Essential Classics - The Continuing Debate

[Barbirollians]

Sneering in your ivory tower?

What a bizarre post ? Was Noel Edmonds late today and you came over all a fluster .

[Norfolk Born]

It would be no surprise as the target audience is probably the sort of people who have a panic attack if Countdown or Deal or No Deal is moved by five minutes on Channel 4

If you'd care to pop in round about teatime, I might let you admire my Countdown teapot.

[french frank]

Very odd. The auto-generated playlist for R3 seems unable to distinguish correctly between Eric Whitacre and Chris "Dow Jones" Whitacre, routinely crediting the latter with the former's compositions. But when you click on the link to Mr Whitacre (C "DJ" of that name) you're informed that there's no Wikipedia biography for him. Which there isn't. There is, on the other hand, a very substantial article on Eric Whitacre ... So how does the system get it wrong?

[cloughie]

Very odd. The auto-generated playlist for R3 seems unable to distinguish correctly between Eric Whitacre and Chris "Dow Jones" Whitacre, routinely crediting the latter with the former's compositions. But when you click on the link to Mr Whitacre (C "DJ" of that name) you're informed that there's no Wikipedia biography for him. Which there isn't. There is, on the other hand, a very substantial article on Eric Whitacre ... So how does the system get it wrong?

On a slightly different tack R3 programmers really communicate don't they. Today Essential Classics c10.00am Mozart Sym 39 DSO C Davis, Ao3 c2.50pm Mozart Sym 39 COE Nézet-Séguin. Lovely symphony, one of my favourites but broadcast so close together?

[Nick Armstrong]

On a slightly different tack R3 programmers really communicate don't they. Today Essential Classics c10.00am Mozart Sym 39 DSO C Davis, Ao3 c2.50pm Mozart Sym 39 COE Nézet-Séguin. Lovely symphony, one of my favourites but broadcast so close together?

The announcer did point it out though, and suggested they were two very different performances... which is probably true (I could only listen to a bit of the second one).

[cloughie]

The announcer did point it out though, and suggested they were two very different performances... which is probably true (I could only listen to a bit of the second one).

Just an observation, unlike some works we hear frequently, I could feast on Mozart 39. lt does stand up to different interpretations - three of my favourites are Norrington, Kertesz and Klemperer!

[Don Petter]

On a slightly different tack R3 programmers really communicate don't they. Today Essential Classics c10.00am Mozart Sym 39 DSO C Davis, Ao3 c2.50pm Mozart Sym 39 COE Nézet-Séguin. Lovely symphony, one of my favourites but broadcast so close together?

Interestingly, last night I was reading 'The Radio Companion' by Paul Donovan (HarperCollins 1991), which has the following as part of the entry for Radio 3:

About 20 per cent of the output is speech, and the remainder music. About two-thirds of that is live, much of it performed by one of the BBC's five orchestras. The network mounts a public or studio concert every day and, on average, two operas a week.

About 14,000 pieces of music are played on Radio 3 every year, but over 99 per cent go out only once or twice ... and no piece ever seems to receive more than fourteen performances over the course of a year.

My boldface, and cue Suffolkcoastal for a present day analysis? At that time the speech element referred to would mean actual speech programmes, not the current 20 per cent speech in most 'music' programmes.


The article continues with a 'Top Thirty' (actually twenty five given) analysis for 1990, as follows:

First (14 performances)
Beethoven: Symphony 7
Berlioz: Symphonie Fantastique
Brahms: Symphony 4
Debussy: La Mer
R Strauss: Don Juan

Second (13)
Beethoven: Prometheus Overture
Dukas: Sorcerer's Apprentice
Glinka: Russlan & Ludmilla Overture
Schumann: Piano Concerto
Schumann: Fantasiestucke, Op.73

Third (12)
Chopin: Ballade 3
Chopin: Ballade 4
Debussy: Cello Sonata
Elgar: Introduction & Allegro
Mozart: Marriage of Figaro Overture
Ravel: Mother Goose
Schubert: Symphony 8
R Strauss: Till Eulenspiegel

Fourth (11)
Debussy: Iberia
Mozart: Symphony 29
Sibelius: Symphony 2
R Strauss: Four Last Songs
Tchaikovsky: Serenade for Strings
Vaughan Williams: Lark Ascending
Wagner: Siegfried Idyll


The interesting thing here, I find, apart from the actual selection, is the length of most of these popular works - not a predominance of shorties, albeit the lark scrapes in at the end.

