Dear fellow boarders, please find below the results of my 6th survey of music on R3 in 2014. With grateful help from frenchie the results are displayed differently this year. If you click on the link below it takes you to the two spreadsheets, with the statistics by composer and the statistics by symphony. If there are any new comers that need an explanation how I do the survey, please refer to my earlier surveys. If you want to know how certain composers faired that didn't reach 50 pieces/chunks or other specific questions, I can do my best to answer your questions from the data on my home computer.
General Observations
The biggest winners of 2014 where non-classical pieces within normal classical slots/programmes and traditional music, up by about 1/5 (nearly 20%) on last year, when it also had a record year, and accounted for around 5% of the music played in the normal classical slots/programmes.
The overall total of pieces played was up yet again, though not by a large amount but still works out that on average over 100 works/chunks are played every day which works out as the average length of between 11 and 12 minutes per piece/chunk on average.
Anniversary Composers
A very mixed bag, R Strauss didn’t do as well as I expected and certainly not as well as some well-known recent anniversary composers. Rameau and CPE Bach shared the spoils, though Rameau didn’t do as well as expected, but CPE Bach’s coverage was reasonable. Gluck however was for a significant anniversary composer, very poorly treated. His total was up, but not by that much and a fair proportion was made up of Orfeo e Euridice chunks. What went wrong, did they forget initially? I admit that Panufnik did somewhat better than I expected, but the treatment was somewhat patchy. Ropartz and Magnard were, as expected by the current regime, given minimal airtime. I wonder if a mistake was made with Sheppard, he started off having 4 times as much played, then suddenly it was reduced to the usual trickle, were they unsure if the anniversary should be in 2014 or 2015? Peter Maxwell Davies and Birtwistle both did reasonably considering the current regime, though there was far too much of the CFM favourite – Farewell to Stromness.
Warhorses
A generally good year for the R3 favourites, but especially Hungarian & Slavonic Dances and Schubert Impromptus all having well over 100 played each. The Slavonic Dances total seemed at one point as if it was going to approach 150, but suddenly slowed right up during the autumn, guilty conscience realising they had been overplayed or departure of RW? A considerable number of the Ravel warhorses had there best years since I began my survey, especially Le Tombeau (which also had a record year in 2013) and Alborado. Record years also for the Tchaikovsky ballets – The Sleeping Beauty and The Nutcracker, with the 3 ballets providing over 20% of the Tchaikovsky played. The Bartered Bride chunks and Vltava accounted for almost half of the Smetana broadcast and it was also a record year for chunks from Grieg’s Peer Gynt.
Winners and Losers
Outside of the anniversary composers the biggest winners of the year were probably Brahms and Ravel, both getting their highest totals since I began my survey, aided by the mini-fests. It was also a good year for Elgar and Dvorak. Three composers from much further down the normal rank order did well: Biber, Buxtehude and Part, did they also get the Part anniversary wrong? It was also a record year for Karl Jenkins, not many pieces, but a sign his music is increasing slowly but surely on R3 along with Whiteacre. Britten crashed to the lowest total so far, a more severe reaction than some composers get following their anniversary years. Handel was also down a fair bit as were Liszt, Telemann and surprisingly Faure. It is interesting to compare how well John Tavener did (although it would have also been his 70th Birthday year) compared with other composers who have died in recent years. There was the British music playlist, but to be honest British music outside of the main players, had a rather mixed year and didn't really benefit. American music had its worse year since my survey began, with even Barber’s music dropping significantly. Scandinavian music did slightly better, and composers from other areas, about the same as usual. The usual poor showing of a certain group of composers; such as Honegger, Hindemith, Martinu, Milhaud continued.
The overall number of symphonies played complete was up, aided by the significant number of CPE Bach Symphonies played which had a knock on effect on his younger brother Johann Christian who also had more symphonic attentiojn than normal, and Brahms also had a very good year. The most played Symphony was the Prokofiev ‘Classical’ with 20 complete performances, combined with 16 chunks. Followed by Schubert’s 8th in its usual 2 movement form. Bruckner had a poor year symphony wise, part of a general decline in the number of his symphonies played complete on R3 in recent years. Surprisingly the two early symphonies of R Strauss where not played at all and even the Sinfonia Domestica was broadcast sparingly, surprising in an anniversary year.
