Radio 3 Schedule changes

[LMcD]

Looking at the newform Saturday schedule for tomorrow I note that (my bold)
So - no music, but bite size drama?

'Exclusive plays' suggests that the programme is now sponsored by a betting shop or casino.

[Serial_Apologist]

It’s interesting isn’t it ? Does its eternal unrepeatability make it in some ways more precious than a work that can be recreated ? Or is the new art in producing your own solo ?

I think it has to do with appreciating the spontaneity of the solo by the jazz musician being seen as in some way "pure" or "authentic", in contrast with the perfected rendition of someone else's copyrighted composition. There's a lot of subtext to pick apart there, of course: the commodification of the work its composer might have sweated blood to get performed; the advances in musical form and expression gained by having it written down and ideally performed according to the composer's wishes. That very worked at musical language in all its sophistication is for the use or not of the jazz improviser, but the truth that there is often an underlying common assumption that in order to be able to improvise skilfully and at length in any written down musical style requires or indicates a higher level of sophistication than one consisting of boogie-woogie or pop clichés dashed off on a local shopping precinct upright says something regarding the relative valuation of different musical genres, how those genres came into being, and for whom they are repackaged to appeal. That the latter can change over time can supersede questions of timelessness often accorded great music. Karl Jenkins's choral music speaks as much of our time as Beethoven's did of his, and Monteverdi's of his, but we can pretend to be wiser about the past than the present, thereby making its music seem more "comprehensible", even though the same drivers of behaviour, wealth distribution, hopes and fears continue to shape that present. It's a complex subject.

[kernelbogey]

Just listened to Feedback on Radio Four - did you know you can iisten to a programme you've missed literally at any time* on Sounds? - and CR3's entirerly expected self-defence.

On the other hand, I learned that The Now Show has been axed from Radio 4.

You win some, you lose some.

* for a month

[Ein Heldenleben]

... and there you hit the most damning criticism of Radio 3's increasing inanity - the almost total disregard of modern art composers*, except when it comes to an hour or two of commissions broadcast once from the Proms. The station simply is not doing its job, in any department worth mentioning.
__________________
* And no, that doesn't include Max Richter, Karl Jenkins and the usual suspects touting shamelessly derivative film and tv scores

One point of the BBC is to address market failure . Florence , Sam Smith , Richter and Jenkins don’t need Radio Three’s precious and scant resources - that money should be going to new commissions. God knows how much money Richter has made from BBC natural history work . Enough for a hundred Mozarts.

[Ein Heldenleben]

Just listened to Feedback on Radio Four - did you know you can iisten to a programme you've missed literally at any time* on Sounds? - and CR3's entirerly expected self-defence.

On the other hand, I learned that The Now Show has been axed from Radio 4.

You win some, you lose some.

* for a month

No KB I wasn’t aware . It seems a pity that Radio 3 doesn’t from time to time remind us of this extraordinary innovation.

[french frank]

Just listened to Feedback on Radio Four

Yes ... It seems to me to be a mistake to compare R3 with Classic FM: it's too easy to show that it isn't like it. But it gives away the show a bit to highlight the fact that FNIMN fans from R2 are delighted to find they can now listen to it on R3. Why was it necessary to pick up what R2 had dropped? To get more, sorry, to get new listeners who (co)incidentally will boost ratings.

But he showed no sign of having any vision whatsoever of what role Radio 3 should fulfil: it should be distinctive, it should get listeners listening longer (so that they get more for their licence fee), the speech programmes in the evening aren't getting big enough audiences so shove them off to R4.What next? Not enough people are listening to the Sunday drama? Drop it and give them another cheapo concert ragbag?

The vision sounds like: Get more listeners, get them to listen longer and keep it all as cheap as possible. Dropping the two speech programmes will certainly save a bob or two.

[LMcD]

Just listened to Feedback on Radio Four - did you know you can iisten to a programme you've missed literally at any time* on Sounds? - and CR3's entirerly expected self-defence.

On the other hand, I learned that The Now Show has been axed from Radio 4.

You win some, you lose some.

* for a month

The hosts of The Now Show will return with a new show, we're told.

