Essential Classics - The Continuing Debate

[cloughie]

... why the **** should she or any of us 'lighten up'.

If it's 'light' you want - over to Radio 2, the Light Programme.

It is precisely bicoz we don't wish to see Radio 3, a supposedly serious channel, diminish into the 'background muzak & bits' of the Light Programme, that this Forum exists

.

No it isn’t. Radio 2 is mostly unpleasant and noisy music.

[Ein Heldenleben]

... why the **** should she or any of us 'lighten up'.

If it's 'light' you want - over to Radio 2, the Light Programme.

It is precisely bicoz we don't wish to see Radio 3, a supposedly serious channel, diminish into the 'background muzak & bits' of the Light Programme, that this Forum exists

.

Perhaps it’s become an exercise in futility ? And in the end it just becomes repetitive and a tiny bit self defeating? Nothing would please more than to have a Bruckner symphony on at 09.00 but it isn’t going to happen no matter how many posts we collectively chalk up.

Radio 2 hasn’t been the “light “ programme for decades. It’s pretty much 60’s to contemporary pop.

Very little of the music played on EC this morning was “Muzak” . There are even those who would defend Barry and Jarre. The battle over bits and pieces was lost long ago pre lunchtime . Unfortunately the rest of the afternoon schedule is is going the same way.

[french frank]

Lighten up FF - for me it made the tedious task of writing a filming schedule marginally more bearable and meant for two hours I didn’t have to get to make any conscious , energy- sapping decisions re music.

It is completely irrelevant what the current programme does for you (except, of course, to you). But that's subjective. If you disagree with anything I've said as being, objectively, factually wrong, please say why.

[antongould]

It is completely irrelevant what the current programme does for you (except, of course, to you). But that's subjective. If you disagree with anything I've said as being, objectively, factually wrong, please say why.

I’m not saying it’s wrong - as if I would dare! - but the short pieces are much as they were 15 years ago …. One of the gripes when I joined was that Breakfast only played known, safe composers …. I don’t think that applies to the extent it did, but having said that, IMVVHO, EC should not be just 3 more hours of Breakfast and the pieces should be on average a little longer ….

[cloughie]

Perhaps it’s become an exercise in futility ? And in the end it just becomes repetitive and a tiny bit self defeating? Nothing would please more than to have a Bruckner symphony on at 09.00 but it isn’t going to happen no matter how many posts we collectively chalk up.

Radio 2 hasn’t been the “light “ programme for decades. It’s pretty much 60’s to contemporary pop.

Very little of the music played on EC this morning was “Muzak” . There are even those who would defend Barry and Jarre. The battle over bits and pieces was lost long ago pre lunchtime . Unfortunately the rest of the afternoon schedule is is going the same way.

Not much 60s, and seemingly less and less 70s as these are considered too old - hence the rise of the Oldies based commercial stations!

[french frank]

I’m not saying it’s wrong - as if I would dare! - but the short pieces are much as they were 15 years ago ….

On this day 15 years ago, following Breakfast which had been introduced 2 years earlier, there were 2 hours of Classical Collection with Sarah Walker. At 12 there was CotW. In what way does this resemble what EC plays?

10.00am
Ravel: Piano Concerto in G
Martha Argerich (piano)
London Symphony Orchestra
Claudio Abbado (conductor)
DG 447 438-2

10.22am
Mendelssohn: String Quartet in A minor, Op 13
Quatuor Mosaiques
ASTREE E 8622

10.55am
Mendelssohn: Ich wollt, mieine Lieb ergosse sich, Op 63 No 1
Angelika Kirschlager, Barbara Bonney (soprano)
Malcolm Martineau (piano)
SONY CLASSICAL SK931330

11.00am
From Watford Colosseum: Haydn: Symphony No 42
BBC Concert Orchestra
Eivind Aadland (conductor)

11.22am
Monteverdi: Orfeo: Act IV (excerpt)
Orfeo ...... Mirko Guadagnini (tenor)
Euridice ...... Emanuela Galli (soprano)
La Venexiana
Claudio Cavina (director)
GLOSSA GES920913-E

11.34am
Bernstein: Clarinet Sonata
Emma Johnson (clarinet)
John Lenehan (piano)
NAXOS 8.572240

11.48am
Dvorak: Slavonic Dances, Op 46 (selection)
Czech Philharmonic
Karol Sejna (conductor)
SUPRAPHON SU 1916-2 011.

