RADIO 3 evening concert intervals - cut the music !

[Barbirollians]

I cannot understand why t is thought a good idea to play more music in the intervals of Performance on 3 concerts. I want a break from music which is of course part of the point of the interval in the concert hall - to allow the musicians a break but also the audience .

Radio 3 must have an absolute treasury of talks about the pieces played in their archives - might it not be fascinating to hear what say Hans Keller , Anthony Hopkins or Deryck Cooke once had to say about the piece we have just heard or are about to hear ?

Cut the music and bring back the talks !

[Northender]

The interval in last night's Wigmore Hall concert was devoted, sans musique, to an amateur weather forecaster.

[french frank]

The interval in last night's Wigmore Hall concert was devoted, sans musique, to an amateur weather forecaster.

Was it interesting?

I remember years ago an interval talk about sheep farming in south west France: it was surpriingly interesting.

[ferneyhoughgeliebte]

Yes - this is another irritating way of ruining the performers' carefully thought-out programming: it just saturates the ear and makes the second half of the concert too much. Interval talks - especially those on seemingly bizarre topics - were so much better for everybody involved.

[David-G]

I cannot understand why t is thought a good idea to play more music in the intervals of Performance on 3 concerts. I want a break from music which is of course part of the point of the interval in the concert hall - to allow the musicians a break but also the audience .

Radio 3 must have an absolute treasury of talks about the pieces played in their archives - might it not be fascinating to hear what say Hans Keller , Anthony Hopkins or Deryck Cooke once had to say about the piece we have just heard or are about to hear ?

Cut the music and bring back the talks !

I agree 100%.

[Nick Armstrong]

I agree 100%.

So do I.

[salymap]

So do I.

I agree too. Saturation point is reached and the concert is cut up into pieces - but isn't that done to everything broadcast now?

[Petrushka]

I usually turn the volume down so it is just about audible then return to normal for the concert.

[Barbirollians]

I have had enough after that Petrushka on the piano - so no Rite for me .

[Flosshilde]

Never mind - there's another one along next Thursday, by the BBCSSO

[Eine Alpensinfonie]

It's strange that they like to intersperse decent music with utter verbal drivel in Breakfast, bur when the human voice would be more appropriate in a concert interval, we are force-fed more music.

[teamsaint]

It's strange that they like to intersperse decent music with utter verbal drivel in Breakfast, bur when the human voice would be more appropriate in a concert interval, we are force-fed more music.

and odd that on a station so obsessed with "entry level " listeners, that a programme such as the long format "Discovering music" should be discarded.
I would like to see an expanded DM with short concert introductions, and a return of the longer format.
But then I want Saints to win the Premier league !!

[Northender]

Was it interesting?

Mildly (boom! boom!)

[french frank]

and odd that on a station so obsessed with "entry level " listeners, that a programme such as the long format "Discovering music" should be discarded.

It may be totally irrelevant, but when the BBC Trust carried out its review of Radio 3, it asked members of the public, including "those who were not regular Radio 3 or classical music listeners and who therefore did not find the content particularly appealing" to listen to selected programmes one of which, presumably, was Discovering Music, since one person replied,

"Some of the programmes were pitched well above my knowledge level (eg The Sunday Feature: Discovering Music) but they were nevertheless interesting, although I wouldn’t want to listen too much."

Thereafter DM was reduced to an interval talk (according to RW as a result of 'cash cuts'). Coincidentally, the Trust asked R3 to be more 'accessible' to new listeners.

[Eine Alpensinfonie]

Much the same can be said for programme notes for orchestral concerts. The Halle ones in th 1960s used to contain musical exanples. I found these useful and informative, but presumably being able to read music is now regarded as elitist.