Tearjerker, Downtown Symphony, Piano Flow, Happy Harmonies and other Saturday padding

[Nick Armstrong]

And Alan Davey gets this year's Radio 3 Kwasi Kwarteng Award. Well done, Alan

Good words, which apply across the board and not just to opera it seems to me:

'Stop apologising, stop trying to sell our music by dumbing it down. Sell opera on the basis that it is like nothing else on the planet, not on the basis that it’s superficially cool and hip – that is so phoney.'

Joyce DiDonato

[Palmerston North]

Had to listen to the last 15 minutes of Piano Flow - tedious, lugubrious self-indulgence. Music to help you heal, it says. We are all victims and R3 is part of the psychological therapy. Can't we just have music without the presenters trying to be more relevant than the music they present? Thank goodness Jonathon Swaine came to the rescue with some Schumann

[french frank]

Had to listen to the last 15 minutes of Piano Flow - tedious, lugubrious self-indulgence. Music to help you heal, it says. We are all victims and R3 is part of the psychological therapy. Can't we just have music without the presenters trying to be more relevant than the music they present? Thank goodness Jonathon Swaine came to the rescue with some Schumann

Good morning, PN - and welcome (does your username need adjustment or was it intentional?). Re Piano Flow &c: and so say quite a few of us hereabouts.

[smittims]

You ain't heard nuthin' yet. Wait till next Saturday evening's Prom (15 July) . Just when you thought it couldn't get any worse..

[antongould]

Had to listen to the last 15 minutes of Piano Flow - tedious, lugubrious self-indulgence. Music to help you heal, it says. We are all victims and R3 is part of the psychological therapy. Can't we just have music without the presenters trying to be more relevant than the music they present? Thank goodness Jonathon Swaine came to the rescue with some Schumann

JS always comes to the rescue ……l.l

[Frances_iom]

Had to listen to the last 15 minutes of Piano Flow - tedious, lugubrious self-indulgence...

but it is cheap - probably what some want as inoffensive muzak requiring no attention - maybe the background noise serves to hide more unpleasant internal thoughts.

[Bryn]

but it is cheap - probably what some want as inoffensive muzak requiring no attention - maybe the background noise serves to hide more unpleasant internal thoughts.

Cheaper than broadcasting and making available via BBC Sounds what they produce in London for the rest of the Euroclassic Notturno broadcasters? I very much doubt that.

[Cockney Sparrow]

This was raised in yesterday's Feedback programme* I think I heard them say the head of BBC Music would be on the programme - and just when the item started I was called away (from what I remember of the first words it was, as is utterly predictable, along the lines of "let me explain why this is what we have done" ... (and aren't going to change). However, I have yet to listen to it properly (busy day ahead...).

*Radio 4 , 4.30pm

[Bryn]

This was raised in yesterday's Feedback programme* I think I heard them say the head of BBC Music would be on the programme - and just when the item started I was called away (from what I remember of the first words it was, as is utterly predictable, along the lines of "let me explain why this is what we have done" ... (and aren't going to change). However, I have yet to listen to it properly (busy day ahead...).

*Radio 4 , 4.30pm

https://www.bbc.co.uk/sounds/play/m001nh2s

[Serial_Apologist]

Had to listen to the last 15 minutes of Piano Flow - tedious, lugubrious self-indulgence. Music to help you heal, it says. We are all victims and R3 is part of the psychological therapy. Can't we just have music without the presenters trying to be more relevant than the music they present? Thank goodness Jonathon Swaine came to the rescue with some Schumann

Big welcome to the forum, Palmerston Nort - I could not have put it better myself!

[Palmerston North]

Good morning, PN - and welcome (does your username need adjustment or was it intentional?). Re Piano Flow &c: and so say quite a few of us hereabouts.

I noticed when it was past the point of no return! I was tempted to say that it reflects the strong Dutch heritage around here but that would more accurately be Palmerston Noord! We do have a functioning Dutch wind mill nearby though - and thank you for the welcome.

I generally get to listen to TTN as most other content is Through the Day for you but TTN for me. Anyway, I'll try and throw a southern hemisphere perspective on discussions.

[Palmerston North]

https://www.bbc.co.uk/sounds/play/m001nh2s

Thanks for the link - like every change I experience in life (I am a very frequent flyer, so I hear this from the airlines endlessly), as explained on the link by BBC R3's head of music, the reason we have droning 'nice' music is because we asked for it. And subtly they do want 'diversity' within its listenership. Though quite why one station has to be force fed the healing medicine is beyond me as the BBC has a whole stable of stations to reflect musical diversity - I still look for opera on Radio 1Xtra to demonstrate true diversity
Ramble over. Just booked a flight north to hear DSCH5 in Auckland next month

[smittims]

Don't worry, Palmerston. Radio3 has ever been the whipping-boy of the BBC, compelled to have things other channels don't want. I expect we all have at the back of our minds an 'ideal' Radio3 as we would like it to to be, but we have to accept that, as it is, it isn't for us, but to convince BBC bosses (&/or the Government) that Radio3 is 'generating solutions' or 'exploring avenues' or whatever...

[kernelbogey]

They are an expression of the idea of music as mood-changer: the BBC's snake oil.

[Serial_Apologist]

Thanks for the link - like every change I experience in life (I am a very frequent flyer, so I hear this from the airlines endlessly), as explained on the link by BBC R3's head of music, the reason we have droning 'nice' music is because we asked for it. And subtly they do want 'diversity' within its listenership. Though quite why one station has to be force fed the healing medicine is beyond me as the BBC has a whole stable of stations to reflect musical diversity - I still look for opera on Radio 1Xtra to demonstrate true diversity
Ramble over. Just booked a flight north to hear DSCH5 in Auckland next month

Is there no equivalent of Radio 3 in New Zealand, which is, I presume, where you are living?