Essential Classics - The Continuing Debate

[Bryn]

Tom's looking good:

https://www.bbc.co.uk/programmes/m00126y2

[Eine Alpensinfonie]

I think Georgia does a good job and Tom is first rate too. No complaints about either.

I'm not so sure about that. When I last tuned in, she seemed quite determined to outDerham Katie Derham with her jolly Listen with Mother delivery.

[Serial_Apologist]

Tom's looking good:

https://www.bbc.co.uk/programmes/m00126y2

Positively trans mogrified!

[oddoneout]

Tom's looking good:

https://www.bbc.co.uk/programmes/m00126y2

Versatile chap... It was a short notice stand in I think, so some excuse, unlike some other occasions where despite being planned it hasn't been deemed necessary to update the online info for listeners.
Regardless of one's personal preferences I think it is quite a good idea to have a change every so often, hear a different voice and a different take on the music selection.

[cloughie]

I think Georgia does a good job and Tom is first rate too. No complaints about either.

[Alison]

I have missed Manny this week.

[Ein Heldenleben]

She does a phenomenal job with Words And Music. I bet that’s a time consuming production.

[french frank]

I think Georgia does a good job and Tom is first rate too. No complaints about either.

I have missed Manny this week.

But still talking about the programme in terms of the presenters rather than the format which for many of us is the problem. Presenters have always changed, some very good, some less good. But if you've grown used to the format I suppose the presenters are the only changing aspect which you either like more, or like less.

The BBC knows the longer they keep going with a formula, a contented audience with gather round it and those who don't like it will go away. That's why BBC polls tend to show satisfaction: those who are dissatisfied and stop listening don't have a voice on the basis of "How can you criticise if you don't listen?" - even if objectively you don't have to listen regularly to see that the reasons you gave up still persist.

EC fits the audience it's aimed at: no more, no less So be it.

[oddoneout]

But still talking about the programme in terms of the presenters rather than the format which for many of us is the problem. Presenters have always changed, some very good, some less good. But if you've grown used to the format I suppose the presenters are the only changing aspect which you either like more, or like less.

The BBC knows the longer they keep going with a formula, a contented audience with gather round it and those who don't like it will go away. That's why BBC polls tend to show satisfaction: those who are dissatisfied and stop listening don't have a voice on the basis of "How can you criticise if you don't listen?" - even if objectively you don't have to listen regularly to see that the reasons you gave up still persist.

EC fits the audience it's aimed at: no more, no less So be it.

Where do you draw the line? Pied Piper was David Monrow. Record Review and Early Music Show have basic formats, the success of which which can be affected by the presenters; does that lower their value in the R3 offer?

Is it the current EC set-up the best or only fit?

[Constantbee]

No real issues with EC except it’s sometimes a bit frustrating trying to find and listen again to pieces you've heard in passing. This morning it was Ruth Gipps’ Pan and Apollo for 2 oboes, cor anglais and harp. It’s a pretty piece, unusual and refreshing, but blink and you miss it, so to speak. It’s usually easy enough to locate recordings of items you’ve liked on the programme play lists but harder to hear them a second time unless you’re linked in to Spotify or Apple Music on BBC Sounds. I’m assuming the only available recording for the Gipps piece is in the BBC archive, having been recorded by musicians from the BBC National Orchestra of Wales who seem to have done a lot of work recording Ruth Gipps’ work. I usually resort to trawling through the programme on BBC Sounds to find the track. The Gipps track is at 1’ 22” btw. Or am I missing something here?

[Serial_Apologist]

No real issues with EC except it’s sometimes a bit frustrating trying to find and listen again to pieces you've heard in passing. This morning it was Ruth Gipps’ Pan and Apollo for 2 oboes, cor anglais and harp. It’s a pretty piece, unusual and refreshing, but blink and you miss it, so to speak. It’s usually easy enough to locate recordings of items you’ve liked on the programme play lists but harder to hear them a second time unless you’re linked in to Spotify or Apple Music on BBC Sounds. I’m assuming the only available recording for the Gipps piece is in the BBC archive, having been recorded by musicians from the BBC National Orchestra of Wales who seem to have done a lot of work recording Ruth Gipps’ work. I usually resort to trawling through the programme on BBC Sounds to find the track. The Gipps track is at 1’ 22” btw. Or am I missing something here?

