The depths of absurdity to which the once admirable BBC Radio Three has latterly sunk are evident from the following selection of complaints by listeners throughout the world, which I have harvested from other forums.
Frustrated listener number one contributes the following lamentation:
Frustrated listener number two cries out from the depths of his misery:
Frustrated listener number three vents a righteous and considerable anger:
Frustrated listener number four looks back to the glory days and wails at the passing of all that was once good:
And frustrated listener number five is simply appalled by the broadcasts and fears they are driving him mad:
I quote these because they are the spontaneous and unaffected reactions of people of obvious good will, unassociated with our current Radio 3 Forum. What hidden agenda does the B.B.C. have when they treat people thus? And more to the point, what right?
Frustrated listener number one contributes the following lamentation:
Is there anywhere on the Radio 3 site that actually lists the pieces that are going to be played (ie, not "XY explores pieces by Bach, Barber and Ginastera" but "Bach: Violin Concerto in A minor, played by &c")? In the old days (70s and 80s) you bought the Radio Times and all the playlists for the week were printed."
The daily schedule is very clunky (having to click on each segment) and you have to listen to that chunk, you can't go to the individual pieces. However, I think if something rare did come up I could listen and capture it. The only difficulty would be getting notice of it, as I'm unlikely to have the time to go through the schedule consistently.
The current Radio 3 listings are so annoying, I have a mind to write and complain. The management seem to think that the audience are interested in the presenter rather than the music. It's not as if they have Patricia Hughes any more, either!
In the 1980s all of the BBC's Music Producers were summoned to a monthly meeting at Broadcasting House in London. The meeting was chaired by the then Controller of BBC Three, the late Ian McIntyre, At the meeting there was a round-table review of the musical output of the previous month. One of the most common criticisms voiced by some producers was that an announcer, probably working out of one of the regional stations of the Corporation, had gone "off-script" in some slight fashion and had interposed some element of their own personality or personal views on the music to be played. This was regarded as a cardinal sin and producers responsible were warned and instructed to see that this sort of thing was not repeated!
I remember Radio 3 in the late 70s and early 80s and what amused me was a piece would end and then after a pause the announcer would say 'That was....' in a sepulchral voice. However, jump forward to now when occasionally I turn it on and after two minutes I'm screaming "shut up, play the music", "I'm not two years old", "No, a serpent isn't a woodwind instrument!" and so on, and my wife puts her head round the door and says I shouldn't be listening if it upsets me. I've been ploughing through the Radio 3 schedules, and back in the 70s I used to think, looking at the schedule full of avant-garde pieces, "I'll never be clever enough to listen to this music". There was one program I listened to where they played the first Beethoven Razumovsky Quartet, followed by Simpson's Quartet No.4 (based on the same plan), would they do that now? Now I'm thinking the schedule is a bit light weight and I don't think there's much I really do want to listen to. Appalled that they seem to play extracts from works sometimes, ie a movement from a Mozart piano concerto.
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