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January 2nd 05, 06:49 PM

(From Paul Donovan in )

Lots of big things coming up this year. I tried to flag up some of them in
the Sunday Times today:

If years were hat-stands, this new one has more pegs than ever.
Anniversaries abound and programmes will be hung on all of them. The year
2005 is the 10th anniversary of Classic FM's Hall of Fame, the 15th of
Leonard Bernstein's death, the 20th of Live Aid, the 30th of Bohemian
Rhapsody and the fall of Saigon, the 40th of Churchill's death, the 50th of
Charlie Parker's death and the 60th of Radio 2 itself. Julie Andrews will be
70 and June Whitfield and Oscar Peterson, both 80. The new year also
celebrates what would have been the 60th birthday of Jacqueline du Pre and
the 100th of Michael Tippett. That is a rich crop, likely to yield a bumper
harvest.
Yet the most remarkable moment on radio this year is not linked to any
commemoration. The big event, the thing that really leaps out, is that Radio
3 is clearing an entire week's schedule in June to play nothing but
Beethoven. Every note he wrote will be played, from the familiar string
quartets, piano concertos, violin sonatas and symphonies to more obscure
compositions such as his 100 folk songs and cantatas. Several works will be
played more than once, giving us a chance to compare strikingly different
interpretations. Alfred Brendel, John Hurt, John Suchet and Sir Roger
Norrington are all, in different ways, contributing speech to this marathon.
Even Choral Evensong, generally as immovable as the pips, will be shifted
(from Wednesday to the following Sunday).

It is the boldest step Radio 3 has ever taken, and a tonic for those of us
who have sometimes grumbled about BBC radio for its steady companionship at
the expense of originality and imagination. Radio that makes a splash in a
visual-dominated culture should always be welcomed. Roger Wright, the
network's controller, must take the credit. He personally conceived it and
is seeing it through. The Beethoven Experience, as the week is being called,
will be followed by the complete works of Webern on the 60th anniversary of
his death in September and then the complete works of Bach in December. No
other network, I often think, does more to elevate and uplift - as opposed
to all those other areas of British broadcasting that debase and depress.

Radio 3 has mounted themed evenings and weekends before, but why now is
Wright embarking on a themed week? Why in 2005? Perhaps he is responding to
the muted criticism of the BBC governors last summer, when they observed in
the annual report that "some listeners are unhappy with the share of output
given to non-classical music on Radio 3 and we will remain mindful of this
in continuing to assess the network's performance". Doubtless he knows that,
with a white paper looming on the BBC, it is wise to emphasise your core
values and not the avant-garde. He may have been stung by suggestions that
Radio 3 had tried to copy Classic FM (though that has now been reversed,
with Classic this Saturday launching a CD review show startlingly similar to
what Radio 3 does on the very same day). Or it may be just that classical
music lives in his soul, as it does with Radio 3, and that he knows a good
idea when it pops into his head. Whatever the motive, the results will be
there for everyone to enjoy for six consecutive days and nights this summer.

ends

January 3rd 05, 07:44 PM

"Mike Terry" wrote in message
...
(From Paul Donovan in )

Lots of big things coming up this year. I tried to flag up some of them in
the Sunday Times today:

So Radio 3's boldest move ever is to play lots of Beethoven?!

Chris

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