of what's just been played - composer, work, performers - and what's going to be played next - composer, work, performers. Just occasionally there'll be a brief 'station ident' but that's it.

Listening to YLE right now...what a wonderful varied programme it is too. I pride my self on a fairly decent knowledge of the classical repertoire, by I can sometimes go a whole morning without recognising the name of a single composer....Nápravnik and Bonporti to come this morning!

The 'ident' you mention got a little tedious over Xmas as they kept repeating the Parsifal one, but infinately better than Radio 3 adverts. My Finnish is non existent too, but I'm sure they just give the composer, work and performers. Do you get a translation of the running order page?

[oddoneout]

Owing to my lamentable unfamiliarity with the Finnish language I can understand, at best, only the name of the composer or performers when listening to yle Klassinen and thus remain blissfully unaware of whether it promotes itself between works, but I suspect it doesn't, which is another reason to make it my first port of call in my listening day.

I don't think it does - there doesn't seem enough verbiage(like you I am not familiar with the language) between the items to cover the music info as well as anything extra. BR-Klassik does do promotion, but as I don't understand most of it it doesn't irritate to the same degree as on R3.

[hmvman]

Owing to my lamentable unfamiliarity with the Finnish language I can understand, at best, only the name of the composer or performers when listening to yle Klassinen and thus remain blissfully unaware of whether it promotes itself between works, but I suspect it doesn't, which is another reason to make it my first port of call in my listening day.

Same here. As far as I can tell the announcements between the music are simply a description of what's just been played - composer, work, performers - and what's going to be played next - composer, work, performers. Just occasionally there'll be a brief 'station ident' but that's it.

[LMcD]

It was only a matter of time before TTN became infected with the virus that has taken over the daytime schedules. If I was being generous I would say that is the result of someone higher up the chain misunderstanding the TTN audience and assuming that because of its time slot those listening must be of the 'music as medicine' mindset. The idea that they are are in fact listening for reasons related to a simple desire to hear a selection of music that may be unfamiliar in part but which will always be played complete, and without unnecessary interruptions, will not be taken into account; neither will the fact that many may choose to listen during the day(not least due to the now inadequate offering in the daytime schedules) taking advantage of the wonders of Sounds that are so relentlessly promoted throughout the R3 output.
No, it is just seen as a large chunk of airspace that, in this instance, isn't doing its bit for BBC self-promotion.

Owing to my lamentable unfamiliarity with the Finnish language I can understand, at best, only the name of the composer or performers when listening to yle Klassinen and thus remain blissfully unaware of whether it promotes itself between works, but I suspect it doesn't, which is another reason to make it my first port of call in my listening day.

[oddoneout]

TTN in recent nights features a puff for the Unwind concept with someone praising "music that allows me to feel what I am feeling" or some such narcissism. I don't mind the so-called 'commodification of music', I still speak the language of 1970s Marxism enough to understand that music is always a commodity at some basic level. What turns me off this earnest well-meant concept is the notion that appreciation of music or the other arts starts with dear-little-me and my own precious feelings and wound-up mind. Rather than offering a window to the minds, thoughts emotions of OTHERS. Or offering a source and inspiration of feelings that you never had imagined. I don't go to the opera to find myself, or for therapy...

It was only a matter of time before TTN became infected with the virus that has taken over the daytime schedules. If I was being generous I would say that is the result of someone higher up the chain misunderstanding the TTN audience and assuming that because of its time slot those listening must be of the 'music as medicine' mindset. The idea that they are are in fact listening for reasons related to a simple desire to hear a selection of music that may be unfamiliar in part but which will always be played complete, and without unnecessary interruptions, will not be taken into account; neither will the fact that many may choose to listen during the day(not least due to the now inadequate offering in the daytime schedules) taking advantage of the wonders of Sounds that are so relentlessly promoted throughout the R3 output.
No, it is just seen as a large chunk of airspace that, in this instance, isn't doing its bit for BBC self-promotion.

[Saint-Loup]

TTN in recent nights features a puff for the Unwind concept with someone praising "music that allows me to feel what I am feeling" or some such narcissism. I don't mind the so-called 'commodification of music', I still speak the language of 1970s Marxism enough to understand that music is always a commodity at some basic level. What turns me off this earnest well-meant concept is the notion that appreciation of music or the other arts starts with dear-little-me and my own precious feelings and wound-up mind. Rather than offering a window to the minds, thoughts emotions of OTHERS. Or offering a source and inspiration of feelings that you never had imagined. I don't go to the opera to find myself, or for therapy...

[oddoneout]

You'll be anything but relaxed then, waiting to find out.

Possibly not, but I won't avail myself of the invitation from R3Woo-Woo to 'unwind my mind'...

[Pulcinella]

As a slight aside I have just had an email from a family member who is a volunteer at Inverewe gardens, which features in this first episode. Apparently the filming was delayed by nearly two months and when they did turn up the weather was against them and the plants not at their best so there is considerable interest to see to what extent TV magic will triumph in the end result!

You'll be anything but relaxed then, waiting to find out.

[oddoneout]

The disease is spreading.

This is from the preview of

Monty Don's British Gardens
BBC2, 8pm

in today's Times:

It is all as relaxing as anything you will see this month.

As a slight aside I have just had an email from a family member who is a volunteer at Inverewe gardens, which features in this first episode. Apparently the filming was delayed by nearly two months and when they did turn up the weather was against them and the plants not at their best so there is considerable interest to see to what extent TV magic will triumph in the end result!

[hmvman]

Absolutely nothig wrong with it at all. But misleading to associate it with Radio 3 and classical music as such. Just commodification of art rather than art itself. As an individual, I expect Radio 3 to offer more than that. That's not what the creators originally intended it to do: it's the contemporary appropriation of classical music to help people sleep. One either considers that important or one doesn't.

We certainly live in 'interesting' times when on the one hand the BBC and CFM are commodifying classical music as a relaxant, while on the other police forces are advising its weaponisation to deter criminals:

https://www.standard.co.uk/news/london/classical-music-crime-st-johns-wood-b1203247.html