Friday Night isn't Music Night

[ardcarp]

I look hopefully in the Radio Times at the Friday 7.30 pm slot on BBC4..........and am disappointed to find a general absence of 'classical' music. Couldn't the BBC, given its range of channels, dedicate just one weekly programme to it?

[Petrushka]

I look hopefully in the Radio Times at the Friday 7.30 pm slot on BBC4..........and am disappointed to find a general absence of 'classical' music. Couldn't the BBC, given its range of channels, dedicate just one weekly programme to it?

I'd agree. After the feast of the Proms season, it seems we now have a famine.

[Cockney Sparrow]

I look hopefully in the Radio Times at the Friday 7.30 pm slot on BBC4..........and am disappointed to find a general absence of 'classical' music. Couldn't the BBC, given its range of channels, dedicate just one weekly programme to it?

Absolutely agree. The "Good Old Days" - what a misnomer, and of course of no relevance anyway. They've run out of recycled programmes and Proms material then. Thin gruel, no doubt, until they throw us a bone come Christmas. As I understand it there is a controller of all music, and I surmise that TV is very much his fiefdom. Endless repeats of pop and rock material, with ne-er a thought to their remit for quality, education, etc etc. Just as well I stockpile recordings from the summer and better times before the rot took a firm hold. Once exhausted I suppose I need to buy DVDs of artists in concert, or documentaries (Ken Russell, Palmer, perhaps Bridcut has made it to DVD?).

[DracoM]

BBC Phil live on R3 tonight?

[ardcarp]

BBC Phil live on R3 tonight?

Indeed. But it is televised music that is getting short shrift...and TV tends to reach a wider public.

[DracoM]

Yup, sorry - read the OP inattentively.

[maestro267]

We've had the brilliant "Composers in their own words" programmes on the last two Sundays. Let's face it, classical's always going to get just the token attention on TV nowadays. It's just the way it is, because general popular culture is geared towards stuff that you don't have to think too hard about, that doesn't challenge the intellect, that doesn't last more than 4 minutes.

[Eine Alpensinfonie]

We've had the brilliant "Composers in their own words" programmes on the last two Sundays. Let's face it, classical's always going to get just the token attention on TV nowadays. It's just the way it is, because general popular culture is geared towards stuff that you don't have to think too hard about, that doesn't challenge the intellect, that doesn't last more than 4 minutes.

But this is BBC 4. Supposedly the BBC's hi-brow TV channel (just as BBC 2 once was).

[french frank]

It's just the way it is, because general popular culture is geared towards stuff that you don't have to think too hard about, that doesn't challenge the intellect, that doesn't last more than 4 minutes.

There is a sort of argument that the BBC as beneficiary of public funding (the VAST majority of which goes to television) might provide something more than 'general popular culture' which is what hard-pressed commercial broadcasters have to provide in order to get the high listening figures which in turn bring in the advertising revenues which fund all their activity.

Some might think that the BBC doesn't really try hard enough to earn its money-on-a-plate …

[ardcarp]

BBC4 must save a lot by churning out endless repeats (railways and canals seem to figure largely), so, if only to fulfil some vaguely Reithian dream, surely a small corner for classical music could be found?

Agreed that composers In Their Own Words is great. Mrs Ardcarp was ecstatic about Britten's rehearsal in the episode I missed and will now catch up on.

[hafod]

The BBC has five orchestras which grace - to a greater or lesser extent - radio 3. Proms apart, it is a disgrace that they all but shun BBC 4. What is to stop them transmitting their own concerts late at night? Most people have recorders they can set.

[Petrushka]

The BBC has five orchestras which grace - to a greater or lesser extent - radio 3. Proms apart, it is a disgrace that they all but shun BBC 4. What is to stop them transmitting their own concerts late at night? Most people have recorders they can set.

After a highly successful Proms season when it has won plaudits for the improvement in playing standards under Sakari Oramo, and after the high national and international profile it receives at the Last Night, the BBC Symphony Orchestra goes into hibernation for the rest of the year on TV. Why are they not doing education projects on TV or live streaming concerts? There is an eye-catching Tchaikovsky concert next Wednesday under Semyon Bychkov which would be ideal. Why doesn't the BBC go into partnership with the LSO and the Barbican and live stream concerts (on a subscription basis if necessary) with a TV repeat at a later date?