[LMcD]

Yes ... It seems to me to be a mistake to compare R3 with Classic FM: it's too easy to show that it isn't like it. But it gives away the show a bit to highlight the fact that FNIMN fans from R2 are delighted to find they can now listen to it on R3. Why was it necessary to pick up what R2 had dropped? To get more, sorry, to get new listeners who (co)incidentally will boost ratings.

But he showed no sign of having any vision whatsoever of what role Radio 3 should fulfil: it should be distinctive, it should get listeners listening longer (so that they get more for their licence fee), the speech programmes in the evening aren't getting big enough audiences so shove them off to R4.What next? Not enough people are listening to the Sunday drama? Drop it and give them another cheapo concert ragbag?

The vision sounds like: Get more listeners, get them to listen longer and keep it all as cheap as possible. Dropping the two speech programmes will certainly save a bob or two.

Does one pay a licence fee if one doesn't have a TV set or watch iPlayer?

[Ein Heldenleben]

Does one pay a licence fee if one doesn't have a TV set or watch iPlayer?

No. You don’t need to pay a TV licence to listen to BBC Radio and there is no radio licence anymore. It might be considered the decent thing to do if you are a heavy BBC Radio listener. I get all my TV licence value back as I am a very heavy R3 listener but now barely view BBC TV for more than 30 mins daily. When I was working full time it would have been 2 and half hours daily minimum just watching news.

[Philidor]

Has Jools Holland been told to constantly remind us how much he likes “classical music”? I see there is precisely one classical choice on his desert island discs for example. He is an engaging presenter but not really a classical enthusiast - he’s a jazz specialist. Nothing wrong with that but I don’t understand why his programme is on a prime time Saturday slot. The problem with the obsession with ratings is that it alienates existing listeners.

[LMcD]

I don't quite see how what appears to be a steady reduction in the number of what one might call substantial musical items will increase overall listening. It may encourage more people may dip in and out more often, thus boosting listener numbers, but it may also discourage those who have been happy to listen for longer when more substantial musical fare is offered..

[Master Jacques]

Has Jools Holland been told to constantly remind us how much he likes “classical music”? I see there is precisely one classical choice on his desert island discs for example. He is an engaging presenter but not really a classical enthusiast - he’s a jazz specialist. Nothing wrong with that but I don’t understand why his programme is on a prime time Saturday slot. The problem with the obsession with ratings is that it alienates existing listeners.

Celebrity presenters ... another sign of terminal decline, when Radio 3 doesn't trust music to speak for itself but gives increasingly large slices of its diminishing cake to famous talking heads who have little to contribute. I don't know how much (commercially sensitive, don't you know?) Mr Holland is trousering for this series, but doubtless for what they've paid him, they could have commissioned a plethora of string quartets from interesting contemporary composers who desperately need the money, and the exposure. But Radio 3's populist controller would simply sneer at any such idea of public service broadcasting.

[Retune]

Like other contributors here, as well as James Conlon, I think you're missing out by dismissing the plot of El trovador so airily, which is a pity. Plausibility is irrelevant to archetypal drama such as this: we might just as well find the plot of Oedipus "silly", because he takes so long for the penny to drop, as to the identity of the richly-dressed personage he's killed at the crossroads.

Archetypal drama doesn't play by televisual rules. I don't know any reputable opera critic who has dismissed Cammarano's libretto as poor: Julian Budden certainly does no such thing in his classic, three-volume study of the composer, praising its brevity, directness and lack of padding. As with Greek drama, most of the significant action takes place off stage, even the final execution of the hero.

I don't think recognising the dramatic defects of this work need be a barrier to appreciation and enjoyment, because the music and the overall effect completely transcend the clunky, convoluted melodrama of the plot. The offstage flashbacks at the beginning are more Basil Exposition than Sophocles, but at least they mean we don't have to see the whole gypsy kidnap / baby barbecue thing acted out (though I suppose there must be some avant garde productions that insist on giving us the gory details). Michael White, critic and librettist:

'If Verdi hadn't done quite nicely out of opera, thank you, he could have made a living from second-hand car sales: chief requirement, the ability to package and deliver dubious material with absolute conviction. And in all the core Verdi repertory there is no material more dubious than Il Trovatore, with its risibly contrived plot, dramatically outrageous back-narrations ('Tell me the story of how Grandma got burnt at the stake, mother', 'Well, son, it was like this . . .'), and its forgetful gypsy who throws her baby on the bonfire by mistake (easily done, of course). But Trovatore survives - indeed, flourishes - in performance because it transcends its own absurdity, swept forward by a sense of urgency and unremitting tunes.'

