Young Musician of the Year 2018

[BBMmk2]

The cellist won?????????????

Blimey! Heard him and thought 'so what'?

Not much going for him there, I thought. MrsBBM has a keen musical ear as well She thought the guitarist was the best!

[Bergonzi]

Listened on iPlayer - a little surprised at the winner. I thought the guitarist was outstanding and also the double bass player. The young (first) violinist was very promising and of the two by far the best. Oh well - that's judges for you. And as usual a tacky presentation of the musicians and opinionated presenters.

[ardcarp]

and opinionated presenters

Brainwashed presenters?

[Dave2002]

Another vote for the guitarist! It's possible that the judges heard rather more than we saw in the programme, hence their differing view.

I hope that in the fullness of time the guitarist gets to "make it" - though in fairness they were all good - in different ways.

[Bergonzi]

Another vote for the guitarist! It's possible that the judges heard rather more than we saw in the programme, hence their differing view.

I hope that in the fullness of time the guitarist gets to "make it" - though in fairness they were all good - in different ways.

I can't quite agree about them all being good as I consider the violinist Stephanie Childress to have been by far the worst player in that group, by a very large margin. Very bad sound, especially on the E string, poor technique and no musicality whatsoever. But that's just my opinion. She was totally outplayed by the younger violinist.

[BBMmk2]

I was thinking winner was second violinist (the one from Cambridge), second the guitarist(very good indeed), third the double bass player, fourth the cellist and fifth the first violinist.

[Dave2002]

I can't quite agree about them all being good as I consider the violinist Stephanie Childress to have been by far the worst player in that group, by a very large margin. Very bad sound, especially on the E string, poor technique and no musicality whatsoever. But that's just my opinion. She was totally outplayed by the younger violinist.

That's interesting. You are obviously (am I right?) a string specialist. Also, given the nature of the competition, I don't wish to express a strong negative opinion of anyone who's brave enough to put themselves through this, though on the other hand you might argue that they are trying to make a dash for fame, so that's their problem.

I don't play string instruments - and I think that trying to compare a guitar with the other instruments seems oddly foolish, but that's the way the competition is set up. I can't help thinking that the producers of the programme wouldn't want a guitar player to win, as what could he/she play in the final? Rodrigo again?

After the final, if the winner were a guitarist, what kind of future would there be? As a recitalist - like John Williams and Julian Bream - probably rather a good one, but as a concerto performer - surely things would be limited. I do wonder if issues like this have a bearing on outcomes. They shouldn't, but I can't help feeling they do. However some guitar players get a huge following - though may be short lived. The Katona Twins have had a great following - though perhaps not so much in the UK, and not only from classical music "regulars".

I really wish the guitar player well - his playing did draw me in - and I don't see anything wrong with that.

OK - there are other concertos, perhaps including:

Concerto a Brasileira (no4) - Radames Gnattali
- Lobiana for guitar and strings - Laurindo Almeida
- Concerto for guitar and jazzorchestra - Paul Hart
- Concerto pour guitare Classique et Piano Jazz - Claude Bolling
- Concerto del Plata - Abel Carlevaro
- Guitarconcerto for guitar and jazzguitar - Andre Previn
- Leo Brouwer
**Concerto de Liege
**Concerto de Toronto
**Concerto Elegiaco
**Retratros Catalanes
- Concerto Antilliano by Ernesto Cordero
- second Concerto by Tedesco
- Malcolm Arnold - Serenade for guitar and sttrings
- Zingari - Concerto for Guitar and Orchestra
- Paganini Variations (Guitar Concerto No.2) - Poul Ruders
- Guitar Concerto no. 1 (Carribean Concerto) by Herbert Chappel
- Guitar Concerto - Richard Rodney Bennet
- Lucas Foss' American Landscapes and the Corigliano, Kernis, Tan Dun, Rouse,
Shand, Adame, Asafiev, Lhoyer, Uspensky.
- Luigi Boccherini - 'Concerto in E major'
- Jaques Bondon - 'Concerto de Mars'
- Johann Friedrich Fasch - 'Concerto in D minor' originally for lute
- Elmer Bernstein - 'Concerto for Guitar'
- Guido Santorsola 'Concerto for two guitars'
- Lalo Schifrin - ' Concerto for guitar'
- Carisma Op.91 - Jaime Zenamon
- Oyun - Carlo Domeniconi
- Concertomaggio - Roland Dyens

Michael Zearrott - Mariachi Concerto (can anyone get me a recording of this?)

