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

[Suffolkcoastal]

Basically non-classical is pop, jazz, jazzed up arrangements world/traditional, crossover, musicals and film. Where composers cross the divide the works/composer are counted in the 'classical' figures, so all Bernstein & Gershwin is under classical. The same is true of film music, John Williams, Rozsa, Herrmann for example also write/wrote in 'serious forms' so there totals works/chunks come under them as composers, rather the general non-classical variety. I've used the same format consistently each year, so the year on year comparisons are consistent.

[Beef Oven!]

Basically non-classical is pop, jazz, jazzed up arrangements world/traditional, crossover, musicals and film. Where composers cross the divide the works/composer are counted in the 'classical' figures, so all Bernstein & Gershwin is under classical. The same is true of film music, John Williams, Rozsa, Herrmann for example also write/wrote in 'serious forms' so there totals works/chunks come under them as composers, rather the general non-classical variety. I've used the same format consistently each year, so the year on year comparisons are consistent.

Does the survey have a working definition of classical music, beyond 'music that is not pop, jazz, jazzed up arrangements world/traditional, crossover, musicals and film'?

[Suffolkcoastal]

I don't think I can be any more specific than I am above. There are odd contemporary works which are difficult to categorize which I find when dipping in to Hear and Now via iplayer for example and which has to come down to my judgement, but that is an exceptionally small number. As long as I trust my consistency then the statistics will remain consistent in value. The increase has markedly been caused this year by musicals, contemporary film scores, and popular items creeping, the type one would expect on Radio 2.

[Sir Velo]

A truly heroic bit of work SC!

Can I just ask you for clarification on a couple of points: how have you set out the Berlioz and Stravinsky symphony running order, as neither (AFAIAA) published their compositions in sequential numbering?

Did the Kullervo get any performances, or Tapiola (a quasi symphony if ever there were!)?

What is the work described asSinf for Prokofiev? The Sinfonia Concertante?

Do you know how many performances there were of the Symphonic Dances of Rachmaninov?

Many thanks in advance!

[Bryn]

... What is the work described asSinf for Prokofiev? The Sinfonia Concertante? ...

Presumably the Sinfonietta, especially as Prokofiev did not write a Sinfonia Concertante, though the Symphony Concerto is all too frequently mistranslated as such.

[Sir Velo]

Presumably the Sinfonietta, especially as Prokofiev did not write a Sinfonia Concertante, though the Symphony Concerto is all too frequently mistranslated as such.

Of course, my bad.

Nevertheless, this begs the question how many performances of the SC, er SC?

[Suffolkcoastal]

A truly heroic bit of work SC!

Can I just ask you for clarification on a couple of points: how have you set out the Berlioz and Stravinsky symphony running order, as neither (AFAIAA) published their compositions in sequential numbering?

Did the Kullervo get any performances, or Tapiola (a quasi symphony if ever there were!)?

What is the work described asSinf for Prokofiev? The Sinfonia Concertante?

Do you know how many performances there were of the Symphonic Dances of Rachmaninov?

Many thanks in advance!

The running order for Berlioz and Stravinsky is the order of composition - Berlioz: Symphonie Fantastique, Harold in Italy, Romeo & Juliet, Symphonie Funebre, only the first two had broadcasts; for Stravinsky: E Flat Sym, Sym of Psalms, Sym in C, Sym in 3 movts; it would have been the same for Hindemith but only Mathis der Maler Symphonie was broadcast (3 times).

The Prokofiev Sinf is the Sinfonietta. Unfotunately I don't have the scope to add Symphonic Dances, but from a mental note (when you're doing this all year its surprising how much you recall), the Rachmaninov Symphonic Dances seem to be work that is very much 'in' with chunks appearing regularly and it certainly outdid, rather surprisingly, the 2nd Piano Concerto, which had a rather lean year.

There were no complete performances of Kullervo and actually not many of Tapiola either.

[Bax-of-Delights]

Great work as always SFC!

Apart from Tintagel, Garden of Fand and November Woods did Arnie get any symphonic outings?

And Jack Moeran?

[Suffolkcoastal]

Great work as always SFC!

