2013 Survey of Classical Music on Radio 3 = The Results - Part 1

[Don Petter]

Some more stats based on 5 years data:

The following composers who have had over 40 works/chunks in a year since 2009 had their best year so far in 2013
... Hindemith ...

The following composers who have had over 40 works/chunks in a year since 2009 had their worst year so far in 2013:
... Piazzolla ...

It's not all bad, then.

[french frank]

It's not all bad, then.

Piazzolla is interesting. It was always my hunch that his belated rise to celebrity was a matter of fashion, with musicians like Yo Yo Ma and Gidon Kremer releasing discs. What goes up ... we'll see what happens next year.

[Suffolkcoastal]

41 chunks/works in your anniversary year for a composer of Hindemith's stature is frankly appalling and the fact that this was comfortably his best showing in the past 5 years shows with what low regard the current regime regards his music, mind you poor Honegger's star sinks ever lower, this year down to only 10 works/chunks, which is frankly insulting.
Piazzolla's decline was welcome, but may be down to the film fest as up to the Autumn he was on a par with previous years. Like previous years the Proms began a burst of non-classical works which was maintained through the film fest season with an even greater intensity. The Paganini decline was countered by the increases in Sarasate and Kreisler, so just a change of emphasis then. The Smetana decline is more odd. Ives's music has steadily been declining and was down into the 20's, with Carter and Henze crawling along in single figures but Ligeti seems to maintain a reasonable healthy total. Lutoslawski had an odd year starting off ok but virtually disappearing after the Proms.

[Don Petter]

41 chunks/works in your anniversary year for a composer of Hindemith's stature is frankly appalling and the fact that this was comfortably his best showing in the past 5 years shows with what low regard the current regime regards his music, mind you poor Honegger's star sinks ever lower, this year down to only 10 works/chunks, which is frankly insulting.
Piazzolla's decline was welcome, but may be down to the film fest as up to the Autumn he was on a par with previous years. Like previous years the Proms began a burst of non-classical works which was maintained through the film fest season with an even greater intensity. The Paganini decline was countered by the increases in Sarasate and Kreisler, so just a change of emphasis then. The Smetana decline is more odd. Ives's music has steadily been declining and was down into the 20's, with Carter and Henze crawling along in single figures but Ligeti seems to maintain a reasonable healthy total. Lutoslawski had an odd year starting off ok but virtually disappearing after the Proms.

I wonder, were such statistics available, how these ups and downs would correlate with numbers for, say, the UK live concert scene as a whole. (No! I'm not suggesting anything of the sort, Sc!)

Composers do go in and out of fashion. Is R3 broadly reflecting this, or are there axes of its own being ground?


PS I wholeheartedly agree with your sentiments regarding Hindemith.

[amateur51]

It's not all bad, then.

[Suffolkcoastal]

I've just had a quick perusal of the net DP and initial impressions are that Hindemith did somewhat better in the country as a whole than on R3, I would be interested to know how well celebrated the anniversary was on the continent. Looking at the R3 figures I'm convinced that the personal preferential 'ins and outs' of the current regime play a major part in dictating what music R3 broadcasts. Faure for example is clearly very much a favourite of the regime's and has been on the rise steadily since RW took over.

[Stephen Whitaker]

41 chunks/works in your anniversary year for a composer of Hindemith's stature is frankly appalling and the fact that this was comfortably his best showing in the past 5 years shows with what low regard the current regime regards his music, mind you poor Honegger's star sinks ever lower, this year down to only 10 works/chunks, which is frankly insulting.
Piazzolla's decline was welcome, but may be down to the film fest as up to the Autumn he was on a par with previous years. Like previous years the Proms began a burst of non-classical works which was maintained through the film fest season with an even greater intensity. The Paganini decline was countered by the increases in Sarasate and Kreisler, so just a change of emphasis then. The Smetana decline is more odd. Ives's music has steadily been declining and was down into the 20's, with Carter and Henze crawling along in single figures but Ligeti seems to maintain a reasonable healthy total. Lutoslawski had an odd year starting off ok but virtually disappearing after the Proms.

Am I blind or has there really been no Bartok?

[Suffolkcoastal]

Bartok is in the 150's for pieces/chunks fractionally up on last year which was his lowest showing since 2009. 2009 was his best showing (180's), but to be honest is comfortably below what it should be and increasingly, Romanian Dances and lighter works make a up fair portion of what's broadcast. The masterly String Quartets, among the 20th century's greatest chamber works are very poorly represented on R3 these days.

[Quarky]

A Happy New Year to all fellow MBs. Welcome to my 5th Annual Survey of Classical Music on Radio 3 outlining the music broadcast in 2013

For those who weren’t familiar with the survey methods outlined I’ve used here please see the brief resume I prepared in my posting on these Boards at the beginning of January 2011.

Overall Observations
2. General observations
Two figures stand out as being of great concern and which reinforce the continual decline of R3 under the current regime. Firstly an absolutely shocking increase of nearly 33% in the amount of non-classical music broadcast in what were normally classical slots or programmes and secondly a further increase in the amount of works/chunks played by over 4%, which considering the three main anniversary composers were predominately opera composers, one would have expected to have gone down slightly Many composers continue to be represented by a small proportion of their output for example: Over 48% of the Bizet broadcast consists of chunks from Carmen, around 60% of the Bernstein consists of either extracts from West Side Story or Candide, .

A most impressive compilation. I think the definition of classical /non-classical serves to highlight changes in programming output, and confirms most people's impression, namely that we are heading, in part, to a CFM clone programme. Switching on R3 at 4.30 pm yesterday, I felt R3 was indistinguishable from CFM.

One point of distinction lies in the specialist programmes, Choir, EMS, Hear and Now, Words and Music, World Routes and Jazz. These may not contribute a great deal to the Survey, but are vitally important in my view if R3 is to maintain any credibility as a programme of culture. iPlayer has become a very important instrument in tracking these specialist programmes.

But as regards mainstream classical music, I guess the management's prime concern is bums on seats.

[french frank]

One point of distinction [from CFM] lies in the specialist programmes, Choir, EMS, Hear and Now, Words and Music, World Routes and Jazz. These may not contribute a great deal to the Survey, but are vitally important in my view if R3 is to maintain any credibility as a programme of culture. iPlayer has become a very important instrument in tracking these specialist programmes.

Which is why it's so worrying that EMS has been halved, World Routes has been dropped and jazz has been cut down and moved all over the place over the past few years.

But as regards mainstream classical music, I guess the management's prime concern is bums on seats.

As is Classic FM's.

[mercia]

what are the figures for how many times they played Parry's I Was Glad last year please ?

[Suffolkcoastal]

I made it 20 times Mercia its on my R3 warhorse list. We're only 9 days into 2014, and the warhorse list is already filling up with entries for this year!

[mercia]

thanks SC, it was being played as I asked the question

[Honoured Guest]

Radio 3 Live in Concert on Tuesday 21 January will include several faves - I Was Glad, Chichester Psalms and Exultate, Jubilate. And also Simon Holt and much Alun Hoddinott.

[Serial_Apologist]

Radio 3 Live in Concert on Tuesday 21 January will include several faves - I Was Glad, Chichester Psalms and Exultate, Jubilate. And also Simon Holt and much Alun Hoddinott.

Simon Holt faves! That'll be the day!!!