Controller, BBC Radio 3

[french frank]

How brief is fame ... The 6 o'clock News on Radio 4 announced that Mr Davey's predecessor as controller was Robin Wright, who was in the post for 15 years.

[french frank]

Richard Morrison was not very happy in The Times this morning.[ ... ] He thinks classical music is enjoying "a radical renaissance" and that creative havoc needs to be wrought at Radio 3.

As for the radical renaissance - I wonder what he had in mind ...

http://www.theguardian.com/music/2014/sep/21/pop-belongs-last-century-classical-music-relevant-future-paul-morley

[Zucchini]

Re; Robin Wright, I wrote this a few messages ago. Seems 'months' should have been 'decades'

...the boredom of managing a 168 hours a week little backwater of the BBC - such that for months people sharing the lift haven't the faintest idea who you are.

[teamsaint]

How brief is fame ... The 6 o'clock News on Radio 4 announced that Mr Davey's predecessor as controller was Robin Wright, who was in the post for 15 years.

Rog has been robbed.

[DracoM]

The Arts Council retreat from being a frontline player to where it is now seems, as has been said, a skilfully managed decline. Is that the skill Alan Davey has had a hand in perpetuating? Is that why he's been chosen?

[french frank]

Re; Robin Wright, I wrote this a few messages ago. Seems 'months' should have been 'decades'

...the boredom of managing a 168 hours a week little backwater of the BBC - such that for months people sharing the lift haven't the faintest idea who you are.

That very post occurred to me at once!

[Honoured Guest]

Norma Labrechte seems to have suddenly gone very quiet - Preparing an application to be Proms Director?

[ferneyhoughgeliebte]

As for the radical renaissance - I wonder what he had in mind ...

http://www.theguardian.com/music/201...re-paul-morley

That's not at all a bad selection of pieces. And the way Morley discusses them seems to me to be more successful at "outreaching" a wider audience for the Music than the Beeb's Prom efforts.

[french frank]

Norma Labrechte seems to have suddenly gone very quiet - Preparing an application to be Proms Director?

A question of 'Abandon hope', Norman, if this is anything to go by (and previous), given that the Controller, R3, appoints the Proms Director .

[teamsaint]

That's not at all a bad selection of pieces. And the way Morley discusses them seems to me to be more successful at "outreaching" a wider audience for the Music than the Beeb's Prom efforts.

back in the day (when he made his name)' Morley had an infuriating habit of alternating some excellent writing and criticism with , when he went off piste, writing self indulgent tosh.( I recall two precious pages of the NME being devoted to a Marks and Spencers Blue Cheese dip, for instance.)
i'm sure he has developed self censorship skill over the years. his recent stuff seems to stick to the more or less sensible.
It would certainly be good to give him a bash at presenting a Prom.

[french frank]

That's not at all a bad selection of pieces. And the way Morley discusses them seems to me to be more successful at "outreaching" a wider audience for the Music than the Beeb's Prom efforts.

Anyone who puts the Masonic Funeral Music at the top of any list gets my vote. But it slices through the repertoire avoiding the obvious after that.

[ferneyhoughgeliebte]

... it slices through the repertoire avoiding the obvious after that.

Yes, I liked it, too. Whaddya want? Essential Classics?

Shostakovich #10? Debussy, Webern, Berio ... "avoiding the obvious"? (The only piece he mentions that I don't know well is the Earle Brown.)

My "criticism" would be the absence of anything earlier than the 18th Century ... but, for a list of works for a newcomer to start off with, I think it's inspired.

[Richard Barrett]

a career bureaucrat who has specialised in the management of decline doesn't really send the right signal about Radio 3.

This was my immediate thought. Although I thought that Robin's, I mean Roger's, appointment in 1998 sent exactly the right signal, and look what happened there.

[french frank]

Yes, I liked it, too. Whaddya want? Essential Classics?

Shostakovich #10? Debussy, Webern, Berio ... "avoiding the obvious"? (The only piece he mentions that I don't know well is the Earle Brown.)

My "criticism" would be the absence of anything earlier than the 18th Century ... but, for a list of works for a newcomer to start off with, I think it's inspired.

I meant "obvious" in the sense of what, obviously, newcomers start off with.

[Reminds me of the old P. Ustinov story of being asked as a schoolboy to 'Name a Russian Composer', and when he named Rimsky-Korsakov he was told, No, the Answer Was Tchaikovsky. So Debussy means Prélude à l'après-midi d'un faune]

Although I thought that Robin's, I mean Roger's, appointment in 1998 sent exactly the right signal, and look what happened there.

[Thoughtful silence]

[Bryn]

Alan Davey was interviewed on the Today Programme this morning. Implied criticism of the Wright man, I thought. 2 hours 34 minutes and 30 second into http://www.bbc.co.uk/radio/player/b04lsl1s . What he claims to be about is "not dumbing down" but "wising up".