New season

[french frank]

Radio 3 has announced its post-Proms schedule changes (to be continued).

First thought is that someone's been reading this forum! - Skellers named presenter of the new Sunday night European highlights programme.

[french frank]

Picking out the main points:

Opera, drama, early music ‘promoted’.

Opera on 3 – moved back to Saturday, where operas will be taken from various sources (EIF, Glyndebourne, Bayreuth, ROH - no mention of the Met productions).

Radio 3 in Concert, Sundays, with Skellers: highlights of concerts across Europe.

Drama on 3 brought forward to 9pm – which is a help for drama lovers (and let’s face it: music lovers get the best of the deal ordinarily). The quality and interest of the chosen drama will be all …

The drama to be followed an extra Early Music slot – a kind of Early Late Junction. Alas, no return of the beloved CB, but Simon Heighes and Elin Manahan Thomas will present, Baroque specialists both. Again, a selection of performances from around Europe.

Music Matters gets a repeat/opportunity for audiences to listen again, Mondays at 10pm. Saturday Classics, Sound of Cinema, JRR and JL-U all shove up to an hour earlier on Saturday afternoons. This presumably means the dropping of the Saturday repeat of the Wigmore Hall lunchtime concert.

First thoughts are that pretty general dissatisfaction with the late hour of Drama on 3 (which seemed to place drama at the margins) has been improved, if only by an hour: it's the right direction (except for those who bat on about drama ought to be on Radio 4 'cos iss speech).

What looks like a regular spot for Skellers could have nothing whatever to do with the forum - just the new controller's critical acuity .

The extra slot for Early Music will please the fans - and why not?

Not too sure what the jazz fans will think about JRR slipping from the Hallowed Hour.

What I would see is a strengthening of more 'specialist' programming: it remains to be seen if the hot potatoes will be left untouched.

ADD: MM has had a late night repeat on Mondays before: is the extra 45 mins gained by Opera on 3 moving?

[antongould]

Well done Skellers ...

[mercia]

.... if drama brought forward an hour, does that mean no live concert on that particular (Sunday?) evening ?

not sure I quite go along with this universal adoration of 'Skellers' - to me his voice sounds strained and there's a faintly sarcastic tone I'm not overly fond of. Having said that, for me the 'presenters' (whatever we call them) are the least important part of any broadcast - once the music starts I quickly forget them

[french frank]

.... if drama brought forward an hour, does that mean no live concert on that particular (Sunday?) evening ?

That would be the assumption: they're 'live' in the BBC sense of being concert/recital performances, not studio recordings or CDs. But I always felt the 'live broadcasts 7 nights a week' was madness and only a way of denying it was a U-turn after dropping all live or complete concerts altogether (i.e. 'we're doing something we've never done before'). Interestingly, the ones mentioned are both chamber music.

But it does say: "The strand will still bring the best of classical music-making from across the UK to listeners on Monday to Friday nights with a mix of mostly live and some pre-recorded concerts, ensuring that the best performances are never missed."

Yes, they are presenters because if we say 'announcers' there will be sneerings from some quarters like "or 'announcers' as these people insist on saying"

[ferneyhoughgeliebte]

Not sure what the jazz fans will think about JRR slipping from the Hallowed Hour.

Presumably, this will at least prevent its being dropped from the schedules whenever there's a long opera broadcast Live.

Why repeat MM - or, indeed, anything in the i-Player (or equivalent) days?

[french frank]

Presumably, this will at least prevent its being dropped from the schedules whenever there's a long opera broadcast Live.

True.

Why repeat MM - or, indeed, anything in the i-Player (or equivalent) days?

Yes - and particularly with CotW which takes up so much of the schedule with its repeats. A balancing of the books?

I can't see huge cost implications for the changes - and wouldn't expect to. And I haven't managed to work out what the cunning hidden nasties are - which always had to be sought out 'in the past' Maybe there just aren't any

[Eine Alpensinfonie]

Why repeat MM - or, indeed, anything in the i-Player (or equivalent) days?

Lots of reasons. Does the sound from a computer match that of a good tuner/amp in a hi-fi setup?

[ferneyhoughgeliebte]

Lots of reasons. Does the sound from a computer match that of a good tuner/amp in a hi-fi setup?

Do you need Hi-Fi to listen to Mr Ibragimova?! (A slower speed setting, maybe ... )

So, the other "lots"?

[Bryn]

Lots of reasons. Does the sound from a computer match that of a good tuner/amp in a hi-fi setup?

Since only the Radio 3 iPlayer offers HD Sound, far superior to either FM or dab, then no. It does not match, it improves upon the alternative sources. With freely available third party software it is also a simple matter to save the iPlayer's 320kbps AAC-LC offering in m4a or flv format, copy it to a USB memory stick or somesuch and play back through most modern Hi-Fi systems without using the computer's audio circuits.

[french frank]

Lots of reasons. Does the sound from a computer match that of a good tuner/amp in a hi-fi setup?

But these aren't concerts - they're just 'music documentaries' which are largely speech with music illustration, so 'good enough' is surely good enough?

[ferneyhoughgeliebte]

But these aren't concerts - they're just 'music documentaries' which are largely speech with music illustration, so 'good enough' is surely good enough?

Yes - the only regular concert/recital repeats requiring the sound quality Alpie (rightly) demands have been the Monday lunchtime concert repeats on Saturday; and it looks as if they're being discontinued (unless we're losing an hour of Seedy Review?!)

[french frank]

the Monday lunchtime concert repeats on Saturday; and it looks as if they're being discontinued (unless we're losing an hour of Seedy Review?!)

If that had been the case, they'd presumably have included the recital repeat in the list of programmes being moved earlier?

[ferneyhoughgeliebte]

Good point. So, we're going to get extra Service on the HiFi, but if we missed the Monday lunchtime concert, we'll have to make do with the i-Player.

[Serial_Apologist]

For the first time in a long time, I feel tentatively optimistic about R3's future.