Maybe it's best to take the absurdity and run with it. David McVicar, who has said that 'on a bad day I think ‘Il Trovatore’ is one of the stupidest operas ever written' engaged with the work on its own terms and staged an acclaimed production at the Met.

[Nick Armstrong]

Has Jools Holland been told to constantly remind us how much he likes “classical music”? I see there is precisely one classical choice on his desert island discs for example. He is an engaging presenter but not really a classical enthusiast - he’s a jazz specialist. Nothing wrong with that but I don’t understand why his programme is on a prime time Saturday slot. The problem with the obsession with ratings is that it alienates existing listeners.

I haven’t listened to the programme, but to be fair to JH he was in the audience of a performance in which I participated last month (Brahms’s German Requiem by an amateur orchestra and choir in a central London church) - perhaps he had a family member in the choir, I don’t know, but anyway it showed some interest in and commitment to ‘classical’ music…

[Master Jacques]

I don't think recognising the dramatic defects of this work need be a barrier to appreciation and enjoyment, because the music and the overall effect completely transcend the clunky, convoluted melodrama of the plot. The offstage flashbacks at the beginning are more Basil Exposition than Sophocles, but at least they mean we don't have to see the whole gypsy kidnap / baby barbecue thing acted out (though I suppose there must be some avant garde productions that insist on giving us the gory details). Michael White, critic and librettist:

'If Verdi hadn't done quite nicely out of opera, thank you, he could have made a living from second-hand car sales: chief requirement, the ability to package and deliver dubious material with absolute conviction. And in all the core Verdi repertory there is no material more dubious than Il Trovatore, with its risibly contrived plot, dramatically outrageous back-narrations ('Tell me the story of how Grandma got burnt at the stake, mother', 'Well, son, it was like this . . .'), and its forgetful gypsy who throws her baby on the bonfire by mistake (easily done, of course). But Trovatore survives - indeed, flourishes - in performance because it transcends its own absurdity, swept forward by a sense of urgency and unremitting tunes.'

Maybe it's best to take the absurdity and run with it. David McVicar, who has said that 'on a bad day I think ‘Il Trovatore’ is one of the stupidest operas ever written' engaged with the work on its own terms and staged an acclaimed production at the Met.

The silliness and absurdity, with respect, are in the eyes and ears of these purblind beholders. McVicar is of course in the directorial business of claiming that his 'auteur ' job somehow rescues a dead duck, and his comment can be dismissed for the self-aggrandisement it is. As for Michael White's typically condescending drivel, it makes me rejoice that the gravy train has ground to a halt for such smug, middlebrow muddlers.

The parallels with Greek drama are obvious, and well-handled in an opera which is all about what happened twenty years ago, where events have been variously interpreted to take on a life of their own. That, my lords, is the whole point. There is nothing clumsy about the brutally, uncomfortably swift exposition. It is wild, feral tragedy at all points. I'm sorry to have to repeat myself, but anyone who knows anything about the matter of writing for opera (which Mr. White doesn't) is going to recognise the great strengths of Cammarano's text.

Another frivolous critic once remarked that "there isn't even a proper love duet", which tells us that these chaps are after something entirely conventional, comfortable and predictable. Like almost every moment in the opera, the lead up to what promises to be the "love scene" is broken by yet another messenger revealing yet another slice of catastrophe. In a Greek-style drama about the archetypal patterns of life, this circularity is mesmerising.

Il trovatore is a great opera - one of the greatest - not in spite of the text, but because words and music are in rare harmony. We should cultivate the humility to throw away our snobbish, silly baggage about "well-made plays", plausibility and TV realism, rather than criticising it for not being something it doesn't set out to be. Appealing to such dubious "authorities" as White and McVicar cuts no dramatic mustard.