Radio 3 reaches its nadir

[french frank]

Two weeks after the event everyone will have forgotten about it

Except Radio 3 who will go on plugging the number of Youtube views they've had. Yee-ha! (Wasn't last year the Justin Bieber song? at least French and Saunders were awful and funny).

[Mr Pee]

This is just a Children in Need special, nothing more than that. It's really not worth getting knickers twisted over.

Of much more serious concern is the general state of programming on Radio3 especially in the mornings.

[gurnemanz]

I don't see any reason to get upset - it's Children in Need and is spread equally across all the BBC platforms. I cannot remember exactly what Radio 3 did last year but it was equally cringeworthy (probably Tom Service in a Mozart wig spouting nonsense)
Two weeks after the event everyone will have forgotten about it

I agree that if it is an end-of-term panto turn raising cash for charity, it is hardly worth objecting to, however ghastly it may be. I won't be listening.

[Barbirollians]

It is the thin end of the wedge .

[Mr Pee]

It is the thin end of the wedge .

We're well past the thin end already- last Saturday's Breakfast programme proved that.

I don't think a Charidee special event is part of the same wedge. It's another wedge entirely.

[Stephen Whitaker]

"I thought we'd just had Children in Need."

As Pudsey and Sir Tel have only ever appeared to ask for our dosh every November for the last thirty years,
I fear your memory may be suffering from the lack of oxygen at the top of your ivory tower.

Oh and by the way last November we were all encouraged to polish up our piano playing,
inspired by a bunch of beginners and returners.

[Stanfordian]

This is just a Children in Need special, nothing more than that. It's really not worth getting knickers twisted over.

Of much more serious concern is the general state of programming on Radio3 especially in the mornings.

Hiya Mr. Pee,

The morings at R3 are in fear of becoming even more ghastly. I for one am not interested in the classical choices of up-market celebs that I have never heard of.

[Stephen Whitaker]

It reminds me of Dads Dancing Badly at Weddings kind of embarrassment. Every self-respecting 'young person' should / will be sniggering in droves as they reach for the sick bucket.

Who the hell is coming up with crap like this?

Talentless people like Mark-Anthony Turnage....that's who.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=LbXZ-XCnb5w

And what about the late lamented Cathy Berberian?

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=WLqVioiDldc

[Stephen Whitaker]

(NB French and Saunders were intending to be laughable.)

And how can you be so sure that these Male versus Female mixed up musical numbers are not intended to raise a smile?

http://www.bbc.co.uk/mediacentre/latestnews/2013/cin-music-battle.html

Real musicians who make their music to the highest standards do not do these things out of a desire to dumb down or diminish their art
any more than Sarah Walker and Carl Davis did .....not to mention Andre Previn with Morecambe and Wise.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=R7GeKLE0x3s

Then of course we had all those Frenchman taking the P out Wagner over a century ago.......Nadirs have been around for ever.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=zCQ94ReHQLk

Bulow had a fit apparently.

[french frank]

"I thought we'd just had Children in Need."

As Pudsey and Sir Tel have only ever appeared to ask for our dosh every November for the last thirty years,
I fear your memory may be suffering from the lack of oxygen at the top of your ivory tower.

I'm aware that it's only broadcast once a year, but with the rest of the fall-out is just seems to go on for longer. Impression not memory.

Oh and by the way last November we were all encouraged to polish up our piano playing,
inspired by a bunch of beginners and returners.

I've no complaint about it, but also no interest (I'd have thought that if people were really keen on practising their piano skills, they'd just do it). I'd rather Paul Lewis dragged his concert grand up the narrow winding staircase to play some Beethoven for me. I would rig up loudspeakers at the top of the tower to relay it to the wider public. 1 pm every day, Mon-Fri.

This may be Radio 3's younger staff adapting to provide what will have a wider popular appeal, but I'd be more convinced if there was evidence of a quantification of the benefit - to Children in Need, at least. Still, if the participants land a prime comedy slot on BBC One, that will be excellent.

[Stephen Whitaker]

Raising charity money by means of one's piano skills is to be preferred to some of the sillier stunts.

I really don't accept that it's merely a case of younger Radio 3 staff adapting to provide what will have a wider popular appeal,
since I recall Hans Keller's little japes and Stephen Potter being wickedly funny about the Third programme's pretensions.

[french frank]

I really don't accept that it's merely a case of younger Radio 3 staff adapting to provide what will have a wider popular appeal,
since I recall Hans Keller's little japes and Stephen Potter being wickedly funny about the Third programme's pretensions.

'Young' is relative. Potter's 'How to listen' was written when he was 46. Keller's Piotr Zak hoax was when he was about 41. And I'd say their humour lay first in understanding what the Third Programme was about rather than trying to fuse it with other genres to make it more palatable. Their humour did not have 'popular appeal' in that sense.

But thank you for the reminder about refreshing piano skills - I've just been back to Caliban's thread about the Gesänge der Frühe and downloaded the sheet music.

[VodkaDilc]

'Young' is relative. Potter's 'How to listen' was written when he was 46. Keller's Piotr Zak hoax was when he was about 41.

I attended a dinner in about 1969 where Hans Keller described that incident. He looked old and quite austere, but his sense of humour was infectious. It seems that he was about 50 then.

[Barbirollians]

Talentless people like Mark-Anthony Turnage....that's who.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=LbXZ-XCnb5w

And what about the late lamented Cathy Berberian?
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=WLqVioiDldc

That is a preposterous comparison . The Beatles may have been popular music but the construction of Lennon and McCartney's songs were superb. Berberian was a great artist putting her own interpretation on it . The dreadful rubbish that was being sung in that Pycroft nonsense was a dire song .

As for the Turnage - I didn't like it much . It is ,however, an original composition influenced by other forms - not a transcription of a piece of tripe.

[ferneyhoughgeliebte]

I'm aware that it's only broadcast once a year, but with the rest of the fall-out is just seems to go on for longer. Impression not memory.

Children in Need occurs every November. Red Nose Day is in March (SM-P donned said article and learnt the 'cello Ground of the Pachelbel Canon this year).