Through the Night

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  • smittims
    Full Member
    • Aug 2022
    • 4062

    Even at seventy, with nearly sixty years behind me of listening and learning about classical music, I'm all in of 'leaning-forward' radio. So many of the new works and new ideas I've taken on during those years were those which came to me from listening to the Third or Radio3. And often it's been a brief remark from a presenter or guest about a piece.

    But it does need to be accurate and useful. There's a danger in the 'chatty' style of presentation that misleading remarks will pass, when they're intended to be more entertaining than accurate facts. Calling Schoenberg 'incestuous' because he married his friend's sister may be amusing and exciting , or saying Vaughan Williams was 'conscripted' in the first world war, may result in someone carrying a false view of the music heard, when surely the sole purpose of such information is to enhance the pleasure and satisfaction of listening to that music itself.

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    • kernelbogey
      Full Member
      • Nov 2010
      • 5735

      0559 7.12.22
      Erik Gustaf Geijer (1783-1847): Piano Quartet in E minor [1825]
      Performer: Klara Hellgren. Performer: Ingegerd Kierkegaard. Performer: Åsa Åkerberg. Performer: Anders Kilström.

      An amiable work by a composer new to me: one of things that is best about TTN - surprises.

      Comment

      • french frank
        Administrator/Moderator
        • Feb 2007
        • 30232

        Originally posted by kernelbogey View Post
        0559 7.12.22
        Erik Gustaf Geijer (1783-1847): Piano Quartet in E minor [1825]
        Performer: Klara Hellgren. Performer: Ingegerd Kierkegaard. Performer: Åsa Åkerberg. Performer: Anders Kilström.

        An amiable work by a composer new to me: one of things that is best about TTN - surprises.
        That very recording available on YouTube.

        To get back to what an 'informed listener' wants from R3: there is new music, there are new performers and recordings, there are new commentators who will have personal insights; and no 'informed listener' knows everything. But if R3 sticks to how Bach walked 250 miles to Lübeck to hear Buxtehude or how Lully speared his foot with his conducting pole, few 'informed listeners' would learn much.
        It isn't given us to know those rare moments when people are wide open and the lightest touch can wither or heal. A moment too late and we can never reach them any more in this world.

        Comment

        • antongould
          Full Member
          • Nov 2010
          • 8777

          Originally posted by french frank View Post
          That very recording available on YouTube.

          To get back to what an 'informed listener' wants from R3: there is new music, there are new performers and recordings, there are new commentators who will have personal insights; and no 'informed listener' knows everything. But if R3 sticks to how Bach walked 250 miles to Lübeck to hear Buxtehude or how Lully speared his foot with his conducting pole, few 'informed listeners' would learn much.
          But surely there has to be a mix of some sort …… otherwise how does the much wanted new listener learn about Bach getting his steps in …. ????

          Comment

          • french frank
            Administrator/Moderator
            • Feb 2007
            • 30232

            Originally posted by antongould View Post
            But surely there has to be a mix of some sort …… otherwise how does the much wanted new listener learn about Bach getting his steps in …. ????
            Well, IDEALLY, by the BBC using its other services to introduce new listeners to some basics - information and music. That would seem fair if R3 has to cover all manner of other sorts of music: not only 'classical, jazz and world' but also many kinds of 'unclassified', music theatre, GAS &c. If R3 has to cater for a range listeners (ages, knowledge base, musical tastes) and a range of musics, why shouldn't other stations have to do the same - cater for 'a mix of some sort'? Instead, R1 caters for a specific target age group and a narrow range of music (plus Radio 1 Dance and R1 Relax`); so does 1Xtra and the Asian Network. 6 Music caters for a wider age range but for a fairly narrow range of music and R2 caters for a much smaller range of music than it used to.
            It isn't given us to know those rare moments when people are wide open and the lightest touch can wither or heal. A moment too late and we can never reach them any more in this world.

            Comment

            • Nick Armstrong
              Host
              • Nov 2010
              • 26522

              Originally posted by kernelbogey View Post
              one of things that is best about TTN - surprises.
              I’m happy I thought to record the first two hours of last Saturday morning’s TTN (3.12.22), liking the look of the sequence of works. The surprise was the version of Fauré’s piano trio for clarinet, cello and piano - I think the first time I’ve ever heard this permutation of a work I love. (There are pluses and minuses - the clarinet works well in the first movement, for instance, but I missed the tonal intensity the violin can bring to the end of the slow movement).

              Anyway this is the sequence which I shall be listening to regularly (a strikingly good cellist, incidentally):

              "...the isle is full of noises,
              Sounds and sweet airs, that give delight and hurt not.
              Sometimes a thousand twangling instruments
              Will hum about mine ears, and sometime voices..."

