A new user writes..

[Domeyhead]

Hello, I have been in private despair at what feels like a dumbing down of Radio 3 in the last year. I thought I was alone when I quietly seethed at Sarah Morh Peach who seems to think we must "enhance our listening experience" by tweeting each other excitedly like a flock of starlings whenever we enjoy a piece of music, and at Rob Cowan who seems to have a kind of forelock tugging obsequiousness when talking about music that must surely make him favourite for the Henry Kelly award for overblown musical sycophancy. Even Petrock Trelawney now exorts me (reluctantly I hope)to let him know how much I enjoyed a piece in 140 characters or less of over excited drivel. Why? Does it matter to him or the rest of the nation what I think, or vice versa?
For the last year I have felt like a carer watching helplessly as a much loved relative regresses into childhood, but relieved when I realised I was not alone. I became suspicious when every time I turned on at random I recognised the "familar bit" from a popular overture, and realised that instead of providing me an endlessly renewed banquet to sustain me through my life, Radio 3 has at some point decided to feed me sweets instead. I understand that many of the quality newspapers have also raged against this transmutation into a kind of sub Classic FM. I don't understand why a publicly funded broadcaster with a mission to provide the highest standards in what it does, chooses instead to copy commercial stations to increase listener ratings in a pointless exercise that I can only put down to the Controller's vanity. I apologise for the rant but I have kept this in for a year and just had to unburden it somewhere.
Should I pick up my hat and leave again, or am I amongst friends?

[amateur51]

Hello, I have been in private despair at what feels like a dumbing down of Radio 3 in the last year. I thought I was alone when I quietly seethed at Sarah Morh Peach who seems to think we must "enhance our listening experience" by tweeting each other excitedly like a flock of starlings whenever we enjoy a piece of music, and at Rob Cowan who seems to have a kind of forelock tugging obsequiousness when talking about music that must surely make him favourite for the Henry Kelly award for overblown musical sycophancy. Even Petrock Trelawney now exorts me (reluctantly I hope)to let him know how much I enjoyed a piece in 140 characters or less of over excited drivel. Why? Does it matter to him or the rest of the nation what I think, or vice versa?
For the last year I have felt like a carer watching helplessly as a much loved relative regresses into childhood, but relieved when I realised I was not alone. I became suspicious when every time I turned on at random I recognised the "familar bit" from a popular overture, and realised that instead of providing me an endlessly renewed banquet to sustain me through my life, Radio 3 has at some point decided to feed me sweets instead. I understand that many of the quality newspapers have also raged against this transmutation into a kind of sub Classic FM. I don't understand why a publicly funded broadcaster with a mission to provide the highest standards in what it does, chooses instead to copy commercial stations to increase listener ratings in a pointless exercise that I can only put down to the Controller's vanity. I apologise for the rant but I have kept this in for a year and just had to unburden it somewhere.
Should I pick up my hat and leave again, or am I amongst friends?Welcome Domey! That was a splendid rant, and you will find other but similar expressions of despair on here. You are not alone - many people on here are in a similar state of grief and anger :sadface:

[french frank]

Hello Domeyhead :smiley:

I'll send you a PM (private message). Go to the top of the page and click on Notifications when it's showing red.

(For the rest of the world, you know I'll be giving details of Friends of Radio 3. I'm not allowed, under the privacy terms of the forum to use anyone's email address, without express permission, for anything other than forum business).

[Norfolk Born]

Domeyhead - welcome to the Valley of Tears / Slough of Despond aka FoR3. (Actually, when we're not fulminating we have a lot of fun and also learn a lot from one another - arguably at least as much as we would from Radio 3 were it doing what it oughta! :biggrin:)

[gurnemanz]

Welcome to our midst and thank you for the update concerning Breakfast - dispiriting though your findings are. You have summarised why many of us here do not listen to it any more

[Pianorak]

Welcome Domeyhead - Switch on R3 now and you can hear the rarely played Ravel Bolero. Enjoy!

[Domeyhead]

Welcome Domeyhead - Switch on R3 now and you can hear the rarely played Ravel Bolero. Enjoy!

THat made me smile! With luck we'll get one of the Planets (ie Jupiter) before 5pm as well. Thank you to everyone who has made me feel welcome.

[DracoM]

Welcome, and please read / join the Whither Radio3? thread.

[Caliban]

Hello....
Should I pick up my hat and leave again, or am I amongst friends?

http://www.freesmileys.org/smileys/smiley-basic/welcome.gif (http://www.freesmileys.org/smileys.php)Leave your hat exactly where it is!

Looking forward to hearing what floats your musical boats... and as Norfolk Born says, hope you can enjoy the exchanges of knowledge and witty (:erm: well, usually witty) banter, as well as finding a sounding board for your feelings about R3

:hug:

[Anna]

Hello Domeyhead. R3 is not all gloom and doom, if you look at the latest contributions to the Saturday Classics thread you will find we were all totally thrilled at the last two programmes presented by Simon Heffer (with nary a plea to tweet or email) about British Music, and there are the wonderful Proms and the evening concerts. It's just the stuff in the mornings which, quite frankly, is nauseating and coma inducing BUT they tell us that'll pull in new listeners. I have an answer to that - but it is not repeatable.

