The Interval

[ferneyhoughgeliebte]

1. Recorded music, unconnected with the concert
2. A speech-based music talk, covering the music to be played/Discovering Music
3. An interview with the evening's performer(s)
4. A vox pop style (audience, sundry orchestral players/administrators)
5. A talk unconnected with the music
6. A short story or other reading

Definitely NOT 1, please.

Otherwise a mixture of the others, if carefully done. (4) for example, could be like the old kaleidoscope programme on Bolero (which was excellent) or it could be an extended version of the breakfast Tweets (which would be truly, truly dire).
(3) would depend on the performer: some (Brendel, Previn, Boulez, Rosen) are excellent ranconteurs, others have barely more to say than "I really like this piece. It's really good. It's really difficult to play.")
(2) Fritz Spiegl used to give excellent interval introductions to the "main" work of the concert - in particular, I remember his using the Beethoven Conversation Books to show how the composer prepared for the first performances of the Ninth Symphony. Gently light-hearted (but without that irritating "chuckle" in the voice that infects so many presenters) he managed to inform, entertain and move, setting up the listener for the work. Just hearing how the most prominent comment on the actual day of the concert wasn't "Watch the tempi in the last movement", but "HAIRCUT!" was touching, amusing and somehow evoked a greater sense of reverence for the piece than any gushing introductions could dream of doing.
Specific programmes discussing/analysing Music should have their own separate scheduling.
(5 & 6) Yes, please.

[Eine Alpensinfonie]

5. A talk unconnected with the music

Does the BBC have an archive of Anthony Hopkins' "Talking About Music". These would be great fillers for intervals.

[Petrushka]

Since we seem to be in 'Poll' mode at the moment, this might be a good subject. I'm sure there are different views.

Possibilities?

1. Recorded music, unconnected with the concert

2. A speech-based music talk, covering the music to be played/Discovering Music

3. An interview with the evening's performer(s)

4. A vox pop style (audience, sundry orchestral players/administrators)

5. A talk unconnected with the music

6. A short story or other reading

I will investigate whether it's possible to put them in order, otherwise 'most liked' and 'least liked' would be interesting.

Definite preference from me for 5 & 6.

[Wallace]

Since we seem to be in 'Poll' mode at the moment, this might be a good subject. I'm sure there are different views.

Possibilities?

1. Recorded music, unconnected with the concert

2. A speech-based music talk, covering the music to be played/Discovering Music

3. An interview with the evening's performer(s)

4. A vox pop style (audience, sundry orchestral players/administrators)

5. A talk unconnected with the music

6. A short story or other reading

I will investigate whether it's possible to put them in order, otherwise 'most liked' and 'least liked' would be interesting.

Number 1 is my least-liked option with 5 and 6 being the most-liked but I feel that there is also room for 2, 3 and 4. Selecting the material for the interval should be a task not to be undertaken lightly. It should receive as much attention as the programming of the music for the concert. Through the week there could be talks, interviews, readings of poetry and short stories. Sometimes there might be links to the music featured in the concert, the concert venue, the performers and sometimes not. Every day's interval would be different. They should often surprise, always interest and hopefully sometimes stimulate listeners to enquire further into the topics concerned. The one rule for the interval should be...no music. Eine Alpensinfonie put it well. It is as if the management turned on the piped music.

[VodkaDilc]

Does the BBC have an archive of Anthony Hopkins' "Talking About Music". These would be great fillers for intervals.

Or perhaps he'd do some more - if he was asked! As long as it was Antony without the 'h' and not a Welsh actor!

[MrGongGong]

I'd go for #7

So much radio is rather pedestrian, many of the programmes that are "analysing" music are nothing of the sort and are not about sound. So how about some of the extraordinary "radio art" that we create ? hand it over to Chris Watson ? or even Christ DeLaurenti ? or get Resonance FM to programme it ?

[johnb]

Wallace has expressed almost exactly the same views that I voiced when the wall to wall interval music was introduced (though much more eloquently than I did).

I suspect that the musical intervals are much easier to produce and, probably, less expensive.

