More views on Haydn
After time in Austria it was good to be back in Britain last week to conduct an all-Haydn concert with the Northern Chamber Orchestra & Lancaster Singers. The programme opened with the Te Deum and followed with The Storm, two pieces that feature as part of a film of a recent ³ÉÈËÂÛ̳ Philharmonic concert directed by Graeme Kay for ³ÉÈËÂÛ̳ Radio 3 interactive.
Because the project is a relatively new venture, it is still available on ³ÉÈËÂÛ̳ iPlayer even though the concert took place more than seven days ago.
So I was very interested indeed to read Graeme's entry on The Radio 3 Blog about the filming of the concert in Manchester. He starts by talking about 'visual radio' and the whole question of whether we imagine better pictures listening to music than the ones which he and his colleagues can film in the venue itself. Later on he explains the logistics of making such a programme, which seem pretty formidable. Eight staff, including five camera operators, were involved, as well as 30 packing cases of equipment. If you're at all interested in the background on how these kind of programmes are made, I can strongly recommend Graeme's blog. Also on the Radio 3 blog is a post on visual radio by Abigail Appleton, Radio 3's head of speech and presentation.
Will 'visual radio' catch on? Who knows - but I think the idea has real potential for programmes like Radio 3's Discovering Music, where there is an element of analysis that could be useful educationally.
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