[LMcD]

Perhaps it’s become an exercise in futility ? And in the end it just becomes repetitive and a tiny bit self defeating? Nothing would please more than to have a Bruckner symphony on at 09.00 but it isn’t going to happen no matter how many posts we collectively chalk up.

Radio 2 hasn’t been the “light “ programme for decades. It’s pretty much 60’s to contemporary pop.

Very little of the music played on EC this morning was “Muzak” . There are even those who would defend Barry and Jarre. The battle over bits and pieces was lost long ago pre lunchtime . Unfortunately the rest of the afternoon schedule is is going the same way.

You'll be lucky to hear much 60s pop on Radio 2 except for 2 hours early on Saturday morning - as far as I can tell, it rarely goes further back than the
mid- to - late 80s..

[LMcD]

I’m not saying it’s wrong - as if I would dare! - but the short pieces are much as they were 15 years ago …. One of the gripes when I joined was that Breakfast only played known, safe composers …. I don’t think that applies to the extent it did, but having said that, IMVVHO, EC should not be just 3 more hours of Breakfast and the pieces should be on average a little longer ….

'Radio 3 - home of the all-day musical breakfast'

[Ein Heldenleben]

It is completely irrelevant what the current programme does for you (except, of course, to you). But that's subjective. If you disagree with anything I've said as being, objectively, factually wrong, please say why.

To answer your question and looking at your original post on the matter - my thoughts in brackets

Can't agree or disagree since I don't listen. But that fits with my view that a "good presenter" can't rescue a dire programme format. The aim is to be superficial and undemanding.

(Unevidenced opinion as by your own admission you don’t listen .)

"Ian Skelly plays the best in classical music ..." Thirty-six pieces in three and a half hours? That's about 5 minutes devoted to each piece. If that captures 'the best in classical music' I'm a snowball .

(average piece length Might even be shorter so that’s fact followed by opinion - as it happens I don’t think it represents the best in classical music either but it’s still opinion.)

An overture by Dvořák, a smattering of Ravel's Tombeau de Couperin, one aria from Vivaldi's Olimpiade, a Chopin Étude, a snatch of Mozart's K. 622, a phantasmagoria of Britten, Respighi, Haydn, Rachmaninov, Nielsen, Biber - ooh, quick, a snippet of Beethoven - Rossini, Purcell. None of these represented by a substantial work played in full (fact )

What is definitely NOT 'the best in classical music' is the typical morsels by Stephen Sondheim, John Barry and Maurice Jarre. (Opinion but as it happens I agree )

What a waste of 210 minutes of Radio 3's airtime - and Ian Skelly's undoubted broadcasting skills.

(opinion with one fact in it. - agree re Skelly skills but I don’t think it’s wasting his skills - in fact just putting on three hour long pieces in a three hour programme definitely would be.

If that isn't 'making simpler and less intellectually demanding in order to appeal to a broader audience' I don't know what is. (Opinion)

(In short there aren’t many facts in your post to dispute and a lot of opinions I share !)

[antongould]

On this day 15 years ago, following Breakfast which had been introduced 2 years earlier, there were 2 hours of Classical Collection with Sarah Walker. At 12 there was CotW. In what way does this resemble what EC plays?

