This website uses cookies so that we can provide you with the best user experience possible. Cookie information is stored in your browser and performs functions such as recognising you when you return to our website and helping our team to understand which sections of the website you find most interesting and useful.
Artist News Media
BBC’s James Purnell discusses classical output in the streaming age
By Chris Cooke | Published on Monday 3 February 2020
The BBC’s Director Of Radio And Education, James Purnell, used a speech at the Association Of British Orchestras Conference in Manchester last week to set out his vision for the future of the Corporation’s radio and education output. And, in particular, what that means for the creation, commissioning and broadcasting of classical music.
Along the way, he bigged up the BBC’s primary classical music service, Radio 3, and its current boss Alan Davey, who was, he said, “raising the ambition of the station even higher, and redefining what Radio 3 can mean in a world with so much music, so much art, so much culture fighting for our attention. That means working even harder to get audiences to choose Radio 3, by creating a place away from the frenzy of everyday life, to revel in classical and cultural content”.
However, he added, in the digital world individual channels and stations are becoming less important, and therefore the BBC needed to think how else it can deliver and champion classical music content, including via that there BBC Sounds app.
“The critical shift for everyone in BBC radio”, he said, “has been to stop thinking of ourselves as a series of isolated stations and instead as part of a wider portfolio: A place where a listener can find audio that suits their tastes, regardless of the moment, whether it’s live or on demand, something on air or something only on Sounds”.
“We’re looking at ways we can provide more specialist radio options on BBC Sounds for classical music”, he then confirmed, “whether adding classical streams or further complementing Radio 3 and the Proms on the app. These plans are all being developed, but I can say that we are looking at how we can bring the best of classical music to all our audiences, however and whenever they like to listen. We want to help new audiences develop a lifelong love of classical music”.
Alongside all that new-fangled digital, online and app-based listening, Purnell also unveiled two specific new classical music projects from the Beeb. The first is part of the Corporation’s programme of activity marking the 250th anniversary of Beethoven’s birth. It’s a tie-up with Sport Relief that will see people try to run five kilometres in the time it takes to listen to Beethoven’s ‘Fifth Symphony’. The second is a seven composer commission for International Women’s Day 2020 titled ‘Seven Ages Of Woman’.
