Archives for April 2010

I have been finding it quite fascinating to observe and analyse reactions to the regular 'Specialist Classical Chart' slot on Tuesday's Breakfast. It seems that the mere mention of the word 'chart' sparks off numerous disparate reactions, many of them only vaguely connected with the true nature of the exercise.

What in effect this half-hour feature achieves is to focus the music-loving public's classical CD preferences, what it most enjoys listening to, new release-wise ... and that includes a good many full-scale works that would be impossible to programme complete on Breakfast.

Still, better a substantial slice of Mahler 2 or 8 than no slice at all, and the reaction to what we have played more or less squares with the enthusiasm that the music generated in the first place.

But the really interesting aspect of the charts is the presence of what I would normally have considered, in purely popular terms, relatively esoteric repertory: aside from the Mahler, there's Gluck's opera Orfeo and Eurydice, Dvorák's grizzly tone poems, Mendelssohn piano trios (the Second, in particular, is only rarely played) and choral works by Victoria and Vaughan Williams. Which only goes to show that when it comes to classical CD sales, nothing is predictable ... and which in turn promises a very varied half hour between 8 and 8:30 on Tuesday's Breakfast. What do you think?

• Follow the link for a discussion of the Specialist Classical Chart on the Radio 3 Message Boards

Roger Short is a Radio 3 producer specialising in the network's World Music output; the Icelandic ash cloud crisis finds him stranded several thousand miles from home, and a BBC studio. But in the great showbiz tradition ...

I was booked on the BA flight from Toronto to London on Sunday night, and due to go to a meeting with a colleague, Carlos from London University, on Monday morning. By Sunday afternoon it was clear I wasn't going to make it. I texted Carlos to let him know I was stranded in Canada. 'Don't worry', he texted back, 'I'm stuck in Mexico'.



It was Thursday lunchtime when my Canadian mother-in-law told me excitedly about the news of the volcano, and that all flights were to going to be grounded. I assumed it was my mother-in-law's usual over-dramatics. No way would they ground all flights, surely, and if they did, it would certainly all be over by Saturday.



So there I was, and here I am, stranded like so many others, far from base, with a busy week's work to get done, including two programmes, two-and-three-quarter hours of transmission time, to be ready by the weekend. My trip to see the in-laws was actually tacked on to the end of a work trip to Cambridge Bay, a small town in the Canadian Arctic Circle - I was working with an Inuit throat singer, Tanya Tagaq, on a soundscape of Arctic life and Inuit culture. And that was fortunate, because that means I have a suitcase full of BBC recording equipment with me, including a full portable SADiE editing system ('And why do you need THREE laptops, Sir?' I was asked by the fourth security man...)



So, thanks to the wonders of the BBC's remote desktop system, I am able to do a fairly good impression of being back at my desk, sending emails, compiling Radio Times listings information, filling in compliance forms. And thanks to a proxy file transfer site and some very understanding colleagues back at Broadcasting House (Question: 'Why is a recording of Indian classical music in London called "Watford T58?" Answer: 'Well that was where the OB van was before our concert, and we didn't get round to changing the filenames...' ), I am able to receive the sound files for the weekend's edition of World Routes, edit them, and send back a finished programme, complete with full paperwork. All from my mother-in-law's sewing room.



Our hearts go out to those who have missed births, marriages and deaths in the past few days, and indeed to third-world farmers who can't export their perishable produce. There are certainly far worse places to be stranded than my mother-in-law's sewing room. But there are probably better places too... Mexico, perhaps!

• In response to an editorial question as to whether Roger's canine companion is a Portuguese Water Dog, he replies: 'She's a Black Russian Terrier, a fairly new breed that's got PWD in it, but is mostly Giant Schnauzer - she is only a puppy, will grow much bigger...'

There are still some truths left in the world.

Top of the list for me today is that you are never more than ten months away from a BBC Proms festival! Today I am not more than 24 hours away from the launch of the 2010 BBC Proms. I am constantly in awe of the Proms team. I am so lucky to have them as colleagues - their creativity, professionalism and attention to detail is extraordinary.

The usual round of last minute preparations is kicking in - but there is always something new to which we have to respond. This year we are finding out who might be unlucky enough to be stuck somewhere outside the UK and not able to join us at the launch. Our Radio 3 schedule has already been affected (a replacement artist at Wigmore Hall lunchtime on Monday and conductors not able to get to work with some of the BBC orchestras, etc).

Luckily (for us) Nicola Benedetti, who'll be making her Proms debut in the Royal Albert Hall, is able to join us at the launch as she was unable to cross the Atlantic and therefore is not stuck on the other side of the ocean.

I have already done some interviews with the press who have advance deadlines. Then the day of the launch is taken up with press briefings and more interviews. I start at 9 in the morning at the Royal Academy of Music (home of the Henry Wood bust that we display on stage during the season). I start by meeting the arts correspondents, then it's off to the hall for the photo shoot (let's hope that the sun shines on the south steps!), interviews for the website and for BBC News, Radio 3's In Tune and Radio 4's Front Row and anything else that gets set up on the day. (To wear a tie or not is still a decision to be taken - usually it starts on and soon gets taken off!)

