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13.03.03

RADIO LEICESTER RADIO 4

Classical music interest leads to Radio 4 series for BBC Radio Leicester presenter

For two Saturdays in March, BBC Radio Leicester presenter John Florance will also be heard on BBC Radio 4, with a new two-part series Audience Profiled looking at the historical characteristics of music audiences over the centuries.

It's not the first time that John, who presents Talkback on BBC Radio Leicester, has presented programmes for BBC Radio 4, or worked with producer Rosie Boulton.

In the past they have worked together on programmes including Three Writers in Search of a Character, Poets and Places and Witnessing History.

In the first programme Crowd Control, John traces the development of audience etiquette in the concert hall from its earliest beginnings through to the present day, and looks at how people might behave in the future.

He says: "When we attend a classical music concert today we're expected to sit in silence and concentrate totally on the music itself, but listening to music in silence is behaviour which evolved at the end of the 19th and during the 20th century."

He adds: "There are contributors to the first programme such as early music expert Lucie Skeaping, who describes audience behaviour at the first ever public concert in 1672 when the musicians were screened off from the audience behind a curtain. The audience made requests for favourite pieces and ale was served throughout the evening.

"Musicologist Cyril Ehrich is also in the programme and explains why concert audiences would riot over music they didn't like at the beginning of the 20th century, in a way that we can hardly imagine today."

In the second programme Fever Pitch, John looks at how the cult of celebrity musicians didn't begin with Elvis and the Beatles as many might think. The programme explores the lives of some of the heroes and heroines from musical history who were the pop idols of their day.

Leslie Howard is a pianist and a leading expert on Liszt, and tells how ladies all over Europe swooned over Liszt.

Also featured in the programme is Richard Wagner - who had the kind of celebrity status that would mean if he were alive today, he would no doubt feature in the glossy magazines.

Musicologist Brendan Carroll looks at the attention and hysteria surrounding the lives and antics of various opera divas.

Audience Revealed is on BBC Radio 4 on Saturday 15 and Saturday 22 March, 3.30-4.00pm.

John's show Talkback on BBC Radio Leicester is weekdays, 9.00am-noon.

Freeview offers the BBC's eight television channels, interactive services from BBCi, as well as 11 BBC radio networks.

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