[french frank]

The interesting thing here, I find, apart from the actual selection, is the length of most of these popular works - not a predominance of shorties, albeit the lark scrapes in at the end.

Compare with the Top 23 in 2004 (played 14 times or more ):

26 Debussy: Prélude à l'après-midi d'un faune
20 Wagner: Liebestod (from Tristan und Isolde)
19 Ravel: La valse
18 Mussorgsky: (St John's) Night on the bare mountain
18 Schubert: Symphony no.8
17 Beethoven: Coriolan overture
16 Mendelssohn: Scottish symphony
16 Mozart: Le nozze di Figaro overture
16 Mussorgsky: Pictures from an exhibition
16 Ravel: Ma mère l'oye (Mother Goose) suite/ballet

15 Beethoven: Symphony no.7
15 Bernstein: Candide overture
15 Brahms: Academic festival overture
15 Debussy: L'isle joyeuse
15 Saint-Saëns: Danse macabre
15 Strauss: Don Juan

14 Barber: Adagio for strings
14 Chabrier: España
14 Debussy: La mer
14 Ravel: Pavane pour une infante défunte
14 Rossini: La gazza ladra (Thieving magpie) overture
14 Tchaikovsky: Romeo and Juliet fantasy overture
14 Wagner: Tannhäuser overture


A total of 83 were played at least 11 times (as against the 23 in 1990) and a further 38 pieces were played 10 times. Additional snippets from these works not included in the total.

[Suffolkcoastal]

I find it too difficult to monitor how many times every single work is played on R3, it would just take too much of my time. So I select a group of works that have seemed popular and monitor those, though my totals will include extracts (including extracts played in Words and Music). I do try and count every extract/complete work by every 'classical' composer though so I can as near as possible the total amount of complete works/extracts for each composer in a given year. I have also monitored the number of complete performances of symphonies by each composer this year. I can reveal that it looks like a majority of the warhorses I been monitoring this year have increased from last year, the the case of the Four Seasons the total has increased 2 and a half times! Danse Macabre is almost double the 2004 figure, La Mer even more than that. One of the few warhorses to have fallen this year is La Valse which has halved and been replaced by Alborado del Gracioso. The Eroica is Beethoven's most broadcast symphony by a fair margin this year.

I should have the survey ready early in January, it always takes longer at this time of year as I have the unpleasant task of having to listen (via i player) to all of Breakfast & Essential Classics as the playlists are rarely updated accurately. The EC playlists haven't been updated all week!

[Barbirollians]

I was driving around the country a lot this week and on the two occasions I heard essential classics there were full performances of works ! Is this a special Christmas treat - the standout was Mozart's Piano Quintet one day with Horsley and the Dennis Brain Wind Ensemble.

[Eine Alpensinfonie]

probably the sort of people who have a panic attack if Countdown or Deal or No Deal is moved by five minutes on Channel 4

Don't mock! I still expect The Archers to be broadcast at 6.45 p.m.

[cloughie]

I was driving around the country a lot this week and on the two occasions I heard essential classics there were full performances of works ! Is this a special Christmas treat - the standout was Mozart's Piano Quintet one day with Horsley and the Dennis Brain Wind Ensemble.

No, many FWs are played, the BCs are usually in the guess spot, the guest spot and other annoying exceptions. Apart from these it is usually a good programme.

[french frank]

No, many FWs are played, the BCs are usually in the guess spot, the guest spot and other annoying exceptions. Apart from these it is usually a good programme.

I think that's a fair comment, in that you can catch very good individual pieces. But I don't find the concept of the programme appealing, and don't care to navigate around all the unwanted 'features'.

[cloughie]

I think that's a fair comment, in that you can catch very good individual pieces. But I don't find the concept of the programme appealing, and don't care to navigate around all the unwanted 'features'.

Precisely, we need to wean the suits off the peripherals!

[subcontrabass]

What has gone wrong this morning? Bach keyboard music played on a harpsichord - such a rare treat on Radio 3 these days