BBC Young Musician Final - delayed from 2020

[ardcarp]

https://www.bbc.co.uk/programmes/m000vsfj

Is there a thread anywhere?

Anyway I was blown away by all three contestants. But the winner, the young percussionist, oozed musicianship and was totally in charge of his marimba, the piece, and indeed the orchestra! A very worthy...and obvious...winner. However, as always I shudder at the thought of having to choose between three different instrumentalists, all brilliant in their way.

Ruth Gipps, composer of the horn concerto, was featured on CotW a while ago:

https://www.bbc.co.uk/programmes/p0998d2t

Fine piece, showing influence of English folk with a touch of cowpat (in the best sense). Very difficult, especially sudden changes from a loose emboughure on low pedal notes to tightening up for the stratosphere. The player did it magnificently I thought.

The young oboist was absolutely in command of his instrument and gave an almost flawless performance of a piece which displayed staggering virtuosity, but was not IMHO great. Well orchestrated, yes, but humdrum and a bit like the soundtrack of a film. Was it a wise choice?

[Vox Humana]

Fang Zhang was utterly awesome. Just wow! For me he was the clear winner. As you say, he was absolutely in charge. Also, he was very obviously enjoying himself, which I thought quite remarkable in the circumstances. Almost relaxed, even. And such a musical interpretation. A true professional.

Wid's horn concerto is a good piece. If memory serves, it was written for her son Lance, so she will have had all the advice she needed (if any) about how to exploit the instrument. The playing was wonderful, totally secure and the tone was ravishing, but I sensed that there was room for a deeper, more three-dimensional interpretation. That might be unfair—it's a notoriously fiendish instrument to play. As for the piece, I'm afraid I'm beginning to think that it's not one of Wid's best. It's too bitty and underdeveloped. It's full of ideas—indeed they come thick and fast—but most are cast aside as soon as heard, which is a pity since some of them cry out for a more extended musical argument. I loved the bit towards the end with just the horn and a celesta. I can hear Wid saying, "That's one that's not been overdone yet!"

I found it hard to judge the oboist. I think he let himself down with the choice of piece, which I thought very weak. I thought it sounded like soundtrack to a spaghetti western—complete, at one point, with horses hooves. There was lots of the lyricism at which the oboe excels, but not so much bravura until the end. But then I found myself wondering: how do you write an oboe concerto that takes an audience by storm? I wouldn't know where to begin.

At any rate, three exceptional performers, all of whom have a musical future ahead of them if they wish.

[Dave2002]

I'm struggling with this. I'll get back to commenting on the music and the musicians in a while, but there seems to be a great deal of irrelevant waffle in this programme, and some of the video work seems really quite poor. In a programme lasting just a tad under 2 hours, and I'm estimating pieces of music lasting between 15-20 minutes, this doesn't seem to be one of the beeb's better efforts (ratio of musical content to ???? about 55% maybe) - though indeed we should be thankful that it has been done at all given the severe constraints of the last year.

I didn't even realise it was on, though that's probably because we don't watch much live TV these days, don't take the Radio Times any more, and mostly we only get TV via computer networks as it's difficult for us to pick up terrestrial TV and even satellite has problems.

I'll probably have to come back and delete this post in a while - as I don't like being too critical, but right now I'm slightly saddened by this production, which seems to have taken dumbing down to new levels. This is absolutely no criticism at all of the very good musicians who have contributed to this.

The beeb can (I hope) and should do better than this. Sorry - maybe I shouldn't be writing this.

[kernelbogey]

I haven't watched or heard this yet, but reading Dave's comments reminds me that the last time I watched the final of a competition - and it must, I think have been the same one - there was quite a lot of dumbing down, and a high proportion of chat to music. Does the Beeb now see this as the only way to present a classical music competition?

[Richard Barrett]

I found myself wondering: how do you write an oboe concerto that takes an audience by storm? I wouldn't know where to begin.

Somewhat annoying is the fact that, without access to BBC television, I found out here who the composer of the horn concerto was, and from a brief mention on the BBC website who the composer of the percussion concerto was, but I haven't yet been able to find out the identity of whoever wrote the oboe concerto. So I would suggest that for those making the decisions to take the role of the actual composer of the music a little more seriously might be one way to find an oboe concerto with the required qualities!

