The Choir - Last straw

[VodkaDilc]

Just accept that R3 is dead - .

I think this is the best solution. I now listen to Saturday mornings (selectively) and occasionally at other times in the car, until trivial chat sends me to an alternative station. Fifty years ago I used to mark my week's listening as soon as The Radio Times arrived. We have to accept that those days are past.

At least we have the Proms to look forward to. And I am rather more politically optimistic than Frances - as long as we can get the young to vote.

[mercia]

if it's not a foolish question - are the proms generally considered "better" concerts in some way than the live concerts broadcast the rest of the year ?

[Eine Alpensinfonie]

if it's not a foolish question - are the proms generally considered "better" concerts in some way than the live concerts broadcast the rest of the year ?

They have greater publicity. That's all.

[VodkaDilc]

if it's not a foolish question - are the proms generally considered "better" concerts in some way than the live concerts broadcast the rest of the year ?

We know when they are on; we can plan in advance and we can either listen or attend. Broadcast concerts during the rest of the year seem very haphazard - though I could be doing R3 an injustice.

[mercia]

I'm not quite sure in what way they are haphazard but certainly one does not know two or more months in advance what they will be

[VodkaDilc]

I'm not quite sure in what way they are haphazard but I agree one certainly does not know two or more months in advance what they will be

Exactly that. Is there advance notice about what concerts are being broadcast? Apart from that, can anyone deny the that Proms are 'special'?

[mercia]

Is there advance notice about what concerts are being broadcast?

usually about a week which I appreciate is not nearly long enough . The BBC ought to save itself some money and not broadcast live concerts the rest of the year (would be my advice)

[Pulcinella]

BBC Music Magazine usually provides a fairly good summary of the next month's evening concerts. It also tends to say where Choral Evensong will be from, and what the Building a Library choice is (not King Olaf!).
If it has access to the info, I don't see why it's not more widely disseminated.

[Eine Alpensinfonie]

usually about a week which I appreciate is not nearly long enough . The BBC ought to save itself some money and not broadcast live concerts the rest of the year (would be my advice)

...which would increase the north-south divide.

No doubt they would replace the live concerts with Evening on 3, hosted by KD and SM-P.

[VodkaDilc]

...which would increase the north-south divide.

No doubt they would replace the live concerts with Evening on 3, hosted by KD and SM-P.

Or they could re-name it Smooth Classics.

[mercia]

well if we typical listeners only tune in to R3 during the proms it hardly matters what the rest of the schedule consists of or who presents it - far better that Radio 3 should close down for ten months a year

[ardcarp]

1. Live concerts every weekday evening are a GOOD THING IMO, so plrase don't bin them.

2. Yes, I heard that Julian Phillips piece. Any interest was in the instrumental parts. The vocal line was deadly dull...just notes. I'll bet the kids hated learning it.

3. Words and Music's celebration of Dylan Thomas was WONDERFUL.

http://www.bbc.co.uk/programmes/b042bh35

[Don Petter]

I think this is the best solution. I now listen to Saturday mornings (selectively) and occasionally at other times in the car, until trivial chat sends me to an alternative station. Fifty years ago I used to mark my week's listening as soon as The Radio Times arrived. We have to accept that those days are past.

Your pattern, sadly, matches mine.

Fifty years ago I didn't bother to mark up a week's listening (which could, admittedly, have led to me missing things*), as Third/Three was the only radio ever on, and it was on all the time.

*Particularly as there were few trails, thank goodness. Now you hear the same ones repeatedly.

[french frank]

I researched the timeline for how Choirworks morphed into The Choir here.

I'm now doing the same for Discovering Music.

2 January 2000: 4pm Discovering Music: A new long-running series exploring the great works of classical music, using specially recorded examples to illuminate the textures and deconstruct the music. In this first programme, Anthony Payne unlocks the secrets of Elgar's Second Symphony with the help of the BBC National Orchestra of Wales under Brad Cohen...

There were several presenters: Anthony Payne, Gerard McBurney, Chris de Souza discussing substantial works, such as Beethoven's Eroica, Schubert's String Quintet, D. 956

Then we had Charles Hazlewood addressing a live audience each week, and Stephen Johnson; then reduced to the 20 minute interval talk; and finally - dropped.

[DracoM]

So instead of trying to BUILD an audience, take them with you onto other exploratory, horizon breaking journeys, you coo at them, stroke them, stop challenging or exciting them, and keep playing the Reader's Digest CD of Your Hundred Best Tunes.

Thanks to RW, a winning recipe for CFM.