Prom 3: BBC Young Musician 40th Anniversary - 15.07.18

[french frank]

I think Ian Skelly would be too ......

I'm not sure that either of them would

[jonfan]

Oh dear, FF...I think you may have given the Beeb an idea that might run and run............
.....but, hang on, they already do this with Breakfast, Essential Classics, Afternoon Concert, Mixtape, and.........................
Ian Skelley would be right up for that.

FF and DracoM are fondly remembering some halcyon days of the past which didn’t really exist where we were continuously ‘stretched’, perhaps as far back as The Third Programme which began at 5pm and finished at 11pm (I think). The Breakfast show now is very similar in content to when Miss Hughes and Donald Muckload were in charge (as the blessed Ray Moore called them on Radio 2’s Early Show - he always plugged Choral Evensong every week.) Radio 3 seems to concentrate needle time in the mornings but the big failure and embarrassment is Essential Classics with its slow moments. It really does need sorting but I’m ok with IS as he always plays stuff I request
I think the rest of the day is quite ‘stretching’ IMO with Afternoon Concert with major works and the Lunchtime slot with chamber music. What we do need is another Antony Hopkins to talk about music. What about David Owen Norris? Tom Service does ok with his Listening Service, maybe that could look at one piece in detail? I’ve quite warmed to him.
The real meaty stuff of the day are the 6 hours of Through the Night and that is probably the most ‘stretched’ music of the day. How about switching those 6 hours with the 6 hours of Breakfast and Essential Classics? Now that would please many on this forum wouldn’t it? Come on Alan, give it a try.

[Richard Tarleton]

FF and DracoM are fondly remembering some halcyon days of the past which didn’t really exist where we were continuously ‘stretched’, perhaps as far back as The Third Programme which began at 5pm and finished at 11pm (I think).

jonfan - how old are you? Or, to make that a less personal question, when did youi start listening to Radio 3 (or indeed the Third Programme)?

[jonfan]

jonfan - how old are you? Or, to make that a less personal question, when did youi start listening to Radio 3 (or indeed the Third Programme)?

Straight question here Richard. I remember hearing the The Third Programme very loudly through the house wall from my uncle who lived next door. After the Archers he switched to The Third for the rest of the evening. Serious listening for me started in about 1960 as I was into piano, organ and choir, later orchestras. Sadly I share the same birth year as the current President of the USA.

[french frank]

The Breakfast show now is very similar in content to when Miss Hughes and Donald Muckload were in charge (as the blessed Ray Moore called them on Radio 2’s Early Show

You're half way there with your later remarks, jf But I wasn't even listening in the days of Miss Hughes, so I couldn't be remembering those halcyon days - especially if they didn't exist.

I would say RW's Morning on 3 was about the least demanding programme on R3 at that time (and I was admittedly getting a little fed up with some of the inter-music waffle). But when Breakfast began I gave it two weeks and switched off, never to be a regular listener again. So you may hear no difference but I certainly did. And on the several 'work-related' occasions I've listened, often to the entire programme , I didn't change my mind.

It's not so much that I expect the entire day to be 'stretching' as that I don't want it, ever, to sink down to its currently demeaning Lowest Common Denominator level. Especially when that level is very low.

Essential Classics I've barely listened to more than a total of five minutes since it began, so emetic was its whole concept.

[LMcD]

Ah, yes, the blessed Ray Moore. One of the highlights of his breakfast show was his reports of abdominal loads that had broken down on the M1 and been found sobbing quietly on the hard shoulder. He would also occasionally inform his listeners that, as usual, Radio 3 was busy 'playing stuff by dead foreigners'.
'For all we know / We may never meet again'
Much missed.

[Richard Tarleton]

Straight question here Richard. I remember hearing the The Third Programme very loudly through the house wall from my uncle who lived next door. After the Archers he switched to The Third for the rest of the evening. Serious listening for me started in about 1960 as I was into piano, organ and choir, later orchestras. Sadly I share the same birth year as the current President of the USA.

Good grief - that is a surprise, jon - we must have very different recollections of the Third in those days. I'm a couple of months younger than, erm, Prince Charles (bit of a sore point actually....)

But I don't think we need to go that far. Penny Gore before 0900, and Rob Cowan-Jonathan Swain's double act on CD Masters was on a different planet to what goes on now....

[jonfan]

Good grief - that is a surprise, jon - we must have very different recollections of the Third in those days. I'm a couple of months younger than, erm, Prince Charles (bit of a sore point actually....)

But I don't think we need to go that far. Penny Gore before 0900, and Rob Cowan-Jonathan Swain's double act on CD Masters was on a different planet to what goes on now....

CD Masters was a class act for the mornings. I’d forgotten about that, it worked really well. I’ve been digitising, if that’s the right word, some tapes in the archives of the Huddersfield Choral from broadcasts in the 1960s and what I notice about the presentation is the serious stentorian correctness of delivery and respect for the music and what’s being said about it is the truth. It reminds me of the Reithian practice of when the news on the radio is read a dress suit is worn. Perhaps we’ve lost a bit of awe for great music with a more casual presentation. Or not, just an idle thought.

[antongould]

Ah, yes, the blessed Ray Moore. One of the highlights of his breakfast show was his reports of abdominal loads that had broken down on the M1 and been found sobbing quietly on the hard shoulder. He would also occasionally inform his listeners that, as usual, Radio 3 was busy 'playing stuff by dead foreigners'.
'For all we know / We may never meet again'
Much missed.

Very much missed indeed a wonderful broadcaster IMVVHO ..... Skellers has that same irreverence and, FF will be delighted to hear, has taken to calling his listeners the Essential Classics Regiment .....