Don and FF have mentioned interviews with performers. Some musicians are very eloquent (e.g. Uchida) but with some the interviewer's task is akin to pulling teeth (e.g. uncle Bernard). However one of the main problems is that interviewers, in general, are just not up to the task. They often rely on a tick list of questions some of which are pretty banal and you can see the interviewee mentally rolling their eyes - whereas what is needed is an intelligent discussion with an (and this is vital) informed and very knowledgeable interviewer.

[Eine Alpensinfonie]

Or perhaps he'd do some more - if he was asked! As long as it was Antony without the 'h' and not a Welsh actor!

[jayne lee wilson]

Any music in the interval seems a mistake, but I usually spend the 20 minutes ensuring that mother and cat are fed/watered/supplied with tea or coffee or soup, before grabbing a coffee myself and just barely making it back for part 2.

[teamsaint]

after all that non stop music, I am always ready for the news, weather, some tweets, and a bit of a phone in..........

[LeMartinPecheur]

My preferences would be 5, 6 and 3 in descending order, and the rest, esp. 1, close to nowhere.

[Wallace]

I recently sent a letter to the BBC with a few suggestions regarding music during the intervals. The BBC replied. It appears that speech programmes in the intervals of live concerts are unaffordable and the budget will run only to putting on a CD. I don't know what it would cost to fund a few short speech programmes every week, and how this compares with the cost of broadcasting the live concerts.

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Wallace to BBC:
I am writing with a suggestion for the intervals of the concerts which are broadcast live on Radio 3.

The evening concert is often the highpoint of the day's Radio 3 schedule. However, too often the interval is given over to recorded music when the spoken word would be more appropriate. Imagine attending a concert where the hall manager turned up the lights for the interval and then put on a music CD to be relayed over the loudspeakers. In so many ways it would be wrong.

The interval is the ideal time for the spoken word. It could be about:
• the music just heard or to come;
• the concert venue or the city/town where the venue is located;
• (or better still) a matter unrelated to the concert.

The interval should be a time for serendipity. Attending a concert you never know whom you will meet during the interval or what interesting conversations you might overhear. Let it be the same for those of us at home listening to the concerts. Let us have words rather than music. It already happens during some of the concert intervals. Let it become the norm rather than the exception.

I do hope this suggestion will receive serious consideration. It would provide a distinctive enrichment to the Radio 3 schedule.

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BBC to Wallace
Thank you for your interest in BBC Radio 3 and in our concert presentation, Clearly this is a matter of taste, but also in times with decreased funding it is clear that creating a music interval will be less expensive than commissioning a short speech programme, Clearly, the most important commitment will be keeping our live concerts every evening, so if occasionally we are forced to find some economical solutions, then this is to be able to invest in creative content elsewhere and use our creative resources in the most appropriate fashion. Of course, The Essay does provide the most consistent speech strand that Radio 3 broadcasts with the chance to pursue a subject in some depth.

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[french frank]

Clearly this is a matter of taste, but also in times with decreased funding it is clear that creating a music interval will be less expensive than commissioning a short speech programme

No, it is not 'a matter of taste'. What a shame Radio 3 no longer has anyone with any sensitivity about music working there. Of course, there may also be people who have shunned the live concert (not to their taste) but will tune in specially for the CDs in the interval before popping off again when the live music starts.

But presumably they also no longer have any broadcasters competent to perhaps read out some poems (as they used to) either? Or a short story? Or another kind of reading? If not live, recorded as a feature. What would that cost if the authors are out of copyright?

What has The Essay got to do with 'concert presentation'?

[ferneyhoughgeliebte]

... in times with decreased funding it is clear that creating a music interval will be less expensive than commissioning a short speech programme

Then don't "commission" new speech items! There are recordings (many on CD!) of poetry and short story readings - some with the writers themselves reading their own work. It can't be more expensive to broadcast those than it is a Music CD? And then there's the BBC Archive Library: even nogotiated re-broadcast fees would be cheaper than "commissioning" new chattering?

Creative thinking, Beeb - try it sometime!

[teamsaint]

Income from the licence fee,and no doubt other sources, is rising.