Radio 3 Schedule changes

[Ein Heldenleben]

This is what I have some difficulty with. Are Brian and Gabrieli in the same league as each other? And are Cooke and Rawsthorne in that same league too? Or does this just mean 'above the putative dividing line? Still, I even have difficulty sorting out which are better and best of League One, the Premier and the Championship. They all sound pretty good to me.

They are perhaps too radically different to compare (but aren’t they both rather good at writing for brass?). You can’t rank composers or any creative artists in the neat way of a sports league. Their music intrigues me in a way that a third rate composer’s music doesn’t . Gabrieli sounds bewilderingly modern - almost shocking. Even Brian’s - which I don’t find immediately sensuously attractive - but I recognise he has something original to say . By intrigue I mean I want to hear more and I want to work out what’s going harmonically. I don’t get that sense from Piazolla whose harmonic sequences are completely predicable and endlessly repeated.

[vinteuil]

I just wish those responsible would start fishing in the lake instead of always in the village pond. There is so little variation either in terms of dates or of composers in the output these days, it's no wonder the same names, worthy or otherwise, keep coming round, especially once the tickbox filters kick in. Hundreds of years and hundreds of composers and lots of countries, but you wouldn't think it to look at the schedules...

... Haydn composed at least 45 piano trios, all marvels.

But if you listen to Radio 3 you might think he only composed one. Or rather, that he composed a single movement of one....

.

[Ein Heldenleben]

... Haydn composed at least 45 piano trios, all marvels.

But if you listen to Radio 3 you might think he only composed one. Or rather, that he composed a single movement of one....

.

Oh so true . And to think that a previous R3 Controller could play most of them to performance standard.
Haydn : the greatest of the neglected.

[cloughie]

Unless my ears deceived me, it's just been announced that the 'live' performance of La Mer on 'Classical Live' was part of a 2007 Prom.
(I've just checked - BBCSSO 31st July 2007)

Was it conducted by a now deceased maestro - if so it is even less a live performance!

[Serial_Apologist]

... Haydn composed at least 45 piano trios, all marvels.

But if you listen to Radio 3 you might think he only composed one. Or rather, that he composed a single movement of one....

.

Another misrepresentative aspect of the few over frequently selected composers is the selectors' choices of the least characteristic of their works because these works are the easiest on the attention span and familiarity expectations. Barber's Adagio for strings, Webern's Passacaglia and Vaughan William's Lark being typical in this respect. This also goes for the less broadcast composers.

[kernelbogey]

Unless my ears deceived me, it's just been announced that the 'live' performance of La Mer on 'Classical Live' was part of a 2007 Prom.
(I've just checked - BBCSSO 31st July 2007)

Intro to Classical Live today:
'Welcome to Classical Live with me, Linton Stephens, the best place to hear unique recordings of live music making from all corners of the UK and abroad....'.

So there's the current R3 definition.

[Pulcinella]

A shareable Times article:

https://www.thetimes.co.uk/article/8419f917-93c5-4d42-80b7-6ebcb23290ee?shareToken=85976141959c8d79c3091e0b04e08e1f

[AuntDaisy]

A shareable Times article:
https://www.thetimes.co.uk/article/8419f917-93c5-4d42-80b7-6ebcb23290ee?shareToken=85976141959c8d79c3091e0b04 e08e1f

Thanks Pulcinella.

Should Sam J's "It’s very easy to use that ludicrous phrase ‘dumbing down’, but nobody ever really defines what it means, it’s just an insult. Often it’s snobbery against commercial radio — and partly snobbery against me, perhaps."
be voiced by Kenneth Williams? "Infamy, infamy - they've all got it in for me!"

How does FNIMN justify / explain anything?

[smittims]

'Dumbing-down' has in fact been clearly defined and explained numerous times. Sam is being specious here. But I'm glad he feels 'insulted'; it means the message is getting through. If he'd smiled and batted it away with a bland remark it wouldn't have worked.

It's clear that Radio 3 don't use any sort of 'quality-ranking ' of composers. I'm sure music is chosen insofar as it fits current trends, themes, tokenisms, etc. This explains to me the sudden frequency of Mel Bonis, whose music is , to my ears, 'dull as ditchwater, me bhoy'.

[kernelbogey]

Intro to Classical Live today:
'Welcome to Classical Live with me, Linton Stephens, the best place to hear unique recordings of live music making from all corners of the UK and abroad....'.

So there's the current R3 definition.

Which means the BBC is now defining 'live music' as music that has not been recorded for commercial release (i.e. for CD or streaming) - regardless of whether they are broadcastng it simultaneously with its performance.

[Pulcinella]

'Dumbing-down' has in fact been clearly defined and explained numerous times. Sam is being specious here. But I'm glad he feels 'insulted'; it means the message is getting through. If he'd smiled and batted it away with a bland remark it wouldn't have worked.

It's clear that Radio 3 don't use any sort of 'quality-ranking ' of composers. I'm sure music is chosen insofar as it fits current trends, themes, tokenisms, etc. This explains to me the sudden frequency of Mel Bonis, whose music is , to my ears, 'dull as dishwater, me bhoy'.

A salient point, I feel.
The distinctions he draws between R3 and CFM are pretty wafer thin.
It will be interesting to see what the reaction to this year's Proms season is.

[oddoneout]

A shareable Times article:

https://www.thetimes.co.uk/article/8...091e0b04e08e1f

"Diddums" is my reaction to this.If he genuinely doesn't understand the dumbing down accusation then he is even more unsuited to his current post than I first thought. However I don't believe that is the case; he knows full well, will continue along that path, and insult the longstanding R3 listeners with the standard "snobbery" and related epithets when they have the temerity to disagree with him. It is an approach that goes down well in the current climate of refusing to listen, learn or admit errors of judgement, and deflecting by winding up the crowd mentality that is so easily roused by uttering a few well chosen(and deliberately incorrect/skewed/fact-lite) words or phrases that play to long-standing prejudice.

[smittims]

Yes, instead of denying the accusation, he tries to parry it with a rhetorical question' why would I want to do that?' . Well,Sam, you'd want to please your bosses in the BBC who in turn want to convince the government that the BBC is sufficiently 'entertaining'.

I was pleased to see this article. It shows him on the defensive; if the Times thinks it's worth an interview, then we aren't just a bunch of cranks who can be ignored.

[LMcD]

Intro to Classical Live today:
'Welcome to Classical Live with me, Linton Stephens, the best place to hear unique recordings of live music making from all corners of the UK and abroad....'.

So there's the current R3 definition.

So ... rather like BBC4, where you can watch repeats of archive material which was 'live' when originally broadcast.

[oddoneout]

Yes, instead of denying the accusation, he tries to parry it with a rhetorical question' why would I want to do that?' . Well,Sam, you'd want to please your bosses in the BBC who in turn want to convince the government that the BBC is sufficiently 'entertaining'.

I was pleased to see this article. It shows him on the defensive; if the Times thinks it's worth an interview, then we aren't just a bunch of cranks who can be ignored.

But that is how we will continue to be viewed; to do otherwise would, among other things, be to admit to having got something wrong. Better to blame those who are affected.