Skelly replaces Cowan

[french frank]

But should we be focussing on personalities? Surely the issue is the general direction that Radio 3 has taken in the last decade and more. From a high quality station for serious listeners - to a frivolous entertainment for people with limited attention spans.

Hear, hear. Ian is a totally different 'personality' from Rob. There might be some characteristically intelligent wit in his presentation. And if he is given any choice in the playlist, I can't see him allowing 'Hello muddah, hello fadduh' on his programme.

I was trying to draw up a schedule for the 3 hours 9am- 12pm but see I didn't complete it, got sidetracked and have deleted my initial attempt. I wonder how many of other people's suggestions would suit me? My suspicion is that if everyone drew up their ideal schedule, I wouldn't like any of them. What are the sine qua nons and the no-nos?

[Alison]

I’d like the format to allow any work up to three hours long to be played in its entirety.

[jonfan]

Bring back James Jolly and Sarah Walker to Ess Cla and develop in depth interviews with guests in half hour slots each morning illustrating their musical tastes.

[french frank]

I’d like the format to allow any work up to three hours long to be played in its entirety.

Yes - allow that possibility. But I would divide it up into hours (roughly) and ensure that each hour had a full length work of c 35-40 mins, a secondary piece of 10-15 mins, and the remaining time with fillers as required. Each hour(or so) so be musically coherent: instrumental, era, composer e.g. Presenter input to be limited to explaining the 'coherence' with additional info; and basics of title-composer-performer(s).

But:

No guests - or create a separate programme, like the old Artist of the Week, with 30 minutes per day.

No listener suggestions

No regular features to encourage listener contributions

[cloughie]

I’d like the format to allow any work up to three hours long to be played in its entirety.

I agree though I can't think of many works of 2 hr 59 min that I would particularly want there as it would likely be an opera! Howevever a format that would facilitate for example complete Mahler 3 or Bruckner 8, both of which match the description of Essential Classics. But let's stop dreaming - if Rob was forced to abandon his great format for CD masters, and then was, I imagine, forced to drop increasing his number of longer full works, I don't see many changes now. We've been metaphorically p...ing into the wind for years and nothing has change, so it will probably continue to dumb down, down, down, down, down.....

To quote Don McLean's Vincent
'They would not listen, they're not listening still, perhaps they never will'

[Gasteiner]

Bring back James Jolly and Sarah Walker to Ess Cla and develop in depth interviews with guests in half hour slots each morning illustrating their musical tastes.

For me one of the worst features of "Essential Classics" (as it used to be before its recent calamitous fall even further into the abyss) was the half-hour slot with guests. I couldn't stand any of that old tripe, regardless of who the guest was. On the few occasions I happened to hear any of these interviews, it occurred to me that some of the interviewees had, at best, only a superficial interest in and knowledge of classical music. In many cases the focus of the interview was not so much on the virtues of the music selected, or its particular performance, but other aspects of the interviewee's background and other interests (latest book, play, film or whatever). None of this interested me in the middle of a programme that was supposed to be about "essential classics". If they have any value, such interviews should be confined to programmes like "Private Passions".

I agree that James Jolly is a big loss to R3, but I'm not sure that he was ever a regular presenter of Essential Classics. He used to be involved with the equivalent Sunday morning slot at the same time (9-12), prior to Sarah Walker's recent move to that programme. It struck me that, whilst James Jolly had little choice but to go along broadly with the format dictated by the programme directors (e.g. references to listeners' tweets and other such rubbish interventions), he treated all that side-stuff as quickly as possible in order to focus on the music. The same can't be said for most other presenters, who seemed to me to relish the rubbish aspects more than the music, e.g. couldn't wait to get onto the morning's quiz.

In short, I'm more or less resigned to the fact that all of R3 morning programmes, with the exception of Record Review, are now no better than the corrresponding offerings from CFM, and that's a pretty bad standard.

[DracoM]

[BBMmk2]

Hiya Maestro,

Is that chunky, as in bleeding chunky?

Absolutely!

[french frank]

I agree that James Jolly is a big loss to R3, but I'm not sure that he was ever a regular presenter of Essential Classics.

