Michael White on R3 and its audience

[Pianorak]

http://www.telegraph.co.uk/culture/music/classicalmusic/8738993/Radio-3-is-getting-out-of-tune-with-its-audience.html

Jilly Cooper too is having a go: http://www.telegraph.co.uk/culture/m...bing-down.html

[french frank]

It seems to have attracted a bit of attention, Pianorak (this is the third time the link has been posted, though it was previously buried in other threads).

[Pabmusic]

I came across this quote from Gustav Holst, as remembered by Vaughan Williams:

"About 'Aristocracy in art' - art is not for all but only for the chosen few - but the only way to find those few is to bring art to everyone - then the artists have a sort of masonic signal by which they recognise each other in the crowd - he put it much better than that - but that is the gist" (letter from RVW to Imogen Holst , 19 September 1937).

It is easy to ignore this - and perhaps we try hard to pretend it's otherwise - but it needs to be acknowledged honestly, rather than hidden behind a facade of popularism.

[Al R Gando]

With lurid purple-and-red lighting like some sleazy nightclub, the intention seems to be to turn the Albert Hall into a lap-dancing establishment. You half-expect a lady in a G-string to emerge out of the woodwind and make straight for the conductor’s baton.

I thought this a strawman argument - because the R3 audience cannot see what lighting scheme is being deployed at the Albert Hall, nor does the lighting impinge in the slightest upon the audio result which is broadcast. The nonsense which follows about "lapdancing establishments" and "g-strings" is indeed a classic strawman tactic - inventing an entirely fictitious Aunt Sally, the more easily to pillory her for her alleged shortcomings. Churnalism of the sloppiest kind, and I'd gone to the piece with high expectations of Michael White.

There is surely much with which R3 can be berated with justification. By focussing his attack on a fictional target of his own making, White has done himself and his argument a great disservice, and merely poked himself in the eye with his wildly wagging finger. It must surely be "triples all round" at Broadcasting House, as it turns out the perfectly-timed attack on an open goal was nothing but the ludicrous squawking of an inflated blimp as it blew past overhead.

White would do better to stick to his usual stomping-ground of The Grauniad - where he can safely be ignored Perhaps the Tellygraph plan engaging him as their resident buffer, since Simon Heffer is alleged to be leaving to pursue a career in journalism?

[Ariosto]

Lots of good arguments in that article though. R3 is being dumbed down.

[VodkaDilc]

White would do better to stick to his usual stomping-ground of The Grauniad - where he can safely be ignored Perhaps the Tellygraph plan engaging him as their resident buffer, since Simon Heffer is alleged to be leaving to pursue a career in journalism?

I had always thought that Michael White, the Guardian journalist, and Michael White, the music critic and broadcaster, were two different people.

[Pianorak]

It seems to have attracted a bit of attention, Pianorak (this is the third time the link has been posted, though it was previously buried in other threads).

Oops, Sorry ff!

[Al R Gando]

I had always thought that Michael White, the Guardian journalist, and Michael White, the music critic and broadcaster, were two different people.

Are they? I didn't realise that, and thanks for the correction! :)

[Norfolk Born]

Are they? I didn't realise that, and thanks for the correction! :)

Isn't there at least one more journalist called Michael White, who reports on disability issues for the BBC and is, if memory serves, a devoted Southampton FC supporter?

[french frank]

Isn't there at least one more journalist called Michael White, who reports on disability issues for the BBC and is, if memory serves, a devoted Southampton FC supporter?

That's Peter White.

This is Michael White, the Grauniad's political writer.

Writing on classical music doesn't seem to merit a Wiki entry. But this is the blog of the Telegraph's Michael White. Too modest to supply a picture. But this is claimed to be he. I knew what he looked like, but he's changed if it is him. I mean he.