Mario Castelnuevo Tedesco - Guitar concert no 1 in D, No 2 in C. Plus a 2 guitar concerto.

Roland Dyens' "Concerto Métis" and Alan Hovhaness' Guitar Concerto No. 1, Op. 325 and Guitar Concerto No. 2, Op. 394.

Two Concertos by Stephen Dodgson

Leo Brouwer Guitar Concerto No. 5 " Helsinki"

Piazzola for Guitar and Bandoneon

Sven-David Sandstrom: Lonesome Concerto.

John Arran wrote a guitar concerto 1989 pub. Berben.

Some suggestions taken from here - https://www.classicalguitardelcamp.c...ic.php?t=49699

[greenilex]

I wonder whether Childress’ adult persona and obvious professionalism had some impact here? Perhaps we were not concentrating on her E string tone?

[Lordgeous]

I too thought the younger violinist was superb and the guitarist very good indeed. Why do cellists seem to win so often? Nature of the instrument?

[Stanfordian]

I can't quite agree about them all being good as I consider the violinist Stephanie Childress to have been by far the worst player in that group, by a very large margin. Very bad sound, especially on the E string, poor technique and no musicality whatsoever. But that's just my opinion. She was totally outplayed by the younger violinist.

"Worst", "bad sound", "poor technique", "no musicality" & "totally outplayed" all rather harsh terms to slap onto young players.

It's good for a young player's development to play in competition and in front of large audiences. Let's not forget these are only young people and due criticism I believe should be constructive.

[ardcarp]

I don't wish to express a strong negative opinion of anyone who's brave enough to put themselves through this, though on the other hand you might argue that they are trying to make a dash for fame, so that's their problem.

I think that's a wise comment, Dave. I agree that any performer on a public platform has to be prepared for some flak. But these are only youngsters. On The Choir Forum, we all try (I hope) not to diss individual young voices...though it has happened a few times in the past. Back to Young Musician, expressing our opinions on who we think is good/best is fine, and (speaking personally) slagging off the presentational style of the programme is also fine! But maybe we need to exercise some caution about negative comments relating to individual young participants.

[Pianorak]

Have just caught up with this on iPlayer. Guitarist and Double Bassist joint winners for me - both spoke to me and drew me in. I'm sure the others were good but somehow didn't do it for me. Good luck to all of them!

[Bergonzi]

"Worst", "bad sound", "poor technique", "no musicality" & "totally outplayed" all rather harsh terms to slap onto young players.

It's good for a young player's development to play in competition and in front of large audiences. Let's not forget these are only young people and due criticism I believe should be constructive.

I'm usually constructive too, but at age 18 the violinist in question is not so young when you think of Ricci, Menhuin, Heifetz, Oistrakh and many others who were vastly better than this musically and technically, at the age of between 8 and 12. Many of these musicians were playing the Tchaikovsky concerto by the age of twelve or younger, Joshua Bell for example, and some even the Paganini Caprices.

What the bass player and particularly the guitarist showed was pretty flawless technique but most importantly a real understanding of the music and were able to convey this and their personality to the audience in the hall and over the airwaves. The younger of the two violinists showed some real promise, but Ms Childress did not impress me two years ago and she's become a considerably worse player since then. We have to face up the the reality. She probably only got in this time because it was her second "go."

[Stunsworth]

I’m trying to remember, is there any kind of wild card entry in the later stages for the best non-qualifier?

[kernelbogey]

"Worst", "bad sound", "poor technique", "no musicality" & "totally outplayed" all rather harsh terms to slap onto young players.

It's good for a young player's development to play in competition and in front of large audiences. Let's not forget these are only young people and due criticism I believe should be constructive.

And they've probably already read those remarks....

We're not chatting in a closed room, folks....