[Stanfordian]

Hello, I have been in private despair at what feels like a dumbing down of Radio 3 in the last year. I thought I was alone when I quietly seethed at Sarah Morh Peach who seems to think we must "enhance our listening experience" by tweeting each other excitedly like a flock of starlings whenever we enjoy a piece of music, and at Rob Cowan who seems to have a kind of forelock tugging obsequiousness when talking about music that must surely make him favourite for the Henry Kelly award for overblown musical sycophancy. Even Petrock Trelawney now exorts me (reluctantly I hope)to let him know how much I enjoyed a piece in 140 characters or less of over excited drivel. Why? Does it matter to him or the rest of the nation what I think, or vice versa?
For the last year I have felt like a carer watching helplessly as a much loved relative regresses into childhood, but relieved when I realised I was not alone. I became suspicious when every time I turned on at random I recognised the "familar bit" from a popular overture, and realised that instead of providing me an endlessly renewed banquet to sustain me through my life, Radio 3 has at some point decided to feed me sweets instead. I understand that many of the quality newspapers have also raged against this transmutation into a kind of sub Classic FM. I don't understand why a publicly funded broadcaster with a mission to provide the highest standards in what it does, chooses instead to copy commercial stations to increase listener ratings in a pointless exercise that I can only put down to the Controller's vanity. I apologise for the rant but I have kept this in for a year and just had to unburden it somewhere.
Should I pick up my hat and leave again, or am I amongst friends?

It seems to be a fact of life that whenever something is excellent someone will come along and knacker it up. Radio 3 programmes provided me with a comforting reliable excellence for many years before it has been taken over by management that want to broaden the base of the programme. Ok I realise that I cannot have everything that I want to suit my own personal taste. I’m not a great lover of jazz and world music but I put up with them even if they are programmed at a very poor time for me. What I cannot stand is cutting pieces of music down into more ‘manageable chunks’ and the daily flow of celebrities, that I’ve mainly not heard of, telling me why what their favourite piece of music is. I’m not interested in the slightest what illusionist Darren Brown or this weeks celeb the writer Jackie Kaye think about their essential classics.

[Norfolk Born]

Welcome Domeyhead - Switch on R3 now and you can hear the rarely played Ravel Bolero. Enjoy!
Damn - missed it! :laugh:

[Don Petter]

Damn - missed it! :laugh:

There'll be another one along shortly ...

[Don Petter]

Thank you to everyone who has made me feel welcome.

Welcome, indeed! And don't worry, it's the rest of them out there who are going mad, not us. :winkeye:

[Brassbandmaestro]

Welcome Domeyhead!! We all sympathise with your feelings about the demise of Radio 3! I still find the Afternoon slot not to bad and sometoimes in the evening's 'Live Concert' to.

[Norfolk Born]

[QUOTE=Don Petter;124004]There'll be another one along shortly ...[/QUOTE
A tangle of Ravel's Boleros?

[EdgeleyRob]

Domeyhead,it's not all doom and gloom.We still have through the night and the lunchtime concerts FOR NOW

[Eine Alpensinfonie]

You will have gathered that you are very much amonge friends, Domeyhead. Welcome! :magic:

[old khayyam]

Yes, and welcome once again, DH. You are indeed among friends here, and your well-written rant is very much appreciated. Dont forget, if there's anything you'd like to let us know about R3, please feel free to post in the Playlist Programmes section of our website; or alternatively you can text, email, or twitter, or try our phone lines which will be open throughout the morning.

The time is now just coming up to 08:20, here's Hoedown by Aaron Copland..

[french frank]

Yes, and welcome once again, DH. You are indeed among friends here, and your well-written rant is very much appreciated. Dont forget, if there's anything you'd like to let us know about R3, please feel free to post in the Playlist Programmes section of our website; or alternatively you can text, email, or twitter, or try our phone lines which will be open throughout the morning.

The time is now just coming up to 08:20, here's Hoedown by Aaron Copland..:ok:

:smiley:

[Caliban]

here's Hoedown by Aaron Copland..

:laugh:

:yikes:

:steam:

:laugh:

[Roehre]

Yes, and welcome once again, DH. You are indeed among friends here, and your well-written rant is very much appreciated. Dont forget, if there's anything you'd like to let us know about R3, please feel free to post in the Playlist Programmes section of our website; or alternatively you can text, email, or twitter, or try our phone lines which will be open throughout the morning.

The time is now just coming up to 08:20, here's Hoedown by Aaron Copland..

:laugh:
:laugh:
:laugh:
:laugh:
:yikes:


Btw, a very warm welcome, Domeyhead :ok:

[salymap]

I tolerated Petroc until, as I was emailing someone, I heard him say to a listener, "Are you well?", OMG,
if not see your doctor, don't tell us.

