New season's highlights

[french frank]

Haven't had time to read the detail but at first sight, it seems very serious and - hopefully - reverses Roger's view that Radio 3 was 'just another radio station'.

Who cares about the accents? it's what people say.

What might be contentious with some people (not me!) is that he envisages Radio 3 as more than a music station too. The spoken arts in particular had been run down by RW whose interest was mainly in the music.

Words & Music (popular though I know it is) is the equivalent of 'easy listening'. Speech and music content needed to be sharpened up.

This the Guardian view:

http://www.theguardian.com/music/2015/oct/01/bbc-radio-3-alan-davey-15-16-season-highlights

[french frank]

Just read the Telegraph piece and can't get beyond the first sentence: "Radio 3 is rebranding itself as a “cultural channel” rather than a classical music station, as its new controller signals a retreat in the war with Classic FM. :

For goodness' sake! the Third Programme and Radio 3 have always been 'cultural networks, not 'classical music stations'. Roger only knew about music, so he aimed to make it (my view only) a very slightly upmarket Classic FM - not too far upmarket as to put off new recruits from CFM, but far enough to fool commentators who never listen to it that it was far above it.

[ferneyhoughgeliebte]

This the Guardian view:
http://www.theguardian.com/music/201...son-highlights

A great start to 2016:

The new year brings a week celebrating contemporary classical music that will be launched on 1 January with the world premiere of the four-channel transmission of Stockhausen’s electroacoustic classic Hymnen. Radio 3 has acquired copies of the original four-channel tapes of Regions (ie Movements) 1, 2 and 4 from the Stockhausen Foundation for Music, and alongside these will be broadcast a recording of a live performance by the London Sinfonietta of Region 3, making the BBC the first to broadcast the complete work as it was conceived by Stockhausen in 1967.

[Barbirollians]

Generally , it is positive news but in relation to classical music it would be good to have more informative and educational stuff e.g more interval talks about the music in the concert concerned , a programme like Interpretations on Record OK let's be honest let's have that back and biographical programmes about an artist that incorporate their work.

[french frank]

The Independent:

http://www.independent.co.uk/news/media/tv-radio/bbc-radio-3-boss-promises-slow-radio-and-fewer-southern-voices-a6675346.html

And Radio Times:

http://www.radiotimes.com/news/2015-10-01/too-many-plummy-accents-on-radio-3-i-do-want-more-voices-from-around-the-country-admits-station-boss

[mercia]

I think if there were to be a lot more speech programmes on 3 I would want 4 to reciprocate with more music

[Serial_Apologist]

I think if there were to be a lot more speech programmes on 3 I would want 4 to reciprocate with more music

The problem with that is that already we find a lot of music or music-related programmes on Radio 4 that get missed, even by people like me who go through Radio Times each week with a fine tooth comb, and yet miss items not highlighted. These are often programmes, or short items shoehorned incongruously into news programmes such as Today, which either refer to subjects that listeners are not adequately informed by a dumbed down Radio 3 to be primed to understand unless brought up during earlier more enlightened times, or which should have been on Radio 3 in the first place.

[french frank]

I think if there were to be a lot more speech programmes on 3 I would want 4 to reciprocate with more music

Probably the greatest challenge is to actually re-educate people as to what a service like Radio 3 is.

Ever since 'generic broadcasting' came in people have been pigeonholing radio stations (in a way that is deprecated when you try to pigeonhole music and, say, ringfence classical from the rest of 'music'). Both the Third and Radio 3 set out to cover a huge range of cultural/arts content, with each separate subject expected to overlap to some extent in terms of audience appeal: people who enjoyed classical music (at the heart of the service) would also be interested in contemporary 'classical' music; or classical theatre; or poetry; or literature; or - inasfar as they can be presented on radio, fine/appled arts, dance.

As a result of this pigeonholing, R3 seems to attract people whose interest is in 'music', where classical music overlaps with popular music. But then they have little interest in the spoken arts: people yakking away when they want to hear MYU-sic. Ideally, people who are interested in classical music should have at least an intellectual interest in/respect for jazz, world music or the wider arts, even if it isn't to their taste. And people whose main interest is in jazz/world should have an intellectual interest in/respect for classical.

Ideally, or rather idealistically, Radio 3 should shun anything designed to appeal to a mass audience: in music, that would leave classical crossover to Classic FM, smooth jazz to Radio 2, 'low brow' drama [sorry - I mean with mass appeal] to Radio 4. People would then be free to select from whatever Radio 3 offers, and go somewhere else if the rest of the content is unappealing. Sticking with Radio 3 should mean broadening horizons.

That's casting down my gauntlet and preparing to be told that isn't how things are now

[Serial_Apologist]

That's casting down my gauntlet and preparing to be told that isn't how things are now

I can never quite decide if this is reiterated in some forlorn spirit of inevitability, or Panglossian delight, by those who utter it. At best it's tautological, obviously, but I'm always reminded of Mrs Thatcher's "There is no alternative".

[french frank]

I can never quite decide if this is reiterated in some forlorn spirit of inevitability, or Panglossian delight, by those who utter it. At best it's tautological, obviously, but I'm always reminded of Mrs Thatcher's "There is no alternative".

More folorn . Is it it tautological? 'Not how things are' as in 'You can't do that these days'.

[Andrew Slater]

There's a 25-page BBC pdf here

[french frank]

There's a 25-page BBC pdf here

Good grief … everything you always wanted to know …

[mercia]

"Through The Night .... [is] ..... slow radio at its best"

Could anyone explain to me what that means please.

[french frank]

"Through The Night .... [is] ..... slow radio at its best"

Could anyone explain to me what that means please.

Reading what the controller said, I think it ties in with his comment about music (and drama, for instance) being given the time they need to be played/performed in full, in a 'leisurely' way - unlike Breakfast where the aim is apparently to be brisk and lively, and stop the music after 5 min 22 secs to start the next piece. The word being used (somewhere, I've forgotten where) was 'contemplative', perhaps allowing time to think about things? If not that, I don't know.

[Serial_Apologist]

Also it may be related to "slow TV", attempted a couple of months ago with a series of programmes with minimal or no background music or commentary, featuring for instance a barge making its way at walking pace down a picturesque stretch of waterway. Rather like taking a zen walk from the comfort of ones armchair.