Breakfast? No (or very little) comment!

[Mr Pee]

Is it our ideas that are confusing you, or the way we express them - or perhaps you think it's the accent?

Er....no....

The phrase "former listener" is quite clear, whatever accent it's spoken in. It means SC no longer listens to the programme, and therefore I do not believe he is in a position to criticize. Straightforward enough.

I'm in the same position. But I don't criticise the programmes. I read the comments and look at the playlist and that's enough to keep me away.

Likewise, FF, I'm afraid. I find it hard to believe that such vociferous criticism can come from those who don't even listen to the programme. Perhaps all the comments that help to put you off it also come from those who don't listen, which really makes the whole exercise rather self-defeating.

Perhaps much of the criticism of the Mozart Fest also came from those who didn't bother to actually listen to it.

[french frank]

Likewise, FF, I'm afraid.

I thought you did listen? Breakfast as described by others is my idea of hell so I might venture to say I wish there was something more to my taste. Not sure if that counts as a criticism ...

[Mr Pee]

Sorry, I meant likewise in terms of my comments directed at Suffolk Coastal.

I do indeed listen to Breakfast and find it a very pleasant start to the day.

[antongould]

Interestingly, or maybe not, if you go to the website of Gerald Finzi, the various Halls of Fame of CFM are "up there in lights". Perhaps we are all Chartists now!

[Suffolkcoastal]

Mr Pee perhaps you might respond to my earlier suggestions which you seem to ignore, instead of endlessly sniping away. For your information I am a former listener to Breakfast however I am quite entitled to comment as I have to skip through it on Iplayer when doing my survey to check playlists etc are correct so yes though I hear enough of each day to know exactly what is going on. In fact as I compile and check what is playing on a daily basis and have been for the last two years on R3 and also I have been listening to radio 3 for 35 years and have compiled surveys in earlier years too I think I am in strong position to comment on Radio 3 programming thank you very much!

[Quarky]

Breakfast!?

Listening to Breakfast this morning, left me with the strong feeling that Rob's audience, and the listening sector at which he is aiming, is well over pensionable age. Hence a great deal of dullness in the programme, which usually forces me to switch off.

However if R3 ever decided to pull Breakfast, I am sure Rob would have excellent credentials to work as a DJ in a nursing home or hospital!

[salymap]

Oddball I object to your remarks. I am well over pensionable age and I usually find something in the programme, but don't like the constant texts, emails and charts. However I rate Rob C very highly and am sure that if this policy didn't come from the 'top' he wouldn't be doing it. I must admit I switched off today when a popular 'item' became too much even for me.

[Bax-of-Delights]

I'm not quite pensionable age but I too object to the assertion that those over a certain age just need to be fed the pap that has fast become Breakfast (Barber's Adagio once more) quickly followed by Sarah Walker's programme (VW's "Skylark" fluttering high above us). They have become soldered together in one 5 hour bland muzakfest.
I suspect those of a pensionable age on these boards would opt for a much more vigorous and adventurous musical menu, certainly more adventurous than the current bunch of producers/DJs seem to think we require.

[Mr Pee]

I'm not quite pensionable age but I too object to the assertion that those over a certain age just need to be fed the pap that has fast become Breakfast (Barber's Adagio once more) quickly followed by Sarah Walker's programme (VW's "Skylark" fluttering high above us). They have become soldered together in one 5 hour bland muzakfest.
I suspect those of a pensionable age on these boards would opt for a much more vigorous and adventurous musical menu, certainly more adventurous than the current bunch of producers/DJs seem to think we require.

Well, following the Lark- what a marvellous piece that is- I was introduced to a composer I was previously unaware of, Fanelli, and that was a real musical discovery. We then had the superb Sabine Meyer playing Baermann's Clarinet Quintet- although I've heard of the composer, I'd never heard this piece before- and then yet another musical discovery, a Buxtehude Trio Sonata, which I thought inventive and surprising and which has encouraged me to investigate this composer further. And shortly I'm looking forward to hearing the full recording of the Tchaikovsky Piano Trio that was the top recommendation on Saturday's CD review.