The only link to an offer I could see was to an American distributor charging $24, which to me would be a ridiculous price for so short a recording.

[french frank]

But if you've grown used to the format I suppose the presenters are the only changing aspect which you either like more, or like less.

Where do you draw the line? Pied Piper was David Monrow. Record Review and Early Music Show have basic formats, the success of which which can be affected by the presenters; does that lower their value in the R3 offer?

Is it the current EC set-up the best or only fit?

Well, my own view on this would be:

1. David Munrow was not the format. He was key to the (relatively short, I think about 20 mins) programmes ("Tales and Music for Younger listeners") because he was a knowledgeable presenter and he aimed chiefly to educate and inspire young children. He might have invented his own 'formula' but there was great variety in the subjects and music, modern and ancient.

2. Essential Classics was the first R3/Third programme (I believe) ever to last for an entire 3 hours filling key listening slots, every w/d morning, same weekly presenter playing a sequence of music. On the two mornings I checked, 26/29 pieces were played - an average of 6-7 minutes per piece (even discounting any speech input) with no extended piece during that whole 3-hour slot. That is the format: 3 hours, same presenter throughout the week, no long pieces, single movements from longer works and - I assume still - various 'features' introduced between the music.

As I suggested, if the format suits you, you are the audience it's aimed at. I find it very … unambitious, especially after two and a half hours of Breakfast with pretty much the same format, but a change of presenter.

[Eine Alpensinfonie]

As I suggested, if the format suits you, you are the audience it's aimed at. I find it very … unambitious, especially after two and a half hours of Breakfast with pretty much the same format, but a change of presenter.

I suggest it's a feeble attempt to mimic the style of Radio 1/2 and CFM. The BBC was once a respected leader. Once competition arrived, it became a sheep.

[Serial_Apologist]

Well, my own view on this would be:

1. David Munrow was not the format. He was key to the (relatively short, I think about 20 mins) programmes ("Tales and Music for Younger listeners") because he was a knowledgeable presenter and he aimed chiefly to educate and inspire young children. He might have invented his own 'formula' but there was great variety in the subjects and music, modern and ancient.

2. Essential Classics was the first R3/Third programme (I believe) ever to last for an entire 3 hours filling key listening slots, every w/d morning, same weekly presenter playing a sequence of music. On the two mornings I checked, 26/29 pieces were played - an average of 6-7 minutes per piece (even discounting any speech input) with no extended piece during that whole 3-hour slot. That is the format: 3 hours, same presenter throughout the week, no long pieces, single movements from longer works and - I assume still - various 'features' introduced between the music.

As I suggested, if the format suits you, you are the audience it's aimed at. I find it very … unambitious, especially after two and a half hours of Breakfast with pretty much the same format, but a change of presenter.

It makes me think of composers rolling in their graves at having their works dismembered in this way, and what Radio 3/Third Programme presenters and programmers of earlier generations would have thought about how their heritage was being mishandled. All part of an overarching ideology predicated on de-contextualisation and mystification.

[Bax-of-Delights]

Tom McKinney gushed loud and long concerning the playing of the final movement of Tchaikovsky’s Sixth. As well he might.
The problem was he immediately followed this recording of one of the most heart-wrenching movements with that one-trick pony composer, Scott Joplin and his Elite Syncopations (in truth any and all Joplin’s work sounds exactly the same. I curse “The Sting” for bringing this third-rater back into circulation).
As an example of cloth-eared juxtaposition it is hard to describe and the sad part is that the presenter obviously couldn’t see it.