BBC Young Musician of the Year Finals - BBC Four

[jonfan]

As the semi finals follow straight on I’m pretty sure they play the same pieces again as there isn’t time to get three more up to the standard required. When the finalists are known they have 3 to 4 months to prepare a piece with orchestra.

[Dave2002]

I fully agreed with the winner in this category - as I did with the brass and percussion, but not the woodwind or the piano categories.

For me I agreed with the piano, brass and string categories. Some individual performances in the different categories outshone the winner's, but then that's just my opinion. The judges are taking more things into consideration, and I guess that sometimes it's a really difficult decision to make.

One could sometimes also be more cynical, and suggest that it's just "to make a show for TV".

[Oakapple]

One could sometimes also be more cynical, and suggest that it's just "to make a show for TV".

In the 1980s there was a competition to find the best pop group put together by school students. The final was shown on a children's Saturday morning show on BBC1. I accompanied (as an adult, not a player) one band that had made it to the final. It was recorded before being shown and what surprised me was that the interviews with the groups were done afterwards and the winners had been chosen. But they all pretended they were about to go on and they were asked questions about how they were feeling and what they thought their chances were, even though for one lot their trophy was just off camera. One group was asked whether they thought there was any advantage in performing last, even though they hadn't done so.

I'm not saying Young Musician is like that at all and it is a much more serious competition. But it shows you cannot believe everything you see on TV, as if you didn't know that already.

[Dave2002]

One group was asked whether they thought there was any advantage in performing last, even though they hadn't done so.

I'm not saying Young Musician is like that at all and it is a much more serious competition. But it shows you cannot believe everything you see on TV, as if you didn't know that already.

I did wonder whether the actual performances were in the order as presented.

I do think that Young Musician is serious, but it is also a TV show, and the interviews and edits do (or at least can) distort things considerably . As I recall, I once worked for a very brief while with a physics/electronics lady who did something with sound/music. Eventually a BBC reporter was sent round with a portable recorder to interview her - and the sound kit (I may not be remembering this all correctly, though - it was quite a while back). We had a discussion, and she asked whether her words were going to be altered, and taken out of context. No - absolutely not - was the answer. Then she did the interview and the demonstration.

She was not too pleased when the broadcast went out, as even in a very short snippet of an interview - probably a radio 4 Today style 2-5 minutes session, enough changes had been made for her to feel that her views had been distorted. I really can't remember much more than that, but one really has to be careful with anything where the media and recordings are involved.

One can hardly ever be aware of what agenda the media people are working to and/or why, but it is often not the same as that of the participants. The distortions may just be accidental or unfortunate, but sometimes they are perhaps deliberate.

[jonfan]

This year has been the best I’ve known for television presentation. It hasn’t been intrusive and on the highlights programme one piece from each performer has been shown more or less in its entirety. The next improvement would be to show the whole category final performances along with the short biographies and comments from the experts, then ditch the highlights programme altogether. Radio 3 used to broadcast the category finals but not this year, a shame.

[Beresford]

I have just watched the "clips" of the string finals from the home web page.
On the last one, the violinist Mio Takahashi, I heard a lot of occasional digital hash after about 75% of the time. It was quite severe, so I was rapidly pulling wires out as I thought it was my computer or hifi. But it appeared again on replay, and was still absent until near the end of that clip, so perhaps it is on the audio stream.
Has anyone else experienced this?
If so, who do we tell?

[Barbirollians]

It was difficult not to be impressed by the winning violinist who was head and shoulders above the other two. The cellist was good but no Kanneh Mason or Van Der Heijden. The harpist struck me as excellent but not surprised he lost out to the violinist. Apart from the oboist I have agreed with the jury so far.

[ardcarp]

Interesting to know if the presence of a harpist on the judging panel was a plus or minus point for the young harpist. I thought he was an amazing player...though so too was the winner.

[Nick Armstrong]

Resurrecting this thread to accommodate any comments on the BBC Four coverage of the above which started (completely unheralded by the BBC - see ‘Grumble’ thread…): https://www.bbc.co.uk/iplayer/episod...nal-highlights

I have yet to watch it

[oddoneout]

Resurrecting this thread to accommodate any comments on the BBC Four coverage of the above which started (completely unheralded by the BBC - see ‘Grumble’ thread…): https://www.bbc.co.uk/iplayer/episod...nal-highlights

I have yet to watch it

Thanks for doing this Nick. I did look for it but without success, hence grumble thread instead - but not entirely misplaced as it was a grumble!
As expected, irritating coverage. I found the acoustic of the hall most unpleasant, it didn't do the violins any favours at all, and at one point I had to reduce the volume right down. I'd decided on a winner within a couple of minutes of hearing the young person's playing and was very pleased that the judges' verdict was the same.
I see that the R3 Lunchtime Concert slots have a side order of percussion each day - was it thought that a full session would be unacceptable?

[Nick Armstrong]

Thanks for doing this Nick. I did look for it but without success, hence grumble thread instead - but not entirely misplaced as it was a grumble!
As expected, irritating coverage. I found the acoustic of the hall most unpleasant, it didn't do the violins any favours at all, and at one point I had to reduce the volume right down. I'd decided on a winner within a couple of minutes of hearing the young person's playing and was very pleased that the judges' verdict was the same.

It was Blendis Jnr who made me listen most attentively

[Nick Armstrong]

I found it almost impossible to judge between the wind players…