Apart from Tintagel, Garden of Fand and November Woods did Arnie get any symphonic outings?

And Jack Moeran?

Moeran had 31 works/chunks including one broadcast each of the Symphony in G minor and the Sinfonietta, he was also slightly aided by the Tasmin Little recording of the Violin Concerto being in the 'classical charts' and his short piano pieces surface on Breakfast every now and them.

Bax had both the 2nd & 3rd symphonies broadcast, the former was a repeat of the 2012 prom on TTN.

[Richard Tarleton]

And thank you from me, suffolkcoastal.

In the case of a certain much-mispronounced Spanish composer and obsession of mine , you were able in 2012 to produce information seemingly inaccessible to Graham Dixon, editor of Radio 3, thereby rebutting one of his pathetic excuses.

Graham Dixon: "Francisco Tárrega's music...features extremely rarely, indeed our systems reveal that he appears about five times a year..." [so it's not worth learning to pronounce him properly].

Suffolkcoastal: "Tárrega's music has been played on 53 occasions on Radio 3 since the beginning of 2009, including on 24 occasions in 2011..."

[DracoM]

Is this package of info suffolkcoastal has intelligently compiled sent direct to RW? Or the CD Review team DIRECT? Or Lord Patten? Or Tony Hall?

[Suffolkcoastal]

For your information in 2013 Richard the number of Tarrega pieces/chunks was 8, still more than 5 times a year!

One further fact looking at the 2013 figures, which I believe one or two other MBs had noticed, is the rise in lieder/song, which for example had resulted n Schubert's highest ever total (minus the 'fest') increases in Schumann and highest totals for Duparc, Hahn, Chausson and Faure, again RW and his team's francophile tendencies to the fore.

[ferneyhoughgeliebte]

Great work as always SFC!

Many thanks, suffy

[Stanfordian]

Presumably the Sinfonietta, especially as Prokofiev did not write a Sinfonia Concertante, though the Symphony Concerto is all too frequently mistranslated as such.

Hiya Byrn, I am reasonably familar with the convoluted origins of the Prokofiev Sinfonia Concertante. To state there is no Prokofiev Sinfonia Concertante is a touch misleading as it has become commonly described as such especially on recordings.

[Suffolkcoastal]

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
JS Bach, Bax,, R Rodney Bennett, Berlioz, L Bernstein, Biber, Boccherini, Bridge, Britten, Chabrier, Chausson, Copland, F Couperin, Delibes, Dowland, Duparc, Dvorak, Enescu, Faure, Gershwin, Glinka, Gluck, Gounod, B Herrmann, Hindemith, Holst, Hummel, Humperdinck, Korngold, Kreisler, Lully, Lutoslawski, Mascagni, Moniuszko, WA Mozart (not counting 'fest' figures), Nielsen, Palestrina, Prokofiev, Puccini, Rameau, Reger, Respighi, Rodrigo, Sarasate, Schubert (not counting 'fest' figures), Stanford, Stenhammar, J Strauss II, Svendsen, Tavener, Tchaikovsky, Tippett, Vaughan Williams, Verdi, Wagner, J Williams,

The following composers who have had over 40 works/chunks in a year since 2009 had their worst year so far in 2013:
CPE Bach, Ives, Khachaturian, Massenet, Mussorgsky, Paganini, Part, Piazzolla, Smetana, Spohr,

Some of the composers with 'best' years are naturally anniversary ones, others are slightly misleading: Bernstein as mentioned earlier was 60% on just two works, Copland was mainly popular and light stuff, though some of his more serious music got played, it was still a small proportion, his big three piano works and chamber music are real rarities on R3 under the current regime. Rodrigo was almost exclusively the Concierto de Aranjuez or Fantasia, with just a small handful of other works and only one other concerto (Harp). Humperdinck was heavily reliant on chunks from Hansel and Gretel. Rameau, Faure, Gounod, Chabrier, Couperin & Lully showed particularly large increases. Gershwin's large increase has been mentioned earlier and John Williams was the clearest beneficiary of the much maligned film music fest. The deaths of Tavener and Richard Rodney Bennett (late in 2012) clearly raised their profiles.