So there we are. I'm not yet of pensionable age, and I certainly enjoy this

5 hour bland muzakfest.

[Bax-of-Delights]

The Lark may well be a superb piece but I've heard it too often on R3 so that I now turn off whenever that and a whole host of other stand-by favourites hove into view. Whatever Sarah Walker may have played afterwards was lost to me as I reverted to the CDs and have only now just got back to CotW. My loss, I agree...but I find the incessant regurgitation of the same old, same old, teeth-grindingly annoying.

[Mr Pee]

Whatever Sarah Walker may have played afterwards was lost to me as I reverted to the CDs and have only now just got back to CotW

So the CD you listened to was of a piece you didn't know? Or presumably, since you have a CD of it, you've heard that fairly often as well?

The only difference as far as I can tell is that the CD is your choice of music you've heard before, whereas it was Radio 3's choice of music you've heard before on Classical Collection. And if you'd just stuck around for another 10 minutes or so, you might have discovered something new and interesting, as I did. Equally, there may be the odd listener,new to Classical Music, who had never heard The Lark Ascending before. Why should they be denied the opportunity just because you've heard it too often? Or somebody like me, who knows the piece backwards, but still finds it an absolute joy to listen to?

I dare say that if you were to play me a selection from your CD collection each morning, there'd be occasions when I'd think "Oh no, not THIS again".

[vinteuil]

I keep saying this over and over and over and over again, it is NOT, the fact that Breakfast plays short works or extracts that is upsetting its critics in so much its the same works and the same composers that form the basis of the programme, you know roughly the type of works you are going to hear in breakfast you know 3 or 4 composers who will be featured and they'll be half a dozen others from a select group and at least 2 or 3works from a group of around 40 that will feature every morning. Vary the repetoire/composers more widely and regularly, cut out the inane chatter, readings from papers, texting invites and regular trailers, then some former listeners like myself to the may just be tempted back!

suffolcoastal - this morning will doubtless have been a joy for Mr P, who likes his 'Breakfast' to be a comforting warm bath.
But for those who expect a bit more from Radio3 ?

Purcell - Sound the Trumpet
Fauré - Pavane
Dvorak - Slavonic Dance
Elgar - Pomp and Circumstance
Macdowell - To a wild rose
Chopin - Waltz
Pugnani/Kreisler
Ravel - Alborado del gracioso
Leoncavallo - Pag: Vesti la Giubba
Eric Coates - London Suite
Handel - Where e'er you walk
Barber - Adagio
Grieg - Morning, from Peer Gynt
Dvorak - another Slavonic Dance

Surely even Rob Cowan must be grinding his teeth by now?

[Stillhomewardbound]

I listened virtually aghast to this morning's programme which was either a car crash of programming, or merely redolent of an utterly eccentric tombola at a village fete.

There seemed to be one lollipop after another until the collision point of Thomas Quasthoff singing 'Ain't No Sunshine', followed by a cacaphonous period of shouting and yelping masquerading as a gospel spiritual with Jessye Norman and close on the heals of that an axe-grinding arrangement of a proms perennial for organ by Judith Weir.

I would happily have booked them each on a celebrity cruise on a virtual SS Titanic.

[Suffolkcoastal]

Looks like an old 100 best tunes, the weekday Breakfasts so far this year look to have brought out all the old warhorses already. The weekend Breakfasts look a little better in places, but then the weekend programmes are a bit more interesting on occasions.

[Bax-of-Delights]

Mr P;

Even with my limited collection of Lps and Cds even I could have come up with something more interesting than the shaggy old warhorses that Vinteuil has kindly listed for us above. And I could do it for a whole month without repitition. Since the BBC has the biggest collection of recorded music in the world I would have thought it wasn't beyond the wit of those employed to vary the diet - just a tiniest bit.