Wright defends dumbing down again.

[french frank]

RW said he took some of the young participants in one of 'his' Proms to hear Beethoven's 5th and they were - what else? - blown away. Radio 3 's great contribution was that it introduced young and 'uninformed' audiences to classical music and instilled an interest in and love for classical music. That goes back to a time when there was NO television and only two other radio stations. Now the BBC has so many more services at their disposal, and even Radio 3 isn't allowed to be the 'serious' teacher that it was.

[MrGongGong]

If the kids are going too, make it something like Stravinsky's Rite of Spring or Varèse's Ameriques. They love it, guaranteed.

Metastasis or Atmospheres would be perfect
BUT to insist on the C word is , i'm afraid, a lost cause
call it Orchestral music, Chamber music, Music for a large ensemble ..... whatever you like
BUT it's a definite turn off to label it as "Classical" music , and even though many of us really do love it
you can't change what things have come to mean (like another word that has a G at the start !!! )

Pedantry is more off putting than enthusiasm

The idea that "youngsters" need something "non-threatening" ??? :

[ahinton]

Like the one they'd just been to? If you really drum it into people that classical music is just film music like Star Wars and Harry Potter, it will hold no fears for them

They don't know what classical music is (except like Bohemian Rhapsody) because the BBC never puts it on the mainstream services. And when they do attend a classical concert, it isn't classical music.

Why can they not see that their Master Plan for 'introducing new listeners to classical music' by NOT playing classical music has a fairly obvious flaw?

I don't know. I really don't. Just as I don't understand the logic behind so many of the purported efforts to draw more people to "classical music" and swell R3's audience figures.

There can be no doubt that some movie composers were extremely adroit at their cinematic work, but almost invariably because they already possessed considerable talents (at the very least) in the field of concert music. There's no harm in giving some of the best of their movie music outings in a concert environment from time to time provided that the audience recognises that most of that music was not written either for the concert hall or intended to stand on its own two feet as music.

The kind of thing that you refer to here is the very danger that you write of it - that some people might think that they're listening to "classical music" (whatever that is) just because they're being presented with movie music in a concert setting and told directly or by inference that it's "classical music". It all rather smacks of a kind of "outreach obsession" mentality that depends for its promotion and existence upon the strange assumption that most people (or at least most of those who have not been raised by "classically trained" musicians) have to be either led kicking and screaming or cajoled in more subtle ways to "come to" "classical music" as though the music itself is somehow incapable of persuading them to do so; it's an attitude that seems to me to be patronising and, in some cases, insuilting to the intelligence of the listener.

I'm sure that I'm far from alone in having been raised in a music-free zone and then suddenly being drawn right in by happening to listen to a performance (in my case Chopin's F minor Ballade played by John Ogdon). OK, yes, there are many more and more varied pressures upon everyone's time today, but I don't think that this fact alone is sufficient to warrant, let alone justify, the kind of "dumbing down" approach that simply does R3 and its actual and potential listeners few favours.

[ahinton]

If the kids are going too, make it something like Stravinsky's Rite of Spring or Varèse's Ameriques. They love it, guaranteed.

They might even be playing it! I remember a NYO Prom years ago which began with the original version of Amériques and ended with Le Sacre and had some Gershwin in between...

[Flosshilde]

The argument RW et al put forward for the corruption of Radio 3 is that it will bring in a new audience, or audiences (no mention of what they want to happen to the old audience - presumably they think we're dying off). Have they done any serious research into how effective the changes have been? Not the audience figures (RAJAR? RADAR?) but who the audience actually is.

(is the BBC subject to the FoI Act? Can they be compelled to disclose any research, or do they hide behind 'commercial confidentiality?)

[Dave2002]

Wright uses the argument that Radio 3 shouldn't give people 'what they already know'

Would make a bit more sense if it was

Radio 3 shouldn't give people 'only what they already know'

Otherwise it's rather like saying that if I order fish in a restaurant I should be prevented from having it since I have eaten fish before.

Widening tastes is one thing, but ...

[french frank]

(is the BBC subject to the FoI Act? Can they be compelled to disclose any research, or do they hide behind 'commercial confidentiality?)

No, they can't be compelled to disclose anything like this if they don't want to. Which means that if they WANT to - for publicity reasons - they will. But if they are ASKED they will stand by their 'exemption' and refuse.