10.00am
Ravel: Piano Concerto in G
Martha Argerich (piano)
London Symphony Orchestra
Claudio Abbado (conductor)
DG 447 438-2

10.22am
Mendelssohn: String Quartet in A minor, Op 13
Quatuor Mosaiques
ASTREE E 8622

10.55am
Mendelssohn: Ich wollt, mieine Lieb ergosse sich, Op 63 No 1
Angelika Kirschlager, Barbara Bonney (soprano)
Malcolm Martineau (piano)
SONY CLASSICAL SK931330

11.00am
From Watford Colosseum: Haydn: Symphony No 42
BBC Concert Orchestra
Eivind Aadland (conductor)

11.22am
Monteverdi: Orfeo: Act IV (excerpt)
Orfeo ...... Mirko Guadagnini (tenor)
Euridice ...... Emanuela Galli (soprano)
La Venexiana
Claudio Cavina (director)
GLOSSA GES920913-E

11.34am
Bernstein: Clarinet Sonata
Emma Johnson (clarinet)
John Lenehan (piano)
NAXOS 8.572240

11.48am
Dvorak: Slavonic Dances, Op 46 (selection)
Czech Philharmonic
Karol Sejna (conductor)
SUPRAPHON SU 1916-2 011.

apologies I was getting my Breakfast and my EC mixed up but when Rob Cowan(?) and EC came into being IIRC the pieces were much as now …..

[french frank]

when Rob Cowan(?) and EC came into being IIRC the pieces were much as now

Well, it wasn't very good then except it did boast [sic] of having one full length work. I think it was the first R3 programme to last for 3 hours (Breakfast was then only two and a half hours). And now it drags on for even longer.

I think this was the first edition of EC - it did say what time the full length work would be played (Tchaikovsky Symph. 4).

[Kernow Malc]

Radio 3 is like a pond drying up in a hot summer...

[Barbirollians]

I very seldom listen to it but am away and there is only a radio here . I thought it was awful and tried it for an hour . Mr Skelly wittered on about your bank being closed but ha ha it probably closed years ago and the like .

What happened this afternoon I do not know Faure’s Ballade and Schumann’s Symphony No 1 sneaked in complete to Classical Live …

[AuntDaisy]

I very seldom listen to it but am away and there is only a radio here . I thought it was awful and tried it for an hour . Mr Skelly wittered on about your bank being closed but ha ha it probably closed years ago and the like .
What happened this afternoon I do not know Faure’s Ballade and Schumann’s Symphony No 1 sneaked in complete to Classical Live …

I didn't listened to it (busy planting tomatoes), so can't really comment.
Much as I like Ian Skelly, the playlist has plenty of composers I've never heard of, and others I would avoid. There are an awful lot of short pieces shoe-horned in.

Barbirollians, would crocheting sea creatures while listening to Essential Classics help?

[mikealdren]

On this day 15 years ago, following Breakfast which had been introduced 2 years earlier, there were 2 hours of Classical Collection with Sarah Walker. At 12 there was CotW. In what way does this resemble what EC plays?

10.00am
Ravel: Piano Concerto in G
Martha Argerich (piano)
London Symphony Orchestra
Claudio Abbado (conductor)
DG 447 438-2

10.22am
Mendelssohn: String Quartet in A minor, Op 13
Quatuor Mosaiques
ASTREE E 8622

10.55am
Mendelssohn: Ich wollt, mieine Lieb ergosse sich, Op 63 No 1
Angelika Kirschlager, Barbara Bonney (soprano)
Malcolm Martineau (piano)
SONY CLASSICAL SK931330

11.00am
From Watford Colosseum: Haydn: Symphony No 42
BBC Concert Orchestra
Eivind Aadland (conductor)

11.22am
Monteverdi: Orfeo: Act IV (excerpt)
Orfeo ...... Mirko Guadagnini (tenor)
Euridice ...... Emanuela Galli (soprano)
La Venexiana
Claudio Cavina (director)
GLOSSA GES920913-E

11.34am
Bernstein: Clarinet Sonata
Emma Johnson (clarinet)
John Lenehan (piano)
NAXOS 8.572240

11.48am
Dvorak: Slavonic Dances, Op 46 (selection)
Czech Philharmonic
Karol Sejna (conductor)
SUPRAPHON SU 1916-2 011.

When, at any time of day, would you find a succession of complete pieces like that nowadays? It's all movement at a time, ClassicFM style