The Radio 3 Mix

[DracoM]

When was the last non-drama, non CDR SPEECH-based programme you settled down to listen to on R3 - not an interval talk, not a bit of inconsequential chat and trivia, but a properly produced and structured speech / debate / issue-based R3 programme?

It has become increasingly clear that R3 is now to all intents and purposes a non-speech platform - drama excluded. All the major issues of politics, philosophy,l science are being debated on R4, the major insight docs are on R4, all the major discussion programmes are on R4. So that if the music or its style of presentation irks you, then why R3 at all? With CD collections, who needs R3?

It will therefore be a very, very easy platform to asphyxiate, or castrate, or close, and for my money, that is exactly what the new schedules seem to have begun to facilitate. Night Waves? Huh!

Convince me I'm wrong...................please!!

[aeolium]

You're not wrong, Draco. The non-music provision of R3 has shrunk to an almost derisory level, and the signals are that it will be reduced even further (drama at least). As R3 is increasingly dominated by magazine programmes churning out the same kind of material over and over again (and of course music that most serious listeners will already have in their music collections), the availability of intelligent discussion on philosophy and the arts has virtually vanished. Even the special features on subjects like the culture of the Crimea, or Islamic art, now seem to be few and far between. Night Waves is too obsessed with the topical, and too bitty, to be of value.

It's symptomatic of a radio station that, in desperately trying to flaunt its youthfulness, simply displays its decrepitude.

[MrGongGong]

and of course music that most serious listeners will already have in their music collections

it's that word "serious" again
what's a "frivolous" listener ?

[aeolium]

OK - I should have said 'most listeners to R3' but was trying to save space

Any comments on DracoM's post?

[Eine Alpensinfonie]

Any comments on DracoM's post?

Only to agree 100%.

what's a "frivolous" listener ?

I suppose it's someone who sends text messages to the presenters of Breakfast instead of listening to the music.

[Don Petter]

The sad thing is that while the serious speech has disappeared, the non-serious (not to say trivial) speech has invaded nearly all of the music output.

[ferneyhoughgeliebte]

Do we count Music Matters? The recent Boulez and Schuller interviews were significant contributions to the public knowledge of these composers, and last week's Cunningham & Alwyn articles were good, too.

The Essay also fits the "non-Drama, non CDR, speech-based programme" format: quarter-hour "bursts" but building up a large-scale picture of the week's topic. Usually repays listening.

[Russ]

I enjoy The Essay from time to time, but I think Dracs is right - there is a content gap between Night Waves (R3's equivalent of R4's Front Row, I suppose) and The Essay. Even if the Controller were to be sympathetic to filling such a gap, is there a structural (= producer) position in R3 that could take it on?

Russ

[aeolium]

I too forgot about The Essay (thanks fhg), but it is in a bit of a graveyard slot and is only 15 mins so cannot tackle any subject in any depth.

Even if the Controller were to be sympathetic to filling such a gap, is there a structural (= producer) position in R3 that could take it on?

I think there are some good candidates for producing (and presenting from time to time) in a specialist feature slot - people like Anne Karpf or Misha Glenny. These people could commission features, which could be radio lectures or debates, from those in the world of the arts and philosophy. Or it could be contracted out to an independent company. It could replace Night Waves which doesn't really do anything that Front Row on R4 doesn't do, i.e. discussing the latest book/film/stage production etc.

[ferneyhoughgeliebte]

The Essay ... is in a bit of a graveyard slot

I agree: I'd prefer it to replace the "interval talk" int he evening concerts. (I wouldn't mind a repeat at around 4:30 - 5 o'clock: 15 fewer minutes of Sean Rafferty would be another bonus!)

and is only 15 mins so cannot tackle any subject in any depth.

I disagree, aeol: each programme may be 15mins, but, over the week, this builds up to an extended "discussion", and I like the way that advantage is taken to use different commentators offering their views on the week's theme. This way, the topic is shown from different perspectives than the single, extended programme.

But there is definitely room (and time) for an equivalent of R4's In Our Time, especially as Lord Wigton neglects Music and the visual Arts so markedly. If R3 has its own Front Row I don't see why not.

[DracoM]

But The Essay is not a discussion: it is a mini-lecture. I meant a genuine debate / discussion in which different viewpoints are expressed and chewed over there and then.

[rank_and_file]

DracoM

I am sorry to say but you are correct about the reduction in serious drama in particular.
I suppose a part of the reason might be the cost of putting on high quality drama compared with, say, a BBC house orchestra churning out another live programme of mainly core repertoire.

By a fluke the other day I was discussing Dylan Thomas’ Under Milk Wood with Richard Burton as The Narrator with a friend when I saw the BBC CD in a charity shop for all of £1, and I snapped it up.

The full poetic play was given on The Third Programme in 1963. I wonder if it has had a subsequent airing? Very doubtful, but the BBC must have a treasure trove of past productions. With drama of this quality, I certainly do not mind a repeat!

[french frank]

By a fluke the other day I was discussing Dylan Thomas’ Under Milk Wood with Richard Burton as The Narrator with a friend when I saw the BBC CD in a charity shop for all of £1, and I snapped it up.

The full poetic play was given on The Third Programme in 1963. I wonder if it has had a subsequent airing? Very doubtful, but the BBC must have a treasure trove of past productions. With drama of this quality, I certainly do not mind a repeat!

It was, I think, on Radio 4*** to mark - what? 50th anniversary of his death in 2003? Radio 3 put on a play called Chelsea Dreaming (about the Chelsea Hotel), by DJ Britton.

***Or did they make some sort of adaptation? Or new production? Where's Anna - she should remember.

Answer: A new production, but with Richard Burton's voice.

[Russ]

Burton's 1963 Under Milk Wood version is on youtube:

Part 1: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=xy0srtmv3og
Part 2: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=sGQVZf8Fhm0
Part 3: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=YgBx3Dh4upU
Part 4: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=9Q9PR8Ftid4
Part 5: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=TewKQef6Lk0
Part 6: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=3Frahegkdlg
Part 7: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=yU-9FFh2scA
Part 8: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=U9sfG-uK2hc

Russ

[rank_and_file]

Russ

Yes, I saw that someone had posted the play and, as you make clear, its in the 10 minute or so segments YouTube normally insist on.

Whilst I have them on CD, I have got the whole of the St John and the St Matthew Passions live in bits from YouTube, which I am hoping to join up with a programme called FLV Editor Lite from Moyea. Not having much joy so far.

There’s also quite a bit of Burton reciting poetry in that area, and I think he recorded at least a couple of LPs worth. I have downloaded him reciting Coleridge’s Rime of the Ancient Mariner - which takes me back many decades to school days.