Essential Classics - The Continuing Debate

[french frank]

"Populist" that will please ff!!!!!

Not guilty!! Doesn't sound like a very appropriate comment for Wikipedia. Surely should have a 'POV' tag?

My view, FWIW is that it's not any particular guest that is "populist" but the concept of having guests from as many different 'backgrounds' as possible (esp. non-classical) so that Ess. Cla. will have an appeal for the 'broader audience'.


Hmm, phrase added on 11 Jan 2014 by an unknown editor. But I do wonder whether, for some people, "populist" is intended as a compliment ...

[aka Calum Da Jazbo]

populist suggests a commitment to playing works that most people appreciate [this being the criterion value] whereas i believe the R3 philosophy was to play music that most people would appreciate easily in a chatty style in order to increase the number of listeners with no further regard to the criteria of values that might be entangled in choosing music ... the false 'populism' of the sales/marketing cadres who claim popularity when they mean ££££ ... RW did not seem to me to get that ...at the RFH before he went [that South Bank presence] he claimed he was giving listeners what he claimed they wanted in surveys [bulletins/chat/weather &c] because he had surveyed listeners as if R3 was a commercial radio station and not a public service arts broadcaster ... had he done that kind of survey rather than the sales/service/marketing model he might well have discovered very different indications of listener wants

[Nick Armstrong]

He, unless I have lost track of time, only got 15 minutes today.

Yes - I caught the end, and Sarah Walker's slightly desperate plea about the next one: 'We'll be playing Arnold's Guitar Concerto, Stuart plays the guitar so there'll be lots to talk about' (unlike today, apparently).

Was quite proud of myself a little later, when I 'tuned in' again with an engaging wind ensemble piece under way but no clue who'd written it... It seemed to vary between Dvorakian simplicity and more modern spikiness, I was racking the Calibrain... and then thought: this is Nielsen, he has that mix plus was interested in wind instruments... So it was. I thought some sort of Serenade, hadn't counted that there were only 5 of 'em, hence his Wind Quintet. Didn't know he'd written one. But still

[mercia]

funny thing happened today, their computer played the movements of Mendelssohn Scottish in the wrong order. I've had spotify do that to me.

[Nick Armstrong]

funny thing happened today, their computer played the movements of Mendelssohn Scottish in the wrong order. I've had spotify do that to me.

Comes in handy with Mahler 6, though

[Barbirollians]

Comes in handy with Mahler 6, though

Not if it is the finale and the first movement though .

[french frank]

RW did not seem to me to get that ...

I'm afraid I have to say that I think there was a lot that Roger didn't get, and I'm deseprately hoping his successor will have more intellectual rigour

at the RFH before he went [that South Bank presence] he claimed he was giving listeners what he claimed they wanted in surveys [bulletins/chat/weather &c] because he had surveyed listeners as if R3 was a commercial radio station and not a public service arts broadcaster ...

My conclusion is that BBC audience research is focused on what are its corporate concerns (I've undergone, unknown to the interviewer, one of the BBC audience research interviews). And I've read the 'focus' group research for Radio 3: none of it 'focuses' on what might concern listeners - just what 'concerns' the BBC (are we doing what the government has told us we must do?).

DRAFT INTRO: "The [FoR3] survey respondents are not ‘representative’ of the Radio 3 audience (an impossible concept, surely? what characteristics could ‘represent’ the entire audience, other than that they listen, or have listened, to Radio 3?).

"Since the majority are already registered supporters of Friends of Radio 3, they may be assumed to have concerns. The aim of the research was to investigate those concerns – something that BBC audience research does not set out to do. The responses must, inevitably, seem critical: these are, if you like, the ‘dispossessed’ – those who listened to the station with enjoyment and profit until a decision was taken to direct strategy at attracting a new type of audience. "

[Zucchini]

...until a decision was taken to direct strategy at attracting a new type of audience. "

...at certain times of day

[teamsaint]

....at the most listened to times.....

[french frank]

....at the most listened to times.....

In fact, most of the 'day'. Hence 'dispossessed'.

[french frank]

funny thing happened today, their computer played the movements of Mendelssohn Scottish in the wrong order. I've had spotify do that to me.

"An interesting new insight." But at least it was noticed and apologised for, which is the important thing

[Don Petter]

funny thing happened today, their computer played the movements of Mendelssohn Scottish in the wrong order. I've had spotify do that to me.

There had already been a cock-up earlier in the morning (circa 9.45). As I got back in the car SW was apologising that two (?) movements, had not been what we had expected.

[Gordon]

funny thing happened today, their computer played the movements of Mendelssohn Scottish in the wrong order. I've had spotify do that to me.

They call their computer "Eric" as in Morecambe!!

[french frank]

They call their computer "Eric" as in Morcambe!!

Very good!

[Bryn]

Do the EC team not have a DVD player available? That, surely, can be the only reason for SW spinning the admitedly fine Vicky Ray/Eclipse recording of the openning of Feldman's Piano and String Quartet rather than the homegrown John Tilbury/Smith Quartet recorded 'live' at the HCMF.