2015 is going to be interesting as to whether the change of regime will mark a change in direction. Next years’ results (if I am able to keep it going) are going to be very significant.
General Observations
The biggest winners of 2014 where non-classical pieces within normal classical slots/programmes and traditional music, up by about 1/5 (nearly 20%) on last year, when it also had a record year, and accounted for around 5% of the music played in the normal classical slots/programmes.
The overall total of pieces played was up yet again, though not by a large amount but still works out that on average over 100 works/chunks are played every day which works out as the average length of between 11 and 12 minutes per piece/chunk on average.
Anniversary Composers
A very mixed bag, R Strauss didn’t do as well as I expected and certainly not as well as some well-known recent anniversary composers. Rameau and CPE Bach shared the spoils, though Rameau didn’t do as well as expected, but CPE Bach’s coverage was reasonable. Gluck however was for a significant anniversary composer, very poorly treated. His total was up, but not by that much and a fair proportion was made up of Orfeo e Euridice chunks. What went wrong, did they forget initially? I admit that Panufnik did somewhat better than I expected, but the treatment was somewhat patchy. Ropartz and Magnard were, as expected by the current regime, given minimal airtime. I wonder if a mistake was made with Sheppard, he started off having 4 times as much played, then suddenly it was reduced to the usual trickle, were they unsure if the anniversary should be in 2014 or 2015? Peter Maxwell Davies and Birtwistle both did reasonably considering the current regime, though there was far too much of the CFM favourite – Farewell to Stromness.
Warhorses
A generally good year for the R3 favourites, but especially Hungarian & Slavonic Dances and Schubert Impromptus all having well over 100 played each. The Slavonic Dances total seemed at one point as if it was going to approach 150, but suddenly slowed right up during the autumn, guilty conscience realising they had been overplayed or departure of RW? A considerable number of the Ravel warhorses had there best years since I began my survey, especially Le Tombeau (which also had a record year in 2013) and Alborado. Record years also for the Tchaikovsky ballets – The Sleeping Beauty and The Nutcracker, with the 3 ballets providing over 20% of the Tchaikovsky played. The Bartered Bride chunks and Vltava accounted for almost half of the Smetana broadcast and it was also a record year for chunks from Grieg’s Peer Gynt.
Winners and Losers
Outside of the anniversary composers the biggest winners of the year were probably Brahms and Ravel, both getting their highest totals since I began my survey, aided by the mini-fests. It was also a good year for Elgar and Dvorak. Three composers from much further down the normal rank order did well: Biber, Buxtehude and Part, did they also get the Part anniversary wrong? It was also a record year for Karl Jenkins, not many pieces, but a sign his music is increasing slowly but surely on R3 along with Whiteacre. Britten crashed to the lowest total so far, a more severe reaction than some composers get following their anniversary years. Handel was also down a fair bit as were Liszt, Telemann and surprisingly Faure. It is interesting to compare how well John Tavener did (although it would have also been his 70th Birthday year) compared with other composers who have died in recent years. There was the British music playlist, but to be honest British music outside of the main players, had a rather mixed year and didn't really benefit. American music had its worse year since my survey began, with even Barber’s music dropping significantly. Scandinavian music did slightly better, and composers from other areas, about the same as usual. The usual poor showing of a certain group of composers; such as Honegger, Hindemith, Martinu, Milhaud continued.
The overall number of symphonies played complete was up, aided by the significant number of CPE Bach Symphonies played which had a knock on effect on his younger brother Johann Christian who also had more symphonic attentiojn than normal, and Brahms also had a very good year. The most played Symphony was the Prokofiev ‘Classical’ with 20 complete performances, combined with 16 chunks. Followed by Schubert’s 8th in its usual 2 movement form. Bruckner had a poor year symphony wise, part of a general decline in the number of his symphonies played complete on R3 in recent years. Surprisingly the two early symphonies of R Strauss where not played at all and even the Sinfonia Domestica was broadcast sparingly, surprising in an anniversary year.
2015 is going to be interesting as to whether the change of regime will mark a change in direction. Next years’ results (if I am able to keep it going) are going to be very significant.
no I'm sure they're lovely as they are, its only because I haven't downloaded the relevant software to my computer that I can't see them
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