A belated welcome from me Domeyhead. :smiley:

[Norfolk Born]

Sorry, I missed the Copland - any chance of a repeat?
Sorry, I missed the Copland - any chance of a repeat?

[cloughie]

Sorry, I missed the Copland - any chance of a repeat?
Sorry, I missed the Copland - any chance of a repeat?

Hoe up

[Norfolk Born]

...and now it's the Bruch Violin Concerto....:yikes:

[Nachtigall]

Full sympathies with Domeyhead's "rant", but anyone who has seen Newswatch on BBC News24, when journalists and controllers are called in to respond to viewers' complaints and criticisms, will know that no one at the BBC ever admits to getting anything wrong. Bland justifications are routinely trotted out. Likewise I don't see much change happening at Radio 3 as a result of listeners' complaints, however forcefully and frequently they may be expressed. There's a kind of entrenched institutional imperviousness. :sadface:

[kernelbogey]

Full sympathies with Domeyhead's "rant", but anyone who has seen Newswatch on BBC News24, when journalists and controllers are called in to respond to viewers' complaints and criticisms, will know that no one at the BBC ever admits to getting anything wrong. Bland justifications are routinely trotted out. Likewise I don't see much change happening at Radio 3 as a result of listeners' complaints, however forcefully and frequently they may be expressed. There's a kind of entrenched institutional imperviousness. :sadface:

Hasn't apologising gone out of fashion? What you describe is exactly what one gets from MPs, companies one complains to and so on ad infinitum.

[cloughie]

...and now it's the Bruch Violin Concerto....:yikes:

Well a movement of it!

[Norfolk Born]

Sadly not ...one of the rare occasions when one movement would have sufficed. :sadface:

[VodkaDilc]

Hasn't apologising gone out of fashion? What you describe is exactly what one gets from MPs, companies one complains to and so on ad infinitum.
Except for the exaggerated apologies which seem to come from politicians these days: "I want to say sorry. We really let you down etc", often over some historical event. Completely insincere, of course.

[cloughie]

Sadly not ...one of the rare occasions when one movement would have sufficed. :sadface:

Don't knock it if it's a FW - OK they could've played VC2 instead ! Bet there are BCs in the guest spot!

[amateur51]

Except for the exaggerated apologies which seem to come from politicians these days: "I want to say sorry. We really let you down etc", often over some historical event. Completely insincere, of course.Speaking to Irish friends from a broad range of backgrounds, it's clear that HMQ's 'apology' on her recent visit to Ireland was taken as sincerely meant and that it has brought about a quiet revolution in attitudes in both countries:ok:

http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/world-europe-13449601

[Serial_Apologist]

Sadly not ...one of the rare occasions when one movement would have sufficed. :sadface:

Max peed ahead.....

[Norfolk Born]

Don't knock it if it's a FW - OK they could've played VC2 instead ! Bet there are BCs in the guest spot!
RC actually said, immediately afterwards, 'I really must play the second concerto some time' (assuming he's allowed to?)

[Richard Tarleton]

SR has just played Night on a Bare Mountain. Nice to hear that for a change.

[Karafan]

Yes, Domeyhead, that titfer belongs right here with the rest of us (not so) quietly simmering curmudgeons.

Welcome!:ale:

[teamsaint]

they play that short ride in a fast car a good deal more often than it deserves , IMHO.

I haven't noticed it done on this board, but we could surely do with a space for people to suggest works/performances that could do with an airing......maybe even a time/programme/context in which they would flourish.
you never know, somebody at R3 might notice and do something.
The wealth of knowledge among board members is a very valuable resource.(don't include myself in that !!)

should I start a thread on this?

[antongould]

why not indeed - although it may have been tried before

[Bryn]

they play that short ride in a fast car a good deal more often than it deserves , IMHO.



Short ride in a fast machine, please.

It got cancelled from the Proms twice. Once when Dodi and his doxie bought it, and then again after 9/11.

[teamsaint]

why not indeed - although it may have been tried before

i think you should do it. I don't know my stuff well enough, the thread needs gravitas !!

I suggest , as a guide, 1 work per post, 1 post per member per day.
specific recording and alternative where possible, and, if needed, a suggested place in the schedule.

Oh, and a £5 amazon voucher for each recommendation taken up, for the saving in BBC research cost !!

[teamsaint]

Short ride in a fast machine, please.

It got cancelled from the Proms twice. Once when Dodi and his doxie bought it, and then again after 9/11.

oops. sorry.

[antongould]

i think you should do it. I don't know my stuff well enough, the thread needs gravitas !!

I suggest , as a guide, 1 work per post, 1 post per member per day.
specific recording and alternative where possible, and, if needed, a suggested place in the schedule.

Oh, and a £5 amazon voucher for each recommendation taken up, for the saving in BBC research cost !!

Oh come on saint you know your stuff far better than I do ........you are just the chap for the thread - I promise to contribute........

[teamsaint]

Oh come on saint you know your stuff far better than I do ........you are just the chap for the thread - I promise to contribute........

over on P3 now...........I bet they tear the idea apart ..........they can be savage over there....just ask raffers !!