              Comment

              • antongould
                Full Member
                • Nov 2010
                • 8777

                Originally posted by french frank View Post
                Well, IDEALLY, by the BBC using its other services to introduce new listeners to some basics - information and music. That would seem fair if R3 has to cover all manner of other sorts of music: not only 'classical, jazz and world' but also many kinds of 'unclassified', music theatre, GAS &c. If R3 has to cater for a range listeners (ages, knowledge base, musical tastes) and a range of musics, why shouldn't other stations have to do the same - cater for 'a mix of some sort'? Instead, R1 caters for a specific target age group and a narrow range of music (plus Radio 1 Dance and R1 Relax`); so does 1Xtra and the Asian Network. 6 Music caters for a wider age range but for a fairly narrow range of music and R2 caters for a much smaller range of music than it used to.
                Ah but, ah but - you answer for a New Listener who is on their way but not a New Listener who has arrived and has R3 as their station of choice ….

                Comment

                • french frank
                  Administrator/Moderator
                  • Feb 2007
                  • 30232

                  Originally posted by antongould View Post
                  a New Listener who has arrived and has R3 as their station of choice ….
                  A circular argument? It is their station of choice because of the changes that have been made to cater for that listener. What about those for whom R3 is no longer their station of choice? Good luck to those who still find enough to listen to on R3 to satisfy them. But could anyone deny that (the 24-hour station notwithstanding) the daytime schedule, especially the evenings, has less classical music 'for the informed listener' than it used to have?

                  As for this 'new listener who has arrived', perhaps I could draw your attention to the last set of listening figures?
                  It isn't given us to know those rare moments when people are wide open and the lightest touch can wither or heal. A moment too late and we can never reach them any more in this world.

                  Comment

                  • Bryn
                    Banned
                    • Mar 2007
                    • 24688

                    In recent years we have had two major extended works on TtN for the New Year. This year, TtN takes a different approach, so I have opted to listen to a recording of the first complete performance of Cornelius Cardew's The Great Learning, given at Union Chapel, Islington in 1984. In all, it lasts around 8 hours in this performance which was spread over two days The recording quality is not up to that of the 2015 performance in the same venue, I think it the better performance, all in all, It was more fully prepared and had far fewer performers who turned up on the day, not having attended any of the rehearsals It also included a full performance of Paragraph 2, less than half of which was performed in 2015 for reasons that I won't go into.

                    Comment

                    • antongould
                      Full Member
                      • Nov 2010
                      • 8777

                      To those who yearn for a more “traditional” Radio 3 (Letters, 25 January), may I pass on my solution to the problem of “too much talk”? BBC Sounds makes available the full Through the Night programme, for 28 days. Most last for six hours, can be listened to at any time of the day, and can be paused; selections are eclectic without being “on trend”, and the only talk is a brief introduction to each piece. It is rather like the Third Programme.
                      Nigel Reynolds
                      Haxby, North Yorkshire

                      Letter in today’s Grauniad

                      Comment

                      • smittims
                        Full Member
                        • Aug 2022
                        • 4062

                        Let's hope plenty of people read that. I remember I used to say that I wished 'Through the Night' were through the day.

                        Comment

                        • oddoneout
                          Full Member
                          • Nov 2015
                          • 9139

                          Originally posted by smittims View Post
                          Let's hope plenty of people read that. I remember I used to say that I wished 'Through the Night' were through the day.
                          Well thanks to modern gadgetry it can be !
                          Was it Aunt Daisy who used to post "what we missed" for the nights when Dumbtime poached the airwaves?

                          Comment

                          • Pulcinella
                            Host
                            • Feb 2014
                            • 10877

                            It's night time in Melbourne and I've got ABC Classic from there playing on my Internet radio right now.

                            Comment

                            • JasonPalmer
                              Full Member
                              • Dec 2022
                              • 826

                              Originally posted by oddoneout View Post
                              Well thanks to modern gadgetry it can be !
                              Was it Aunt Daisy who used to post "what we missed" for the nights when Dumbtime poached the airwaves?
                              Heard an advert on three yesterday for nigh time stressing you could hear anytime with BBC iplayer.
                              Annoyingly listening to and commenting on radio 3...

                              Comment

                              • Ein Heldenleben
                                Full Member
                                • Apr 2014
                                • 6736

                                Originally posted by antongould View Post
                                To those who yearn for a more “traditional” Radio 3 (Letters, 25 January), may I pass on my solution to the problem of “too much talk”? BBC Sounds makes available the full Through the Night programme, for 28 days. Most last for six hours, can be listened to at any time of the day, and can be paused; selections are eclectic without being “on trend”, and the only talk is a brief introduction to each piece. It is rather like the Third Programme.
                                Nigel Reynolds
                                Haxby, North Yorkshire

                                Letter in today’s Grauniad
                                Indeed.
                                Through The Night has become for me Through Saturday Afternoon and Sunday Morning.

                                Comment

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