to be fucked off and actually really quite sad at what has happened to Radio 3?

[cruikshank]

It used to be my go-to station: not only for the breadth of music they played, but also for the incisive and intelligent commentary that opened up that music. Now, it's all bitty - single movements of concerti - including even Vivaldi concerti which are only about 25 mins long in their entirety so hardly taxing on the brain in the first place. And on top of that, instead of having people who actually know about music talking to us, we get witless, endless fucking parp from listeners about 'Ooh I like this one because it reminds me of a picnic I once went on' etc - I don't fucking care. If I wanted to listen to Classic FM I would kill myself tune into it. That's not what Radio 3 is supposed to be for. There are endless radio shows with thoughtless meaningless audience participatory aspects to them. There is a whole radio station (Crassic FM) devoted to rehashing middle-brow supposed 'culture'. So those aspects of broadcasting are already more then adequately catered for elsewhere. Why then do we need to have them encroaching on the one radio station that offered something truly different, something properly thought-provoking and elucidatory?

Ah, nauticant ... There has been excellent listening on R1 this morning. Utterly hilarious sort-of-band - clearly complete piss-takers - but poor Clara isn't feeling it.

Otherwise you could always find some nice, gentle, Sunday morning omnibus to iplay ...

I used to love Radio 3 in all its foisty wonderfulness. Probably my favourite bit, was when they'd review various versions of, say Mahler's first symphony on a Saturday morning. Not a picnic rug in sight. I might still have the listings from that program from 1988, somewhere!

I usually turned the jazz off on a Saturday teatime, mind. That just brought up images of sweaty men in a cloud of smoke. Even though I enjoy Stuart Maconie's Freak zone on 6 music, the free jazz he sometimes plays still leaves me cold.

Building a library! That's it. Glad that's still going (though to have any chance of listening to it, now, I'd need to gag the kids and shove them in the garage).

I only ever listen to the radio in the car, so Classic FM is perfect for me. I always find radio 3 a bit serious for the car.

If I want to listen to a whole symphony, I play it through my phone or watch it on YouTube. For discovering new music, I play in an amateur orchestra and our conductor is fantastic at picking us a mixture of classics, more obscure stuff and modern things.

The idea of World on 3, Hear and Now, or Drama on 3 being binned for Jazz makes me feel anxious and upset.

I have to say i still do only listen to radio 3 when i have the radio on. But I listen to it less than I used to. Composer of the week sometimes, and evening concerts and building a a library. I agree it has changed... and not for the better.

I quite like Sean Rafferty. But wasn't Radio 3 told to make itself more accessible as part of the recent BBC shakeup? Bit of a contrast to 6Music which seems to revel in being obscure and different (disclaimer: 6music not my thing mostly). Still being accessible does not mean inane twitter.

Looking forward to the upcoming Lang Lang interview though.

Ah well, not having been a listener in the past I cannot mourn what went before. I am celebrating the fact that my nine year old (who has horrible anxiety at the moment and refuses to listen to any bad news) has chosen it as the only station allowed in the car and the conversations we have had about harpsichords and motets and early recorders vs flutes and jazz have made my year so far. I was a bit shocked that the excerpt from Barber of Seville was so short earlier but presumed it was for a good reason as I didn't hear the talking. Boys in the car on the other hand were entranced by the woman singing and all of the everything that went with it. One Direction it was not and they enjoyed it so much more. So maybe that's a teeny tiny plus?

I still listen as occasionally something will stop me in my tracks (like Alina Ibragimova playing the Bach partitas in one of the Proms) - but I cannot listen during the day anymore: "HI! I'm TEDDY with the MORNING show, and COMING NEXT..." ugh. Awful.

I would never know how much I disliked Ligeti were it not for Radio 3.

MrSlant I think it was only an except because thingy (the singer - sorry, goldfish memory) had just won an award for something (cracking research skills of some sort), so they played her singing something as a follow on from the news. I think.

I usually only get the chance to listen to parts of the lunchtime concerts live from The Wigmore Hall on occasion and very occasionally the evening concerts. I enjoy those.

Cutting pieces short, constantly playing music performed by the same small selection of performers and poorly informed presenters who simply 'like' music are what I associate with Classic FM which I do enjoy on occasion.

Thank you Athelstane! My love of music has taken a battering as I lost a lot of my hearing so I didn't get that bit, happily there was no missing the singers amazing voice . We stayed in the car to listen to the jazz piece but weren't convinced.

OK, maybe I'm the listener they are looking for - or not, as I'm 46, but I'm someone who drifts between Classic FM and Radio 3. Like everyone in the universe apparently I love Building a Library, but I also enjoy the breakfast show as I find it hits a sweet spot for me, very gentle and undemanding but still a reasonably knowledgeable presenter. I'd agree that in the last three years or so the balance has gone too far towards phone ins - I would eliminate all phones from radio stations as I hate them. I used to like Jazz Record Requests though, also Discovering music but at least you can find a lot of this on the website. I also found that Private Passions is preferable by a long way to Desert Island Discs.

In particular, I like the softer darker Radio 3 sound, whereas the Classic FM signal is incredibly brassy bright and loud. But every now and then I just want familiar, enjoyable music and that's when I switch over to Classic FM. I may have to go on a rampage soon if I hear Juliet Stevenson again though.

I totally and utterly agree and am so glad I'm not alone. I was just thinking this today (again). It's all twee classical music excerpts which the masses digest as being 'classical music'. Where's the challenge? Where are the political stands, taken by Shostakovitch and many others? Classical music was never a panacea.

It's dumbing down of western art music, for the masses. Pisses me right off.

We have radio 3 on the clock radio alarm in the mornings because it's the only thing dh and I can agree on. However, the music comes on at 6.45, we hear the end of something which can be nice or not, then it's fucking Bach Before 7 time. Sometimes this is lovely and sometimes it's belligerent singing about god in German. I hate the singing, I really really hate it, and each piece is chosen by a listener (why? Why would anybody want to hear this at 6.50am?).

We tried classic FM for a while but they play adverts at 6.45 (it was always the same one as well, for life insurance)

Oh Lord, I am with you to a large extent OP. Sadly, when the formats were shaken up a few years back, listeners complained vociferously and were pretty much told they should put up with it or leave.

I cannot stand the inane wittering that has taken over many aspects. DD likes Petroc Trelawney but the drivel he has to read out... and the fact that Katie Derham is clearly always talking though an insincere stage-school smile makes me want to smash the radio.

And when Comic Relief rolls around I REALLY want to smash the radio. Radio 3 and Comic Relief do not go together!

There are still good things though - Composer of the Week, Words and Music (not inane witterings, but good literary stuff ) and the Early Music Show (although the really good presenter buggered off to Classic FM)...

Poor old Petshop - last time I heard him I think they'd given him one of Judith Chalmers old holiday programme scripts from Vienna in 1983.

I do find Words and Music quite hypnotic. And I do appreciate finding things I'd never come across before (and I've had a lot of exposure throughout my life) - like that wonderful Little Match Girl Passion by David Lang, which they played last Christmas and I was only 7 years late to. The sound of the matches being struck, and going out...

Enough to make Classic FM feel faint.