Archives for May 2009

Hello there,

Thanks to toodle_pip for your comments on information available before broadcast. This is an area that really interests me. It all boils down to what you wish to listen to doesn't it? It's really interesting to find out that there are pieces of music that you would actually avoid tuning in for. (please correct me if I've misunderstood...)

I'd be really fascinated to know whether you tune in for works/composers or recommendations from, say, a trusted source. Please let me know. One last question, how do you discover new artists/composers/releases? Is it word of mouth?

Thanks,

Roland

Roland Taylor is Interactive Editor at Radio 3

Hello. I'm Roland Taylor, Interactive Editor for Radio 3. I'm responsible for the interactive services for Radio 3, the BBC Proms, Classical Music Television, and the BBC's Orchestras and BBC Singers. I work with a great team who may pop up on this blog from time to time including Gregory, Liz, Graeme, Andrew, Philip, Sandeep, Roberto, Chris, Anthony and Roger.



There's a lot going on at the moment. We've got some big challenges ahead of us. There are currently many things on the site that need attention. We understand that the majority of you come to the site for programme information, to find out what was broadcast and to get schedule details to plan your listening, so, that's what we are currently concentrating on. The present schedule view was produced as a direct result of your comments.



Last year the site changed with the introduction of the iPlayer and new pages for every programme broadcast. We are working to improve the look and feel of these pages with a view to making the compelling content, that is often hidden, more visible.



A few examples:

A film of Discovering Music's 'Dido and Aeneas'.

A performance of Mendelssohn's Elijah and A Midsummer Night's Dream.

All are available to view online for the rest of the year.



We are rolling out a number of exciting new projects during this year's BBC Proms' season including the filming for online of eight Proms Plus events, Maestro-Cam on Red Button and online and a set of tutorials for those who feel inclined to bring their ukuleles to the late Prom on August 18. It will be interesting to hear your views on these initiatives.



In addition to the Radio 3 Blog we've also launched a few other ways in which you can share Radio 3 with your friends:



The Radio 3 Widget, the Radio 3 YouTube video channel and the 'step in' spot that gives you, and your friends, the chance to sample music from Radio 3's four Composers Of The Year.

If you are a follower of one of Radio 3's Composers Of The Year then you may be interested in our four composer blogs.

Finally, you can enjoy some programmes on the move by downloading our podcasts. I look forward to your comments and suggestions in the coming months.

Roland Taylor is Interactive Editor at Radio 3

Poetry is an important part of the mix throughout the year on Radio 3 but our current focus is part of a larger BBC Poetry Season including a host of programmes on BBC 2 and BBC 4. Radio 3's contribution kicked off with Sir Ian McKellen reading 14 of Shakespeare's sonnets 400 years to the day of their first publication. You can listen to all of these readings through the Radio 3 website until May next year and we're also putting up each of the daily 'Poems for Today' we're broadcasting in Breakfast this month, poems which have all been written or published in the last twelve months. We're hoping to improve the page layout shortly, but you can find the poems each day at the bottom of each webpage. And you can also share the audio with friends, though I've found to my cost it can be rather time-consuming deciding which poem suits which friend, an indication perhaps of how intimate poetry can be. Do take a look at personal recommendations made by some of our presenters.



I don't know which of our Poems for Today we will be celebrating in 400 years (any nominations?) but I think they're giving an exhilarating taste of the richness and diversity of poetry being written in the UK today. One that's been resonating with me this week, perhaps because I was lucky enough to spend the weekend in deep countryside, is Alice Oswald's 'Written some time between the month of May and the month of May not', with its moving evocation of the fragility of nature. 



Personally I think it's terrific to see poetry given such a high profile on BBC television as well as radio. I hope it will encourage new audiences for poetry but perhaps it also reflects an already growing public interest in the form. Certainly there's been a lot of noise about poetry recently though not all of it welcome - let's move on from the debacle over the Oxford Professorship. But there's a buzz about the flourishing spoken word scene, there are countless writing courses and if the response of the Radio 3 Breakfast audience last Thursday to Ian McMillan's challenge to help him write a poem live on air is anything to go by the Radio 3 audience is thick with bards. Is the audience for poetry really broadening? Was there ever a golden age of widespread poetry reading? Can literary writing flourish alongside poetry in performance? Is 'slim volume' publishing more significant as a matter of record than in reaching audiences these days? Later this year we're going to be looking at how poetry has reached its audiences in different periods from Shakespeare to the present in a Sunday Feature and would welcome your thoughts. Many thanks for reading this far - I promise my next post will be closer to sonnet length than epic.

Abigail Appleton is Head of Speech Programming and Presentation for BBC Radio 3.

This is my first blog post so thanks for reading it!

I'll be blogging along with my colleagues and some guests and I hope you'll enjoy what we write and find it interesting enough to post your own material. This blog will not replace the Q and A sessions I ran online during the Proms last year as you, the audience, seemed to find that a useful forum.

All the details about the Radio 3 and the Proms are on our site and it is good to see the messageboards buzzing as ever with everyone's likes and dislikes of this year's programmes. I love the passion of our audiences and am fascinated by the art of programme building and changing tastes over the years.

Radio 3's success at the Sony Awards is still resonating with us all at the station - and it has been wonderful to receive so many supportive messages of congratulation. I am thrilled for my colleagues. They richly deserve the recognition. It was good to see a range of our programmes receiving Gold Awards - not least "Words and Music" as we celebrate poetry across the BBC.

These awards are a timely reminder that Radio 3, for its all its unique work as a cultural patron, remains a radio station alongside every other station and has to compete for attention in that crowded market.

Our Composers of the Year project (Purcell, Handel, Haydn and Mendelssohn) steams ahead with Haydn getting some special attention now. Some of our contributors during the Mendelssohn weekend talked about Mendelssohn as the composer who is most in need of re-evaluation out of the four "anniversarians". Has there been any particular revelation for you so far from what you have heard?

For example I was particularly struck by the Mendelssohn String Quintets which I admit I had never heard before.

Hearing these remarkable pieces was another reminder for me that there is so much music that we will never hear in our lifetimes. I wonder how best we should balance our time between works of art we already know with time spent seeking out the unfamiliar?