Private Passions

[eighthobstruction]

....thank you for that gurnemanz - very much my take too, One of the best (one of few memorable quotes) things said to me by a therapist was the direct and banal "I think you expect too much from life". Now while I still do expect at least a lot in the spiritual/creative/artistic/natural/ pastural realms(come too that, the enjoyment of weather/colour/texture) I don't necc' want to hear the process/ journey from artists. This isn't a hard fast rule. With music i might want to know what is making that sound - like record sleeve info. But I can understand how a musician/composer etc would/ might want more info....but surely not the emotional In Tune type of interchange....often sycophantic sounding/nostalgic....

[gurnemanz]

I think our tastes/expectations are just very different I ... it didn't seem to delve much deeper than A Musician's Favourite Music .

I suspect that our tastes are actually very similar but I don't expect or need to be delving deep all the time. I like to think that my intellectual propensity over the decades has been a quest for profundity but like Autolycus I am also "a snapper-up of unconsidered trifles" - I try to keep an open mind and cast my net wide. I am neither a trained musician (though I do sing in and am Chair of our local Choral Soc) nor musicologist but certainly an enthusiast and find I can pick up useful insights from editions of Inside Music which others may be writing off as shallow and undemanding (or merely "A Musician's Favourite Music"), yes, even from young people. Stephen Hough recently, not young and not superficial, eg when talking about Schnabel and Cortot. I did not find Jean-Efflam Bavouzet (age 60+) to be skimming over the surface last year while discussing fellow pianists, like Richter, who have inspired him. Similarly, Angela Hewitt a few years ago.

Like my namesake in Parsifal I'm an old bloke rambling on and on and will stop now.

[Ein Heldenleben]

I think our tastes/expectations are just very different. Theoretically I found nothing wrong with the format but in the days when I listened it didn't seem to delve much deeper than A Musician's Favourite Music And A Few Words On Why They Liked It Or Why It Interested Them (but up to 16 pieces discussed in 2 hours?). At least when I listened there were a lot fewer pieces, usually 8). The format seemed to resemble the 'younger version' two-hander This Classical Life. And differed from Private Passions only in being limited to musicians as guests.

It’s a very variable series isn’t it ? The guests often seem to be semi improvising their scripts which makes for a difficult listen. Others don’t have particularly attractive voices or well modulated delivery. There’s a real tendency amongst people to speak in a strange monotone tone with a bit of upspeak at the end. Tennis players are terrible for this.

[french frank]

A new programme format I do like is Inside Music. Looking forward to Anna Prohaska on 17 June.

I think our tastes/expectations are just very different. Theoretically I found nothing wrong with the format but in the days when I listened it didn't seem to delve much deeper than A Musician's Favourite Music And A Few Words On Why They Liked It Or Why It Interested Them (but up to 16 pieces discussed in 2 hours?). At least when I listened there were a lot fewer pieces, usually 8). The format seemed to resemble the 'younger version' two-hander This Classical Life. And differed from Private Passions only in being limited to musicians as guests.

[eighthobstruction]

A new programme format I do like is Inside Music. Looking forward to Anna Prohaska on 17 June.

....yes it is a good format....unfortunately the age of the participants (young to early middle age) means that they are discovering what I have heard before -nearly always good solid stuff but mostly not new to me ....there are however many exceptions to that mode....it is a programme I enjoy and wish there were more programmes like it....

[gurnemanz]

A new programme format I do like is Inside Music. Looking forward to Anna Prohaska on 17 June.

[french frank]

Oh, yes, I wasn't thinking of quite that long ago, probably since the mid to late 1990s. The schools programme was removed but I can't remember if that went from the World Service or when Through the Night began. I wasn't listening in the 70s.

Two improvements have already been mentioned - the removal of Test Match Special and Study On 3. I would also add round the clock broadcasting , FM (if we’re talking decades) , digital broadcasting esp 320 kbps sound, On an editorial note I would say In Tune is a vastly better produced programme than the drive time music sequences I worked on forty years ago. The “everything is worse “ mantra whilst it may be comforting doesn’t stand up to critical examination. There were plenty of duff programmes in the 70’s but people just forget their existence.