As for things audiences already know - and Anna's post above - I just checked yesterday's ssshhhowww. Tim's choice's were a Jerry Goldsmith piece from The Omen and Elmer Bernstein from True Grit.

It's probably advanced paranoia to think that everyone at Radio 3 is laughing their socks off at the smouldering discontent of listeners. But I do see another Tweeter tweeting that 'Tim is subjecting Radio 3 listeners to The Omen. Wonderful Carmina Burana 70s pastiche .'

[EnemyoftheStoat]

It's probably advanced paranoia to think that everyone at Radio 3 is laughing their socks off at the smouldering discontent of listeners.

Those at R3 who could give a toss about listener discontent are in a small minority. RW is not one of them.

[Old Grumpy]

Response in today's Sunday Telegraph letters from one Darren Henley:

inter alia - "Mr Wright's recent editorial changes move Radio 3 even further away from its previous distinctive position, making it harder than ever for Radio 3 to justify its privileged public funding. The BBC appears intent on moving its network into the space occupied by a commercial radio competitor in a market of only two stations".

Sorry - can't seem to find online copy.

OG

[David-G]

... making it harder than ever for Radio 3 to justify its privileged public funding.

This is what I have been thinking. Is this not odd, when the BBC is going to be fighting to maintain the licence fee?

[amateur51]

Response in today's Sunday Telegraph letters from one Darren Henley:

inter alia - "Mr Wright's recent editorial changes move Radio 3 even further away from its previous distinctive position, making it harder than ever for Radio 3 to justify its privileged public funding. The BBC appears intent on moving its network into the space occupied by a commercial radio competitor in a market of only two stations".

Sorry - can't seem to find online copy.

OG

That'll be the Darren Henley, managing director of Classic FM, I assume. Good for him - perhaps the beast is roused to defend itself from Wright's trespassing at last.

[DracoM]

This is what I have been thinking. Is this not odd, when the BBC is going to be fighting to maintain the licence fee?

Seems bafflingly counter-intuitive, I agree. R3 all by itself making the case for the angry commercial sector's objections without that sector lifting a finger. Hmm.

The more one reviews the RW tenure, the more one realises just how incrementally and probably lethally treacherous it has been. he has overseen the piece by piece fragmenting and anaesthetising of the station. We are watching a re-sinking of the Titanic, but this time it is because the skipper himself has been busy unscrewing the rivets below the water line.

Do none of the old guard - Handley, McGregor, Cowan, Shea, Swain - have the cojones to revolt?

[teamsaint]

That'll be the Darren Henley, managing director of Classic FM, I assume. Good for him - perhaps the beast is roused to defend itself from Wright's trespassing at last.

As we also know, it used to be the case that the BBC tended to keep out of areas that were well served by other national free to air services...EG when Channel 4 took the rights to test cricket.
doesn't seem to be that way now.

[aka Calum Da Jazbo]

i am reassured that we begin to see the truly awful nature of Wright's stewardship .... with little sense or reason that can be articulated into an argument that stands the test of debate, but with much bluster and incoherence, Mr W has bullied his way as a commercial man over the remains of R3 .... he is not to be mistaken for a grand theorist or master conspirator; he is essentially a low grade business manager running the nation's flagship for arts in broadcasting ... with a bit of bluster and Wagner wallpaper here, and a Prom there ..... but no sense, only the unfit tactics of commercial radio .... he does not get his job, but is sure that he does ... he is a truly awful buggins .... [no one ever stands up to them .... not even when they are Prime Minister]

with Wright in post there will be no welcome nor worthwhile changes at R3, only more of the dispiriting same with a faux anti elitist propaganda .... no sense of the art and its fundamental part in our nature and societies, no respect for its intelligence nor analysis of its cunning; just arid repetition of commercially acceptable tunes .... no one seems to notice much, but this man is denaturing the Proms as well .... if he so wants to shine in the halls of light entertainment perhaps he could do himself a favour and move on

[Frances_iom]

i am reassured that we begin to see the truly awful nature of Wright's stewardship .... ..

Some saw this a long time ago - there is no stewardship merely a mechanism to spin it out to his golden retirement then in a cost cutting gesture the BBC will offer to relinquish a national channel to a commercial broadcaster and the Americanisation of UK radio is near complete