Essential Classics - a programme surely on the wrong station

[mercia]

so much flak

I must be looking in the wrong place. Apart from (being generous) a dozen people on here, I can't find this flak

[mercia]

The evidence is that these morning programmes are widely disliked.

oh dear, you must be heartily sick of providing this evidence for me, so I won't ask for it again.

[Osborn]

Even in this tiny corner of the BBC's empire, research will be carried out and all schedule innovations will be evaluated, maintained, modified or scrapped after 6 months or so (including live evenng concerts).

Would it not be far, far, far, far more sensible to address your concerns to Radio 3 by email or Facebook rather than moan pointlessly and ineffectively amongst yourselves?

It's daft to hide your views in a chat room which the BBC may well see (if at all) as populated by people who get enraged if nurse brings them a bourbon biscuit, not a custard cream.

[Bryn]

Even in this tiny corner of the BBC's empire, research will be carried out and all schedule innovations will be evaluated, maintained, modified or scrapped after 6 months or so (including live evenng concerts).

Would it not be far, far, far, far more sensible to address your concerns to Radio 3 by email or Facebook rather than moan pointlessly and ineffectively amongst yourselves?

It's daft to hide your views in a chat room which the BBC may well see (if at all) as populated by people who get enraged if nurse brings them a bourbon biscuit, not a custard cream.

Whatever makes you think such other avenues of addressing the concerns raise here are not pursued? Or are you merely trying to stifle discussion of these matters?

[Frances_iom]

oh dear, you must be heartily sick of providing this evidence for me, so I won't ask for it again.

FF seems remarkably patient - I'm afraid I'm reminded of the Tobacco Industry's astroturfing that occured over smoking bans, then the Fossil Fuel lobby re climate change - a professional band of deniers who it seemed were incapable of doing anything more than wasting time by repeating 'show me' etc but never looked at replies .

[mercia]

repeating 'show me' etc but never looked at replies .

point taken. I won't bother ff again.

perhaps you could provide the evidence that "the morning programmes are widely disliked" (apart from the few that have said as much on this forum)

[doversoul]

mercia

there never seems to be a day when they get no replies to their invitation for answers to quiz questions.

does this surprise anyone?

Not really. I expect words spread easily these days via facebook or twit or whatever that there is another programme you can phone in. It doesn’t mean all those people are actually listening to the programme before and after my true story. No, I can’t prove it. It’s just a guess.

Barbirollians

James Jolly apologising for doing something he hates only having time to play one movement of VW Symphony No 3 .

I heard that. I wasn’t sure whether I should be glad or sad.

Osborn

Would it not be far, far, far, far more sensible to address your concerns to Radio 3 by email or Facebook rather than moan pointlessly and ineffectively amongst yourselves?

Sounds familiar…

[Caliban]

Would it not be far, far, far, far more sensible to address your concerns to Radio 3 by email or Facebook rather than moan pointlessly and ineffectively amongst yourselves?

Been there, done that, got the fob-off.

It's daft to hide your views in a chat room which the BBC may well see (if at all) as populated by people who get enraged if nurse brings them a bourbon biscuit, not a custard cream.

Whilst it's an honour to be patronised by you and (if you are right) by Auntie Beeb, it does me good to sound off somewhere And in my mind, it's sharing rather than hiding.

[barber olly]

I hadn't realised that there are regional variations in what is broadcast on Radio 3 but that seems to be the only explanation, as you are definitely listening to a different programme to the one that I have heard.

Yes, there are *some* substantial complete works but there are many more fillers and bleeding chunks. Even the last hour of the programme seems to be degenerating - next week one of RC's Essential Classics is Shostakovich 7 which the Radio Times lsts as being represented by a single movement.

Overall, the programme appears to be to designed to provide fairly mindless background listening - a kind of high class "lift music". You only need to compare an EC programme with any of the pre 2007 CD Masters (some of which I have recordings of) to realise just how dramatic the changes are.
As to the idea that SW and RC select all the music themselves - that is open to question. There is a whole production team behind them and IMO they will be the people who do the bulk of the work in putting the programme together. I'm sure the RC will have an influence (his selections for the last hour seem more interesting than those of SW), SW probably less so.

I think we can all whinge for England about the shortcomings of the Morning programmes, in the short term at least we are stuck with this format. You have the choice not to switch on, listen to all of it or as I do, dip in and out either to the programme live or via iplayer. The decision to let us have info in advance is an improvement. I have said on these boards that I think the guest spot and the gimmicks should be ditched. I've not analysed to the nth degree but I think that there are now more full works being played. Please do not patronise me by suggesting I am listening to a different programme - yes it has serious shortcomings, yes I would like CD Masters back, preferably as a 3hr slot. As I say we are stuck with this format for now and SW and RC are doing a resonable job within the constraints, incidentally I don't think I actually said they chose all the music, but they will surely have an input into this. Would you like them to confront Mr Wrong and refuse to do it this way. This would be the quickest way not to get an improvement but for some lesser presenters to be employed to deliver the CFM2 he wants!

[french frank]

I must be looking in the wrong place. Apart from (being generous) a dozen people on here, I can't find this flak

I printed off 117 pages of comments found on the internet (none of it from this forum) and posted it to the BBC Chairman. To get an idea of proportions, I printed ALL comments on the various blogs (like Radio 3's own), positive and negative. I would say that 10% would be overestimating the positive comments.

This was to counter the Controller's implication (though, to be fair, he didn't quite say as much) that the great majority of listeners writing to Radio 3 were praising the new programmes, though there were, he said, 'some negative'.

That is what I meant by flak. You will note also the Radio Times's 'many' as against 'one'.

A lot of people who post here have nothing to say about the morning programmes because they don't (or possibly, no longer) listen to them.

The potential audience that they are aimed at is far, far larger than the long-standing Radio 3 audience which is complaining. That doesn't make it right to target that larger audience and marginalise the existing classical music audience.