France Musique website reports on BBC Trust Review

[underthecountertenor]

....on the home page, underneath an announcement that France Musique has been disrupted by a strike since last Thursday (still ongoing).

http://www.francemusique.fr/

[Nick Armstrong]

....on the home page, underneath an announcement that France Musique has been disrupted by a strike since last Thursday (still ongoing).
http://www.francemusique.fr/

Interesting, uct ... Wondered why Tribune des Critiques has been dropped (idly thought there must be some bank holiday I'd forgotten about). Positive report.

[french frank]

Thanks for that, utct They do keep abreast of what's happening on R3, don't they?

One point where there has been some listener feedback is that the Trust's research only considered the music - the playlists themselves - without any attention paid to the main source of annoyance: complaint and 'disgust' (which has spread beyond Tunbridge Wells) at the trivialisation.

I love this bit, translating the Trust report: "… nous pensons que la priorité de la Radio 3 devrait être d’enrichir l’offre pour les auditeurs en renforçant sa spécificité et en minimisant les similitudes avec les autres stations". Bien dit, messieurs!

[underthecountertenor]

Mr 'slipped disc' Lebrecht reports of chaos at Radio France. http://slippedisc.com/2015/03/radio-...sic-is-sacked/ On this occasion, having dropped in and out of France Musique over the last few days to see if any of my favourite programmes were on, I'd be inclined to agree. Pre-recorded programmes have gone ahead (as a result of which I now know for sure that programmes such as Sacrées Musiques and On Ne Badine Pas Avec Le Jazz - the jewels of the France Musique Sunday morning - do not go out live, as they appeared intact), whilst live programmes have been replaced by what appears to be a rather short loop of baldly announced recordings with, every half hour, a recorded announcement about the disruption. A great pity.

[french frank]

Following on from my last, and looking at today's playlist - it looks quite interesting.

And someone has figured out how to change links to 'Johann Sebastian Strauss' into 'Johann Strauss II'. Better still would be to give the poor fellow a rest altogether (and reduce the lighter Stücke while they're at it)!

[aeolium]

It's rather unfortunate that this has coincided with the recent cinema release here of La Maison de la Radio, a documentary by Nicholas Philibert about Radio France:

http://www.radiofrance.fr/espace-pro...olas-philibert

(Anyone here seen it?)

[underthecountertenor]

No, aeolium: I didn't get around to seeing it on its limited cinema release here, much to my chagrin. I hope there will be more opportunities. It's meant to be charmant, as I would expect.

[Nick Armstrong]

I love this bit, translating the Trust report: "… nous pensons que la priorité de la Radio 3 devrait être d’enrichir l’offre pour les auditeurs en renforçant sa spécificité et en minimisant les similitudes avec les autres stations". Bien dit, messieurs!

Yes that was the bit that caught my eye.

I am a 'friend' on Facebook of one of the FM presenters, sidelined during that station's recent 'dumbing down', and reading the 'polémique' which often follows some of his posts, it's clear that they regard Radio 3 as rather a 'standard bearer' - and draw some comfort from the fact that its decline into babbling Blue Peter-dom might have been slowed or dare one hope, reversed...

[underthecountertenor]

Following on from my last, and looking at today's playlist - it looks quite interesting.

And someone has figured out how to change links to 'Johann Sebastian Strauss' into 'Johann Strauss II'. Better still would be to give the poor fellow a rest altogether (and reduce the lighter Stücke while they're at it)!

They clearly assume that Breakfast listeners have a sufficiently high level of intellect that there is no need to translate Sumi Jo's name for them: Fruhlingsstimmen [Voices of spring] - waltz for orch with voice ad lib. (Op.410)
Singer: 조수미. Conductor: Rudolph Bibl. Orchestra: Orchester der Wiener Volksoper.

[french frank]

They clearly assume that Breakfast listeners have a sufficiently high level of intellect

Or intelligence to drag and drop it into the Google search window ...

There is still a problem, though. We have a playlist with 1) Sweelinck, Zemlinsky, Senaillé, Gigout, Doreen Carwithen AND 2) Fruhlingsstimmen, Herrmann's North by northwest, a Malcolm Sargent piece from Brian Kay's Light Music Discoveries and a Flanders and Swannengesang.

There is an audience that takes both sorts in its stride, another that would like more 1), another that would like more 2).

[And last and least me, who just doesn't like a sequence of short pieces in a variety of styles, even if, in principle, I enjoy both the composers and the styles. I am happy to be ignored]

[underthecountertenor]

Yes that was the bit that caught my eye.

I am a 'friend' on Facebook of one of the FM presenters, sidelined during that station's recent 'dumbing down', and reading the 'polémique' which often follows some of his posts, it's clear that they regard Radio 3 as rather a 'standard bearer' - and draw some comfort from the fact that its decline into babbling Blue Peter-dom might have been slowed or dare one hope, reversed...

La pelouse est toujours plus verte (ou quelque chose comme ça), hein Cali?

[MickyD]

It seems to me that France Musique (and Radio France in general) is often on strike! Actually, I am enjoying the continuous music, it is a welcome relief from the frequent badinage that we usually have on FM.

[underthecountertenor]

This is the longest strike in a decade, apparently. Now into its 11th day. I miss what you call the badinage, which I think is of a much higher quality than the interactive stuff on Radio 3. And the 'continuous music' would appear to consist of a relatively small collection of recordings (including single movements of symphonies) linked by a recorded introduction. I think I've heard them all now, in some cases several times.

[vinteuil]

This is the longest strike in a decade, apparently. Now into its 11th day.

... I don't know whether you saw Philippe Meyer's piece?

... and some passionate pleading by Philippe Meyer -

http://www.lemonde.fr/idees/article/2015/03/27/philippe-meyer-il-faut-stopper-la-derive-de-radio-france_4602473_3232.html?xtmc=radio_france&xtcr=7

I particularly liked -

"Les dernières années ont vu les chaînes, et notamment France Inter et France Culture, se livrer à une concurrence absurde, exacerbée par des rivalités et des ambitions subalternes. Faute de pouvoir justifier cette rivalité par une politique de programmes, chaque direction s’est arc-boutée sur des sondages dont la moindre variation à la hausse, le plus souvent inférieure à la marge d’erreur de ce type de mesure, est célébrée comme un Austerlitz, à grand renfort de trompette.
Radio France ne peut pas se payer de cette fausse monnaie, ni se complaire dans cette autosatisfaction ampoulée, ni se replier dans une crainte frileuse. Son mérite a toujours été de proposer à ses publics – je tiens au pluriel – des émissions dont ils ne savaient pas encore avoir envie. C’est ce qui a toujours donné une saveur particulière à son succès. Nous sommes une radio d’offre, avec les risques que cela comporte, pas une radio de marketing, même si le savoir-faire de ceux qui étudient les audiences peut nous aider à placer au mieux nos propositions dans la grille des programmes."

[underthecountertenor]

Yes indeed, thanks to you, vinteuil. I got the 'longest strike' stat from another French news site.