Whatever happened to Radio 3's 'Special Events'?

[french frank]

Two of the memorable 'events' of recent years which were special to me were the Berlioz Day of 2003 and the Janáček Day of 2004. I certainly learnt a lot about both composers and found the background information fascinating. It was genuine 'Total Immersion' at its beneficial best. These are the details of:

Berlioz Day
Janáček Day

This was exemplary, meticulous broadcasting under the current controllership of R3. I still feel grateful to all concerned .

So what happened when we compare that with three weeks of Sound of Cinema? Like the recent 'Seasons' - longer and basically the same schedule as usual, same presenters, just a less varied playlist. Same controller. In fact the same controller who introduced CD Masters and, now, Essential Classics.

[mercia]

the Britten Weekend ?

Mr Marks ( who he ?) seems to have been the common denominator in your examples

[aka Calum Da Jazbo]

he who

[french frank]

the Britten Weekend ?

More in proportion than 12 days or 3 weeks. That's what I meant.

Mr Marks ( who he ?) seems to have been the common denominator in your examples

Dennis Marks? Particularly good on Janáček Day, since, if I recall, both he and John Tusa are of Czech origin.

What happened to 'special events' is that they became, as I say, much longer, had the same schedule and programmes as usual, with the same presenters as usual. And according to the controller they are now designed to attract attention of people who don't usually listen. In the case of the cinema season, it was to draw the attention of 'people who would not be the station's natural listeners'. Hence three weeks of playing music that would not be the station's natural music. Promotional, then, rather than educational.

[aka Calum Da Jazbo]

More in proportion than 12 days or 3 weeks. That's what I meant.

Dennis Marks? Particularly good on Janáček Day, since, if I recall, both he and John Tusa are of Czech origin.

What happened to 'special events' is that they became, as I say, much longer, had the same schedule and programmes as usual, with the same presenters as usual. And according to the controller they are now designed to attract attention of people who don't usually listen. In the case of the cinema season, it was to draw the attention of 'people who would not be the station's natural listeners'. Hence three weeks of playing music that would not be the station's natural music. Promotional, then, rather than educational.

not in the least promotional since the music was not the natural output; propaganda or lies depending on your pov .... [ a bait and switch tactic ...] devious in any case and misguided

one wonders if the drive for audience size is based on the faulty premiss of R3 costs including the orchestras etc ... or the faulty premiss of elitism ...or both since the trustees look pretty dumb from here

[Anna]

Can I say I am looking forward to the WW1 Immersion Event? Because I think that will not be a one size fits all lazy programming but entertaining as well as educational. The Britten Event/Weekend led me to turn off R3 completely, ditto after a while the Film Music Fest (and honestly, getting Catherine Bott to do it on the EMS, between clenched teeth. was somewhat grotesque. No wonder she jumped ship - rats, etc.)

[french frank]

Can I say I am looking forward to the WW1 Immersion Event?

You may! They may get away with it because the five days are centred on five different cities. But whereas in the two earlier examples, they built a schedule around the content they wanted to cover, it looks as if, again, they will fit the content into the usual schedule. Easier because each programme routinely starts with a blank sheet - they just have to fill it with WW1 things instead of a random or topical variety. The critical input and selecting look less onerous when you have a shorter programme slot to fill.

The plans do look interesting, but my bet is that being totally immersed for five days will be a bit of a strain. The ideal (to my way of thinking) is to provide an event which will make people interested in what they had not given a lot of thought to before, rather than giving people big helping of something in which they are already very interested. The first method is more truly educational. In my view.

[Anna]

The plans do look interesting, but my bet is that being totally immersed for five days will be a bit of a strain

Oh,

[gurnemanz]

he who

no, he who

[french frank]

Oh,

Likewise, I'm sure

But in one sense, perhaps you make my point: you are looking forward to the WW1 event - you will enjoy it. But the Britten event you turned off completely. It was only a weekend, but perhaps if it had been one Sunday? What I remember about the Berlioz and (oh, damn those accents!) Janáček events was the fun of planning my day, getting my meals ready to produce when I was hungry and remaining engrossed the whole time. I don't think I could do that over longer than a day. The critical discipline involved in a one-day event is the skilful part of the production. Again, in my view ...

[aeolium]

I'd much rather have quality rather than quantity in commemorations or special events. I think the Britten event suffered as so many of these anniversary celebrations have from excess and so some very good individual programmes got lost or ignored in the saturation coverage - except by Brittenophiles which was hardly the point of the exercise. There's a risk next year that many people will feel completely surfeited by WW1 commemoration even before we get to the centenary day of the outbreak of hostilities.

The kind of special event I would like to see more of from R3 would be a day centring around a cultural idea or location, in which music, literature, philosophy and art were all explored - something like Expressionism or the Sezession. This would bring R3 closer to its roots as a station for arts and ideas, not just churning out music.

[Serial_Apologist]

no, he who

They who

http://www.thewho.com/photos/

[DracoM]

With the WW1 Immersion , they have a real problem. So MUCH research, so many books, so many film, plays, commentary progs now exist, how on earth do you do it differently and excitingly, and UNpatronisingly?

[french frank]

With the WW1 Immersion , they have a real problem. So MUCH research, so many books, so many film, plays, commentary progs now exist, how on earth do you do it differently and excitingly, and UNpatronisingly?

I can see that Radio 3 has commandeered a Radio 3-style cultural topic to focus on, but a day could be uniformly excellent whereas, as aeolium says, the really good programmes can get submerged. It's what people have tended to say about these 'Fests': that there have been very good individual programmes but the whole is too much.