Not Essential Classics, but he alternated with Sarah Walker on Classical Collection, predecessor to EC. Rob was then on Breakfast duty.

I'm slightly surprised that people are more forgiving about the guest slot if the guest is interesting and intelligent. For me the sine qua non for such a slot would be that - unlike Private Passions - the guest is a specialist in some aspect of classical music; and that a good knowledgeable interviewer discusses that aspect of music, with examples of points discussed.

At the moment the guest is the 'relief' between all those 'demanding' classical snippets.

[Rob Cowan]

Will you still be doing BaL's on Record Review, Rob?

Regretfully no, Pastoralguy - although before the move was intending to do one. Never mind. I want to instigate a gnomic version of it on CFM if I can. Best. Rob

[antongould]

...... for those without access to the joys of Facebook ......



ff
"As people have been noting, the latest change to R3 mornings is the announced departure of Rob Cowan for Classic FM. It has never been FoR3 policy to 'like' and 'dislike' presenters (criticisms on professional standards are fair game). Rob has been much admired for his extensive knowledge in his special field, but even good presenters can do little with poorly conceived programmes. So while we wish Rob all the best in his new slot, we wish Ian Skelly even more luck with the Poisoned Chalice of the current Essential Classics. Happy Christmas, both!"

RC
"Interesting concepts FoR3 - and great to hear from you. Ian is a great bloke and equally great to listen to and I'm sure he will attract a keen audience. I think 'poisoned chalice' is a little harsh, as the programme should evolve, but let's hope Ian plays a key role in its evolution."

FF
"Hello, Rob. Good to hear from you. 'Poisoned Chalice' from the point of view of common listener responses. Guests talking about themselves and knowing nothing about music, single movements, listeners' requests and suggestions, even if appalling, other listener contributions. Something more *music-focused*, with full-length works like there used to be (there was one anyway) would be appreciated in some quarters. Yes, let's hope Ian has a magic philtre for that chalice."

No Skellers thus far ..... probably writing the Prince's Christmas words to the Nation ....

[jonfan]

Regretfully no, Pastoralguy - although before the move was intending to do one. Never mind. I want to instigate a gnomic version of it on CFM if I can. Best. Rob

I don’t see how you can do a serious BAL on CFM, Rob, when dynamic compression distorts the sound so badly.

[Gasteiner]

.. For me the sine qua non for such a slot would be that - unlike Private Passions - the guest is a specialist in some aspect of classical music; and that a good knowledgeable interviewer discusses that aspect of music, with examples of points discussed.

I would agree if you have in mind something along the lines of an occasional expert guest on Donald Macleod's "Composer of the Week", in the relatively few cases where he lacks sufficient in-depth knowledge of the particular composer under scrutiny to do a good job by his own resources. That is an excellent programme BTW.

With that exception, in other playlist programmes I don't like a lot of commentary either before or after a piece is played, however much knowledge/expertise may be applied by the presenter in the case in question. I don't know why so many of them feel obliged to rabbit on and on about things like how much they liked the piece as a teenager, how they wore out the grooves on their first recording of the work, how they recall chatting with the artist at some long-distant prom, blah blah.

Some presenters are far worse at this kind of thing than others, with no specific names mentioned. I'm not remotely interested in any of that kind of extraneous information. Just a straightforward explanation of the piece to be played, by which performer(s), when it was recorded, and whether or not it contains any notable features that make it stand out for the better from other recordings (if relevant) is all that's needed.

I only listen to R3 for classical music, or rather used to do so before the abysmal changes that have been foisted upon us recently. I am not interested in chatty programmes of any description around classical music, with the exception of Composer of the Week and Record Review.

[DracoM]

R3 trapped into a R2 presenter-led structure with trails, tweets, guests, plus frantically trying to scrape an audience from either R2 or CFM or both, while not losing its core audience. R3 has become a shabby mongrel uncertain of its home, and finally ending up in Battersea......

OK, so that is the daytime mess. Lunchtime and Evening schedules by and large fine.

[cloughie]

No Skellers thus far ..... probably writing the Prince's Christmas words to the Nation ....

A bit late for that we lost him earlier this year ....oh that Prince!