[oddoneout]

Somewhat annoying is the fact that, without access to BBC television, I found out here who the composer of the horn concerto was, and from a brief mention on the BBC website who the composer of the percussion concerto was, but I haven't yet been able to find out the identity of whoever wrote the oboe concerto. So I would suggest that for those making the decisions to take the role of the actual composer of the music a little more seriously might be one way to find an oboe concerto with the required qualities!

Oscar Navarro according to the schedule, and that was the name mentioned on the broadcast so it seems correct. It reminded me of something I would hear on the Sound of Gaming programme, which is not to say it's bad, just that as others have said perhaps not the best choice for such an occasion.
I've just looked him up and film music would seem to be a major part of his work.

[LMcD]

I recorded the final so that I could fast-forward through all the background/interviews/analysis/prediction etc. and concentrate on the actual performances. It's proved impossible to avoid discovering which instrument 'H' played, but I shall still watch!

[Vox Humana]

One very obvious bit of dumbing down was the introduction of the semi-final round so that the final could be restricted to just three soloists. If the BBC had continued to show the whole competition on TV this unsatisfactory innovation would not have been necessary. I don't know why the BBC had to short-change us like this. It's not as if they produce heaps of quality programmes that vie for priority.

[LMcD]

One very obvious bit of dumbing down was the introduction of the semi-final round so that the final could be restricted to just three soloists. If the BBC had continued to show the whole competition on TV this unsatisfactory innovation would not have been necessary. I don't know why the BBC had to short-change us like this. It's not as if they produce heaps of quality programmes that vie for priority.

We've just watched the three performances in the final and the presentation of the award to the deserving winner. We felt exhausted at the end of the Abe!
The number of finalists was reduced to three in 2010, before which it had been 5 or (occasionally) 4.

[Lordgeous]

Worthy winner. I felt a little sorry for the two other brilliant finalists, and maybe more difficult for them to communicate (facially) with someting stuck over or in their mouths? Going back to the semis I was also suprised the violinist didn't make it through.

Thoroughly enjoyed the Mozart concerto - the 'reduced' orchestra very apt - but did I hear correctly that she isn't even studying music??

Do we need 3 presenters???! Though I thought Anna Lapwood was excellent and refreshingly un-gushing!

[ardcarp]

I'm struggling with this. I'll get back to commenting on the music and the musicians in a while, but there seems to be a great deal of irrelevant waffle in this programme, and some of the video work seems really quite poor. In a programme lasting just a tad under 2 hours, and I'm estimating pieces of music lasting between 15-20 minutes, this doesn't seem to be one of the beeb's better efforts (ratio of musical content to ???? about 55% maybe)

I think we all know YM is going to be done like that. Far too much time spent on presenters and extraneous 'experts'. But I approached it with gritted teeth and filtered out everything except the performances. It's just life with the BBC I'm afraid.

[Pulcinella]

I think we all know YM is going to be done like that. Far too much time spent on presenters and extraneous 'experts'. But I approached it with gritted teeth and filtered out everything except the performances. It's just life with the BBC I'm afraid.

They might start to care if increasingly our lives are lived without the BBC.

[ardcarp]

But then I found myself wondering: how do you write an oboe concerto that takes an audience by storm? I wouldn't know where to begin.

Well Richard Strauss managed it...and ended it as well! Plenty of lyricism and virtuosity.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=MLUrD8veYHU

I felt a little sorry for the two other brilliant finalists, and maybe more difficult for them to communicate (facially) with someting stuck over or in their mouths?

Definitely, But at least a woodwind player can sway about a bit. Not so a horn player where embouchure is so critical you could 'split' half the notes with too much body-language!

[LMcD]

Well Richard Strauss managed it...and ended it as well! Plenty of lyricism and virtuosity.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=MLUrD8veYHU

Definitely, But at least a woodwind player can sway about a bit. Not so a horn player where embouchure is so critical you could 'split' half the notes with too much body-language!

I think the orchestration in Richard Strauss's Oboe Concerto is a miracle of elegant constraint compared with some of his more bombastic earlier utterances (which I find quite hard to listen to), and the same goes for other late works such as the Four Last Songs, the 2nd Horn Concerto and the Duet Concertino. The Navarro often seemed to highlight the orchestra or the soloist separately - which, for me, disrupted the flow of the piece.

[Richard Barrett]

Well Richard Strauss managed it...

As did Martinu, and B A Zimmermann, and (in a vein not likely I suppose to find much favour with the BBCYM programmers) Carter, and Maderna, who wrote three. And Vaughan Williams and William Mathias, neither of which I've heard though.