[Ein Heldenleben]

It's hard to think of any changes at R3 in recent decades have been improvements (unless the previous 'improvement' was such a disaster that it was quickly changed again).

Two improvements have already been mentioned - the removal of Test Match Special and Study On 3. I would also add round the clock broadcasting , FM (if we’re talking decades) , digital broadcasting esp 320 kbps sound, On an editorial note I would say In Tune is a vastly better produced programme than the drive time music sequences I worked on forty years ago. The “everything is worse “ mantra whilst it may be comforting doesn’t stand up to critical examination. There were plenty of duff programmes in the 70’s but people just forget their existence.

[french frank]

I'd rather not rock the Private Passions boat. It's one of the more civilised R3 offerings.
"Always keep a-hold of Nurse, for fear of finding something worse" comes to mind.

It's hard to think of any changes at R3 in recent decades have been improvements (unless the previous 'improvement' was such a disaster that it was quickly changed again).

[french frank]

I'd rather not rock the Private Passions boat. It's one of the more civilised R3 offerings.
"Always keep a-hold of Nurse, for fear of finding something worse" comes to mind.

It's hard to think of any changes at R3 in recent decades which have been improvements (unless the previous 'improvement' was such a disaster that it was quickly changed again e.g. Morning Collection with Paul Gambaccini).

[ardcarp]

I'd rather not rock the Private Passions boat. It's one of the more civilised R3 offerings.
"Always keep a-hold of Nurse, for fear of finding something worse" comes to mind.

[french frank]

I wonder if Private Passions have just run out of even moderately well known people who are interested in classical music. I know (or have worked with ) two people who’ve been on it . Neither are remotely famous - they did have books to sell though. And that leads me to my other problem with the show - do they just have to take who’s offered by PR people agents or publishers? That’s pretty much the case with TV chat shows.

Just been checking - it's been on now for 28 years, and with the same presenter (75 yesterday, Happy Birthday Michael! ). A sad reflection that one dare not push for an excellent presenter of 75 to retire for fear of what comes in as a replacement. I wonder what sort of change to the programme/slot would be an improvement?

[Ein Heldenleben]

I wonder if Private Passions have just run out of even moderately well known people who are interested in classical music. I know (or have worked with ) two people who’ve been on it . Neither are remotely famous - they did have books to sell though. And that leads me to my other problem with the show - do they just have to take who’s offered by PR people agents or publishers? That’s pretty much the case with TV chat shows.

[smittims]

While it is true that Radio 3 still plays a vast number of pieces it played fifty years ago, it has dropped a lot of pieces it did play then, and replaced the, with many pieces it didn't pay then. Fifty years ago we heard more Rawsthorne, Brian , Stockhausen and Lutyens, and hardly any Gershwin, Piazzola, and pop.

[french frank]

The actual music Radio Three provides is much the same as 50 years ago

I wasn't listening 50 years ago, but if it had been 'much the same as now' that wouldn't have been any more appealing to me than R3 is now. It wasn't like that when I first started listening in the '80s and '90s. What I don't like is what I believe is the common format referred to as "CD sequences" which consist of a sequence of, on average, c 6mins tracks and then - 'now for something completely different'.

Private Passions has to be somewhat like that by its very nature - the choice of 8 discs (one recent guest apprently had 16 pieces: really?), but back when I did listen there would be well-known people (comedian John Bird or Frances Patridge of the Bloomsbury Group) who were both culturally interesting interviewees and knowledgeable classical music lovers.

It appears, from looking at recent PPs playlists, that people who do (still) enjoy the programme are more interested in the interviews/people than in the music played - which is fine: but that emphasis makes the programme less interesting for people who hope to make unexpected classical discoveries rather than hearing one movement of the 'Moonlight Sonata' or The Arrival of the Queen of Sheba in between non-classical pieces.