Chatter on Radio 3.

[Guest]

I do not suppose that I am the first or the only one to wish for less chatter on Radio 3, and more music. The constant appeals to "Contact us" , "email us" , "Tell us what you think" , get very wearing, and the frequently repeated (unvarying) adverts for R3 are just infuriating. Surely, the BBC can do better - or is chatter and repetition cheaper than music?

[Northender]

Hi magnetman!
The answer to your question is almost certainly 'Yes'. The adverts are presumably directed towards those who don't know, or have forgotten, which station they've tuned to, and also to assure them that it's NOT Classic FM (it's sometimes hard to tell them apart). As for the constant appeals - well, here's the thing, yah, OK? - this is the new, inclusive, cuddly Radio 3 with which you WILL INTERACT (is that clear?)

[french frank]

or is chatter and repetition cheaper than music?

I timed two complete Breakfast programmes and I imagine it's no coincidence that speech took up almost exactly - to the minute - 30 minutes: 20% of the programme for which there are no performing rights fees to be paid. If something musically interesting was being said, it might not be quite so bad.

the new, inclusive, cuddly Radio 3

I like the comment that 'inclusivity' means a place for everyone, not everyone in the same place ...

[Old Grumpy]

I do not suppose that I am the first or the only one to wish for less chatter on Radio 3, and more music. The constant appeals to "Contact us" , "email us" , "Tell us what you think" , get very wearing, and the frequently repeated (unvarying) adverts for R3 are just infuriating. Surely, the BBC can do better - or is chatter and repetition cheaper than music?

The adverts for other channels (R4 mainly) and television channels are even more wearing. If I need to know what's on Radio 4 or BBC 1 (or any other BBC channel) I can look it up thank you!

[Resurrection Man]

My radio has stopped working until 12 noon each day.

Don't quite know why.

[jayne lee wilson]

I noticed Suzy Klein back-announcing a Proms performance with a few tweets from the over-eager... we should all bombard her with 140 characters worth of YES!WOW!COR!MORE! etc.

[ferneyhoughgeliebte]

My radio has stopped working until 12 noon each day.

Don't quite know why.

... although I do find mine manages to start working at around eleven-thirty quite a lot more in recent weeks.

[Northender]

Had it started working at just after 1100, you would have heard all of Stenhammar's 'Serenade' (still in progress) - not a masterpiece, but worthy of an occasional outing, and ideal easy listening for a sunny Summer's morning.

[ferneyhoughgeliebte]

Had it started working at just after 1100, you would have heard all of Stenhammar's 'Serenade' (still in progress) - not a masterpiece, but worthy of an occasional outing, and ideal easy listening for a sunny Summer's morning.

Oh, I think it is Northy: not "profound" (of the sort which should be written with a scowl in Gothic type on granite by someone with constipation) but superbly written and utterly successful in its aims and achievement.

[Northender]

I'm quite willing to be convinced! (At least it held my interest throughout, which is more than can be said for Glazunov's 5th symphony which recently occupied the same slot).
Out of interest, do you have any views on Moeran's Sinfonietta - a more substantial work, perhaps, than its title suggests?

[Roehre]

Out of interest, do you have any views on Moeran's Sinfonietta - a more substantial work, perhaps, than its title suggests?

In my view Moeran's Sinfonietta is a work which many a composer would have been happy to call Symphony.
As such it really is Moeran's 2nd symphony, and comparing the latter's musical material with the Sinfonietta only strengthens that feeling.

[ferneyhoughgeliebte]

(At least it held my interest throughout, which is more than can be said for Glazunov's 5th symphony which recently occupied the same slot).

- I quite liked the Glazunov, but didn't find it riveted my attention throughout!

Out of interest, do you have any views on Moeran's Sinfonietta - a more substantial work, perhaps, than its title suggests?

I love Moeran's chamber Music, but I've never been convinced by his orchestral works. It's about thirty years since I last heard the Sinfonietta: maybe time to give it another go?

[RobertLeDiable]

We were in France for a couple of weeks recently and had the radio permanently tuned to France Musique. There, the balance of speech to music is at least 50-50 all day, except when they have a full concert in the evening. They devote hours, especially in the mornings, to programmes where one or two people basically chat, pausing once every 10 or 15 minutes for a short piece of music, often a single movement or a song, and sometimes just an excerpt from a movement. It's extraordinary. As for the repertoire, a great deal of it would be considered rather light even for Classic FM with a great emphasis on songs and arias in the mornings for some reason, and (though I don't know what happens in the winter) their summer evening concert series rarely strays from the 18th Century. And France is supposed to be a nation that takes culture seriously.

With Radio 3, some people don't know how lucky they are.

[Don Petter]

France Musique has always seemed to like setting each tiny section of music in its place in history, geography, philosophy and anything else before playing it, particularly in the mornings. For that reason we always prefer to listen to Radio Classique when in France, which has a much more pleasing lack of speech, thought the music tends to be similarly mainstream.

[RobertLeDiable]

France Musique has always seemed to like setting each tiny section of music in its place in history, geography, philosophy and anything else before playing it, particularly in the mornings. For that reason we always prefer to listen to Radio Classique when in France, which has a much more pleasing lack of speech, thought the music tends to be similarly mainstream.

I guess that's what they think they're doing. But it's precisely that sort of imbalance between music and speech that people are always accusing R3 of, though on France Musique it's ten times worse. I'm not talking about the R3 "let us know what you think" policy that so irritates many people (including me) in the mornings. There have always been people here who seem to resent being given more than the most vestigial introduction to the music. On France Musique the introductions are frequently much longer than the music. Also, in the mornings they seem to assume that people can't take anything remotely 'heavy' like orchestral music, so it's all songs with the occasional bit of piano music or snippet of chamber music. They quite often play pop songs during the day as well. But maybe that's French taste. I take it Radio Classique is commercial, like Classic FM?