BBC Young Musician 2014

[Barbirollians]

Are you certain about this verismissimo? I found a short Jacob worklist and assumed we were listening to an orchestration of his Suite for Recorder and String 4tet. Indeed, something was said about writing accompaniment parts for orchestral instruments other than strings (quiet ones got the nod...), but I heard nothing about an adapted solo part, so thought this was likely to be right.

Like many others here I found it almost impossible to compare apples, pears and bananas as it were in the three performances. But there was another factor that hasn't IIRC been mentioned here. In the Rachmaninov most of us here will have had a pretty good idea of how the piece goes, and probably some recollection of benchmark performances. So no doubt did the judges. For the other two works most of us lacked any such experience. OK, the judges had the score (studied well in advance?) but probably like us, no experience of other performances.

Not sure which category gave the performer the advantage though. Superficially it should be those playing unknown works (no great performances to fail against), but I felt far more secure in making an assessment of the Rackers. The others were somehow unrooted, literally but not metaphorically 'incomparable'.

Have to admit that I have a serious problem with most percussion concertos anyway - great theatre watching the performance, but little to hold the attention musically. And the recorder work here was only a little better. So for me it was probably always going to be the pianist, even though we're obviously supposed to be rating the performance, not the work played Does this ring bells with others?

No I agree - the pianist had an open goal - for me however he shot wide of the post.

Michala Petri has recorded the Jacob so I assume she knew how it should go !

[Sir Velo]

Also - is it the only time 2/3 of the programme of a concert have included parts for small plastic bird-warblers...??



What are those things called?

Harrison Bird whistles?

[ardcarp]

...and in the percussion piece, one of the players was a big butch bloke who somehow managed not to look crushigly embarrassed. All in a day's work, I suppose.

[Hornspieler]

I don't understand how adjudication works in this competition as others have remarked how on earth do you find a yardstick that fairly asseses the relative merits, but I'm not that bothered since all three finalists and many who didn't make the final gave much listening pleasure and will go on to fulfilling musical lives.
By the way, I quite enjoy players/conductors/singers who fail the impassivity test since it mirrors my own reactions to music!!

I've just returned from a fortnight's holiday, so I have missed all the comments regarding this programme until now, but I was able to watch this programme on TV in the Algarve.

So this is the post which I have decided to reply to. Some very good observations and here goes:

The Winner
Like some contributers, I disagree with the award to the winner.

Young? He's seventeen years old. Maybe "Young Concert Pianist of the Year" would be a more appropriate title.
Musician? Well distortion for me is not musicianship. He should concentrate less on trying to emulate Lang Lang and copy the likes of a Katin or a Donahoe in his presentation. Perhaps then,. he would not have fallen out of sinc with the orchestra on numerous occasions.
Was this rather anonymous (to me) panel of judges assessing the composer rather than the performer?

The recorder player
Age sixteen.
Well she can certainly play her instrument, but what is there in Gordon Jacob's concerto that gives an opportunity to display musicianship?
She would have done better to have played something by Telemann or the like, to demonstrate her musical understanding of the composer's intentions.

The Percussionist
Age fifteen.

Known among musicians as "The Kitchen Department", "The Roll and Batter Section" or (forgive me) "The Bang Gang", anyone demonstrating musical touch and expression gets my vote.
Surely it must have been difficult to remember that complicated orchestral accompaniment. The care and control demonstrated by this young man on what one might describe as some of the most difficult instruments from which to extract a musical sound, impressed me immensely.

So my vote would have gone to the performer who qualified as:
Young, (the youngest of the three finalists)
Musical ( (in his interpretation of the music)
and
finally in his future potential as a succesful professional musician.

Good morning everyone. Glad to be back. (I have much catching up on the message boards to do.)

Hornspieler

[mercia]

the 2008 and youngest winner has been appointed the youngest ever member of the LSO

http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/entertainment-arts-27632570