The 2024 Survey of Classical Music on R3

[Suffolkcoastal]

Here's the Symphony breakdown for those composers who had 5 or more symphonies/sinfoniettas/sinfonias broadcast complete in 2024. The overall total of 835 was comfortably the lowest since I started this particular survey in 2011.

MOZART W A	80
F J HAYDN	64
BEETHOVEN	46
SCHUBERT	36
BRUCKNER	33
MENDELSSOHN	31
DVORAK	31
SIBELIUS	30
BACH CPE	30
BRAHMS	28
MAHLER	27
TCHAIKOVSKY	26
SCHUMANN	26
SHOSTAKOVICH	17
BERLIOZ	14
PROKOFIEV	13
NIELSEN	13
RACHMANINOV	11
STRAVINSKY	10
VAUGHAN WILLIAMS	9
BOYCE	8
ABEL K	8
SAINT-SAENS	7
PEJACEVIC	7
MARTINU	7
MARTINES M	7
FARRENC	7
ELGAR	7
STRAUSS R	6
M HAYDN	6
BRITTEN	6
BIZET	6
POULENC	5

The most broadcast complete were:
Dvorak: No 7 x14
Schumann: No 2 x12
Mozart: No 41 x11
Berlioz: Symphonie Fantastique x10
Mendelssohn: No 4 x10
Schubert: No 9 x10

[french frank]

Here's the Symphony breakdown for those composers who had 5 or more symphonies/sinfoniettas/sinfonias broadcast complete in 2024. The overall total of 835 was comfortably the lowest since I started this particular survey in 2011.

So, were anyone to ask what we mean by 'dumbing down', that might be a useful indicator to start off with ...

[Suffolkcoastal]

Below are the total figures from 2011-2024

1126

1089

1145

1198

1164

1109

1115

1078

1032

1030

1125

970

890

835

[Roslynmuse]

2024 figures less than 75% of 2011. As FF says, a useful indicator. The six most broadcast symphonies are a surprise though - Beethoven doesn't feature while Schumann does; Dvorak 7 rather than 9. I suppose the others are more predictable.

I'm sure that I read, a few decades ago, that there was a policy of not broadcasting the same piece twice within a certain timeframe - a week or two, or maybe more - I wonder when that slipped? I think I commented that one evening last October I heard the same piece on In Tune and then the Mixtape about half an hour later.

[LMcD]

2024 figures less than 75% of 2011. As FF says, a useful indicator. The six most broadcast symphonies are a surprise though - Beethoven doesn't feature while Schumann does; Dvorak 7 rather than 9. I suppose the others are more predictable.

I'm sure that I read, a few decades ago, that there was a policy of not broadcasting the same piece twice within a certain timeframe - a week or two, or maybe more - I wonder when that slipped? I think I commented that one evening last October I heard the same piece on In Tune and then the Mixtape about half an hour later.

Schumann 2nd broadcast more often than the 'Rhenish'- something of a surprise (well, I'm surprised).

[smittims]

I was surprised to see there had been as many as five broadcasts of Havergal Brian. I can't recall the last time I heard his music on Radio 3. Thank goodness for CDs.

But I can't help feeling for a young person today who wants to hear classical msuic and intellectually-stimulating arts discussion, as , say , those such as Max Davies who welcomed the Third Programme . Yes, her's YouTube and Spotify, but necomers need the sort of guidance and stimulus which was provided by such programmes as 'Pied Piper' and 'The Young Idea' (where, incidentally , they always played works complete. That was where I first heard Also Sprach Zarathustra when I was too young and impecunious to afford the LP).

[Roslynmuse]

I was surprised to see there had been as many as five broadcasts of Havergal Brian. I can't recall the last time I heard his music on Radio 3. Thank goodness for CDs.

But I can't help feeling for a young person today who wants to hear classical msuic and intellectually-stimulating arts discussion, as , say , those such as Max Davies who welcomed the Third Programme . Yes, her's YouTube and Spotify, but necomers need the sort of guidance and stimulus which was provided by such programmes as 'Pied Piper' and 'The Young Idea' (where, incidentally , they always played works complete. That was where I first heard Also Sprach Zarathustra when I was too young and impecunious to afford the LP).

Guidance, or some sort of way of navigating the huge amount of music that is available, is exactly what a public service broadcaster should give. Choice is wonderful when you know what you are looking for but utterly baffling if you don't. But we live in a different world; most people born this side of 2000 don't listen to 'the radio'' (or 'the wireless'!) in any way that I would recognize from my formative years. And I don't know what the answer to that is.

[Ein Heldenleben]

Guidance, or some sort of way of navigating the huge amount of music that is available, is exactly what a public service broadcaster should give. Choice is wonderful when you know what you are looking for but utterly baffling if you don't. But we live in a different world; most people born this side of 2000 don't listen to 'the radio'' (or 'the wireless'!) in any way that I would recognize from my formative years. And I don't know what the answer to that is.

