In praise of Radio 3 and BBC sounds

As you may have noticed, not only has there been a dearth of Salon Music events over the last few months, but there have been very few reports of concerts attended. This is because, since early April, I have instead been a regular attendee at the radiotherapy clinic at the Royal Free hospital while they dealt with a bout of bowel cancer – which made moving anywhere too far from home somewhat problematic!

(All done now although I am continuing to lie relatively low for the rest of June – apart from our open day on the 21st – see below. However, I am very much on the mend and hope that all will be back to normal by the beginning of our ‘autumn season’ in September.)

However my enforced inactivity has not only been made bearable but seriously enjoyable by the offerings on Radio 3 and by the splendid convenience and flexibility of BBC Sounds.

I am sure that many of you are already Radio 3 devotees so I am preaching to the converted. But how wonderful that I can not only be pleasurably entertained from 7am to 9pm everyday but that at the end of each day, I have been introduced to new music, learnt all kinds of fascinating new musical facts and got to enjoy the live music that I might otherwise have attended in person – or might never have heard at all.  Such as the fabulous two weeks of concerts from the Wigmore Hall celebrating their 125th birthday. In fact I am just off to listen to Abel Selaocoe right now.

The joys of Sounds

And if for some reason I fail to hear something live  – I can just track it down on BBC Sounds. Without a doubt the best thing that the BBC has introduced in many years – both BBC Sounds and iPlayer. How liberating to be able to watch or listen when one wants to rather than being tied to a schedule which so rarely matches ones’ own. How else would I ever have been able to follow, among many other programmes, Key Changes – their hugely comprehensive history of classical music: from Guido d’Arezzo who, in 1026 came up with a way to notate and therefore actually share music to (this week’s eopisode) Florence in 1600 and the Medici wedding for which is staged Jacopo Peri’s Eurdice in which for the first time every word is fully sung.

I am also constantly amazed by how hard the Beeb work their presenters. Shows are long – no half hours or 45 minutes – two to three hours are the norm. And then they have them out on the road, in trains, introducing concerts from Edinburgh to Penzance – and with unfailing good humour.

Unwind……

My only cavil is with their (the Beeb’s) determined efforts to get me to ‘Unwind’.  I don’t doubt that there are excellent programmes on Unwind but the assumption that I am in constant need of being ‘unwound’ and the endless soft pedal nagging to do so does reduce me, not infrequently, to shouting obscenities at the radio. And while accepting that it is reasonable to flag up their other offerings, can they not get a bit of variety into their promos? Not the same one, over and over and over….

But a small price to pay for the excellent companion that Radio 3 has proved to be over the last three months.

---

June 21st – Garden opening

And just to remind you…..  My garden and our Growing Garden vegetable garden are open on Sunday June 21st as part of the National Gardens Scheme.

LOTS of home made cakes and scones to go with your free cup of tea, a profusion of plants to buy – and, at 2.30 and again at 3.30 – the Secret Life Saxophone quartet.

Open from noon to 6pm – £5 entrance – book here or pay on the door.

And…. The roses are looking very fine right now but just in case they don’t get their second flush by the 21st – this is what they should look like!!

---

And in July…

Sunday 12th July – Highgate Society lunchtime concert

The Lior Solomons Wise trio.  A firm favourite with our Sunday lunchtime audiences, Lior is back – but this time with a new trio. His brother Noam on drums and Guy Dempsey on double bass.

£15 for the concert a glass of Bucks Fizz.

For full details and to book.

---