Later in the afternoon I brief and take questions from all the classical music press - I do that one from memory just to keep me on my toes and see how much of the season I can remember (always hard at this stage of our planning cycle when I have so much of the 2011 and 2012 season at the front of my mind!). Finally it is time for the launch event back at the Royal Academy. It is one of the largest gatherings in the arts calendar and I look forward to it enormously - although there is always the pressure of the speech! Not least because of he decisions of what I have to leave out of it. It is however a hugely enjoyable event and above all a real sense of release and relief to be able to talk about the season at last.

How I have longed to respond to the questions and to post on the message boards when ideas so wide of the mark (or close to it!) appear there - now the truth is out and I look forward to my Q & A sessions online and in person at the venues as I meet the audiences.

The Proms website and Radio 3 are the home of the Proms throughout the season and you will be able to see and hear all the up-to-date information there.

Now I can't wait for the festival itself to start. 

• The Proms 2010 website goes live to the public at 1830 on Thursday 22 April 
• The lower picture shows Donald Gilbert's 1936 bust of Sir Henry Wood, garlanded with its traditional chaplet by Prommers at the Last Night

BBC Symphony Chorus alto Monica Todd completes her series of blogs on the premiere of Ian McQueen's Earthly Paradise

It was the biggest wooden mallet I've ever seen. The handle was several feet long and the head looked big enough to serve as a traffic bollard. It was quite a spectacle when it struck the wooden box beneath it, making a huge resonant boom. This piece is big. Very big.

And such a big piece of music needs a big orchestra. This made the distance between us and our conductor Sir Andrew Davis bigger than usual. Fortunately he conducts so clearly that it was as if he was standing directly in front of us, something we rely on when performing such a large-scale and complicated piece. Rehearsing with a piano doesn't prepare us for the full extent of the orchestration hence I can get surprised by giant mallets!

To perform such an epic work as Ian McQueen's Earthly Paradise, the only possibility is to launch into it wholeheartedly. We gave it our all. Hearing the texts over so many instruments meant we had to spit out the consonants with exaggerated clarity. We wanted the audience in the hall to hear the words and for the Radio 3 microphones to pick up every detail. The Symphony Orchestra's chief producer Ann McKay listened from the outside broadcast van and recorded the concert for Performance on 3 on Tuesday 13th April at 7pm. I can't wait to hear it again. I'm sure it will sound different from what I heard in my place right behind the huge percussion section!

Often I approach the concert platform looking forward to one or two particular moments, little snippets that I particularly relish. This piece was no exception. I love the huge, robust ending of the first movement: three strong chords which bring it to a very gratifying close. And movement three contains my favourite chord of the whole piece. After the line 'Little there was of joy and mirth' (and again after 'Seem'd foolish things that waited death') the music is suddenly hushed for the most glorious shimmering chord in the strings. It's very atmospheric. (For some reason it makes me think of a misty glade in the moonlight. That movement is all about a knight wandering through woodland so perhaps I am not too far off in my imagery.)

I love the very end as well. My anticipation was focused on the spine-tingling moment when the huge climactic final chord finishes and the bells continue to ring out for a few seconds... All activity on stage ceases and yet the performance continues. All eyes are on Andrew who stands motionless yet still in charge. The audience and performers are hushed, anticipating his signalling the end of the performance by lowering his hands. Then the applause begins and the performers relax, sit back and take their praise. Magic.

• The photo shows Sir Andrew Davis autographing a copy of the concert programme for the Symphony Chorus archive, a long-standing and much-loved tradition. He is with our chairman Pat Dixon.

Monica Todd works in Radio 3 production and is an alto member of the BBC Symphony Chorus. Over the next two weeks Monica will be reporting on the chorus's preparations for the world premiere of Ian McQueen's  Earthly Paradise, in a concert at the Barbican Hall onSaturday 10 April

Ok, I'll admit it. Sometimes, at the end of a long day, braving the London Underground's evening peak to get to a BBC Symphony Chorus rehearsal is not that attractive. But I like the fact that it is one of the few journeys I make in London that quite commonly involves running into people I know, and the 500-or-so metre walk to the studio from the station is busy with chorus members on rehearsal nights. (It is acceptable protocol to overtake slower walkers by the way. We all do the journey so often and have our own tight timetable of ablutions, refreshments and conversations which culminate in being seated and ready for the rehearsal to start at 6.40pm!)

I remember the excitement (and nerves!) of arriving at the Maida Vale studios for the first time when I took my entry audition, passing the 'British Broadcasting Corporation' plaque by the door and timidly introducing myself to the security personnel in reception. Now I breeze in like I own the place, waving my membership card and heading straight to the canteen for a quick but much-needed meal. Lots of us use catering manager Said's food as essential fuel for singing, and considering we are such an assorted bunch, we're very friendly and sociable. This makes the canteen quite a buzzy and fun place to be. I enjoy it even if it does involve inhaling my food quickly whilst staring intently at the clock!

Unlike some choirs, we don't meet for a weekly rehearsal on a set night; instead, we work to the BBC's season of concerts which is planned far in advance. Once the decision has been made about how many rehearsals are appropriate for a particular piece of music, they are scheduled into the preceding weeks and months at about two per week. For a run of concerts in close succession (which sometimes happens during the Proms) there may be a set of rehearsals way ahead. But, like the orchestra, the scoring of the music dictates the personnel needed. We then commit to individual concerts (and associated rehearsals) separately.

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