Radio 3 Unwind starts on the 4th of November

[LMcD]

Being in the garden with sun and birdsong worked pretty well - and no data center demand involved!

Were you inspired to compose an ecstatic poem?

[Pulcinella]

More praise for R3 in today's Times letter:


Praise for Radio 3

Sir, I cannot agree with the criticism of Radio 3 on your letters page (Jan 25). There is no conceivable yardstick to define what “classical” music may be, or to distinguish the “good” from the “bad”. Each to his or her own. As great a musician as Hector Berlioz, in his memoirs, described the music of Palestrina as nothing but some pleasant chords interspersed with suspensions. The Third Programme first broadcast nearly 80 years ago, with the admirably Reithian injunction to “inform, educate and entertain”. Eighty years before that, Elgar was a young piano teacher and the works of Stravinsky and Gershwin — and the whole jazz era — were still in the future. Tout change, tout passe. With its varied programming and adaptation to constant change — and, dare I say, in its more “approachable” presentation — Radio 3 is carrying on Lord Reith's legacy.
David Boorer
Llandovery, Carmarthenshire

[smittims]

I can never decide whether people who write these letters are dupes or are paid to do so. Nearly everything in that letter is wrong or irrelevant.

[oddoneout]

I can never decide whether people who write these letters are dupes or are paid to do so. Nearly everything in that letter is wrong or irrelevant.

And such letters completely miss what for me is the major issue that, regardless of how you define it, presenting only bits and pieces from whole works for hours at a time removes any credibility about being 'the home of classical music'. It's a bit like saying that an all-day buffet is the same as a top quality restaurant; both serve food and both have their place, but that does not make them either equivalent or completely interchangeable.

[Kernow Malc]

I listened to Unwind for a couple minutes this morning- for the first time. Usual plug for 'Sounds' then a load of 'adverisement speak' drivel before the next track.. But by then I was gone.

[LMcD]

I can never decide whether people who write these letters are dupes or are paid to do so. Nearly everything in that letter is wrong or irrelevant.

A friend of mine was once asked to produce a spoof letter for a magazine whose editor was starting to despair of ever getting any reaction or feedback from her readers. He came up with 4, all of which she published. He didn't request, or receive, payment, his only reward being a promise of a pint of beer when he was next 'up in town'.
I myself once had a letter published in Radio Times in which I complained about the lack of letters from readers complaining about other readers who complained about people who appeared on programmes in which studio guests were encouraged to complain about each other. They printed it, so I clearly had no need to complain.

[Pulcinella]

A Sunday Times article:

https://www.thetimes.com/article/d2829e3d-fdec-4799-b09b-f786fb5448a1?shareToken=20f4c461bd8bb0503bf49783580cb2ee

[AuntDaisy]

A Sunday Times article:

https://www.thetimes.com/article/d28...f49783580cb2ee

Thanks Pulcinella - an interesting read.

"Any regular listener to Radio 3 or 4 cannot have missed the frequent dulcet-toned, come-hither call-outs for Radio 3 Unwind."
Incessant!!!!

"[Unwind] is not radio designed to make a listener sit up straight, but to feel cocooned. On Radio 3 proper the purpose is often more pedagogical. Programmes like Donald Macleod’s Composer of the Week or Matthew Sweet’s Sound of Cinema offer historical and cultural insight. On Unwind the intention seems to be to woo an audience who want passive, classy easy listening."
Well, it used to be Sadly, I'm listening to far fewer COTWs than I used to. Sound of Cinema - possibly heard a couple of programmes?

"Personally, I hope recent decisions such as axing drama from Radio 3 are to make more space for serious music exploration."
You'll be lucky.

[oddoneout]

Thanks Pulcinella - an interesting read.

"Any regular listener to Radio 3 or 4 cannot have missed the frequent dulcet-toned, come-hither call-outs for Radio 3 Unwind."
Incessant!!!!

"[Unwind] is not radio designed to make a listener sit up straight, but to feel cocooned. On Radio 3 proper the purpose is often more pedagogical. Programmes like Donald Macleod’s Composer of the Week or Matthew Sweet’s Sound of Cinema offer historical and cultural insight. On Unwind the intention seems to be to woo an audience who want passive, classy easy listening."
Well, it used to be Sadly, I'm listening to far fewer COTWs than I used to. Sound of Cinema - possibly heard a couple of programmes?

"Personally, I hope recent decisions such as axing drama from Radio 3 are to make more space for serious music exploration."
You'll be lucky.

Sound of Cinema strikes me as an odd choice, but then I suspect the writer is not aware of EMS which would be a better example of historical and cultural insight. I don't know about 'serious music exploration' (shades of recent posts on the FNIMN thread), but more music broadcast as the composer intended, ie complete, would be good. But as you say "You'll be lucky", and in any case ditching drama to achieve it is not an acceptable move.

[french frank]

I noted: "But there is, too, a nagging disquiet about being manipulated by a mawkish schedule." And not only on R3Unwind. We now have Radio Mindful v Radio Mindless. In addition to Classic FM and its spin-offs.

[AuntDaisy]

I noted: "But there is, too, a nagging disquiet about being manipulated by a mawkish schedule." And not only on R3Unwind. We now have Radio Mindful v Radio Mindless. In addition to Classic FM and its spin-offs.

But don't forget - it's a success, the figures say so!
"Jackson has his detractors, but also his fans: in the last period surveyed, Radio 3 registered a 10 per cent increase in listenership year-on-year."

[french frank]

But don't forget - it's a success, the figures say so!
"Jackson has his detractors, but also his fans: in the last period surveyed, Radio 3 registered a 10 per cent increase in listenership year-on-year."

That is so annoying when they use the R3 press office info and regurgitate it without bothering to check for spin.

[DracoM]

[Serial_Apologist]

Sound of Cinema strikes me as an odd choice, but then I suspect the writer is not aware of EMS which would be a better example of historical and cultural insight. I don't know about 'serious music exploration' (shades of recent posts on the FNIMN thread), but more music broadcast as the composer intended, ie complete, would be good. But as you say "You'll be lucky", and in any case ditching drama to achieve it is not an acceptable move.

Quite so - of composers who consciously remove all challenge from the kinds of music they compose in order to earn a penny or two for a film score or TV theme, fair enough, though surely one should question their being included on Radio 3 schedules. But nothing I can think of is as demeaning of intelligence as the degradation for this purpose of the reputation of composers of the past who never had intentions of this kind in mind. It seems today's cultural czars want everyone to forget our rich cultural inheritance and mediate their experience of today's complex world through some kind of cultural amnesia. I guess they feel they can get away with this kind of lap dogging now that the Carters, Goehrs, Maxwell Davises and Stockhausens are gone and out of the (thinking) way.

[smittims]

I was saddened by the Sunday Times article, which, once again, misses the point about the state of Radio 3. A missed opportunity.