If it’s choice your after then you could argue that Radio 3 offers much more of that now than fifty years ago.It’s that some of the choice isn’t for me.
The world has moved on. And I reckon the radio habit stopped earlier than then 000’s with the generation born in the nineties. From my experience they don’t listen to radio but they do spend hours downloading from YouTube / Spotify *and not just recordings but also scores. It’s perfectly possible to get a top degree in music without listening to radio at all . Radio Three’s educational side is nothing like as important as it was fifty years ago when LPs were up to £5 each (£55 now) .What is needed is more investment in primary and secondary music education and particularly instrumental teaching.

* Classical music has one big advantage over pop .Spotify used to limit the No of times one track could be played.With dozens of Beethoven symphony recordings it took months to use all the free plays up. The problem , as was pointed out to me , was if you had an enthusiasm for Stockhausen or Boulez.

[LMcD]

Guidance, or some sort of way of navigating the huge amount of music that is available, is exactly what a public service broadcaster should give. Choice is wonderful when you know what you are looking for but utterly baffling if you don't. But we live in a different world; most people born this side of 2000 don't listen to 'the radio'' (or 'the wireless'!) in any way that I would recognize from my formative years. And I don't know what the answer to that is.

Do any young people still listen to the radio at all?

[french frank]

If it’s choice your after then you could argue that Radio 3 offers much more of that now than fifty years ago.

That is unarguable. The reasons for the changes to R3 are more important: it is now no longer an educational service: it's an entertainment service in a media universe where most services are about entertainment, especially for younger (middle youth and younger) people. It's a service which now stresses that it wants to reach a broader audience, when the Third and R3 provided something unique for smaller audiences - and the top brass at the BBC thought that was worth doing (I'm thinking of Haley rather than Reith). For certain audiences there is less choice rather than more, and anyone making an argument for there being more choice now is also arguing for less serious arts broadcasting because 'the world has moved on'. That is also an argument for the ephemeral, shifting with each generation, and the progressive disappearance of classical music, literature &c. as their funding dries up and the money goes into mass entertainment.

[Ein Heldenleben]

2024 figures less than 75% of 2011. As FF says, a useful indicator. The six most broadcast symphonies are a surprise though - Beethoven doesn't feature while Schumann does; Dvorak 7 rather than 9. I suppose the others are more predictable.

I'm sure that I read, a few decades ago, that there was a policy of not broadcasting the same piece twice within a certain timeframe - a week or two, or maybe more - I wonder when that slipped? I think I commented that one evening last October I heard the same piece on In Tune and then the Mixtape about half an hour later.

From SuffolkCoastal’s other magnum opus - the database - it seems Irving Berlins White Christmas has been played 10 times in the last 28 days. Possibly more as one White Christmas is credited to some one else .It’s this clustering around the over familiar (and non classical ) that seems a denial of Radio Three’s raison d’etre. There is no public service justification for playing the worlds most familiar Christmas tune that many times on what they trail as “ the home of classical music.”

[Pulcinella]

From SuffolkCoastal’s other magnum opus - the database - it seems Irving Berlins White Christmas has been played 10 times in the last 28 days. Possibly more as one White Christmas is credited to some one else .It’s this clustering around the over familiar (and non classical ) that seems a denial of Radio Three’s raison d’etre. There is no public service justification for playing the worlds most familiar Christmas tune that many times on what they trail as “ the home of classical music.”

Oh, I'm sure that Sam J would find some way.

I wonder what his reaction would be if he were confronted by SC's compilation and the forum's comments thereon.
I suspect that it would simply reinforce his conception of us as a bunch of old fogeys.

[Ein Heldenleben]

Oh, I'm sure that Sam J would find some way.

I wonder what his reaction would be if he were confronted by SC's compilation and the forum's comments thereon.
I suspect that it would simply reinforce his conception of us as a bunch of old fogeys.

No we are the radicals.White Christmas is the essence of safe comfortable old fogeydom.

[Pulcinella]

No we are the radicals.White Christmas is the essence of safe comfortable old fogeydom.

You're right, of course!

[LMcD]

From SuffolkCoastal’s other magnum opus - the database - it seems Irving Berlins White Christmas has been played 10 times in the last 28 days. Possibly more as one White Christmas is credited to some one else .It’s this clustering around the over familiar (and non classical ) that seems a denial of Radio Three’s raison d’etre. There is no public service justification for playing the worlds most familiar Christmas tune that many times on what they trail as “ the home of classical music.”

... and the film 'Holiday Inn' in which it features prominently has been shown at least 3 times over the same period.