BBC Young Musician 2016

[Beresford]

.. I see that the finalists' programmes were transmitted during the evening concert intervals on R3 this week...

But I cannot find any mention of this in the R3 schedule online! Took me some delving to find. It suggests that the schedulers no longer care enough about this wonderful event - are they trying to hide it away? These brilliant youngsters need all the encouragement they can get, and they deserve not to have the brave performance of Ligeti excised from the tv version.

[Dave2002]

Wow! The recorder player's last piece (TV prog) was just amazing. Absolutely stunning. Polly Bartlett.

[oddoneout]

Wow! The recorder player's last piece (TV prog) was just amazing. Absolutely stunning. Polly Bartlett.

Wasn't it just. Mind you I enjoyed her whole programme, the variety of instruments and music made a good contrast to the preponderance of flute players.I'll have to catch up on the winner's music, I came in part way through and whatever she was playing didn't come over well on my TV either volume wise or sound quality. Bit odd as the others were OK.

[Barbirollians]

All gone a bit quiet on this but I thought the horn player Ben Goldscheider who won the brass final was outstanding watching it tonight .

[Lat-Literal]

All gone a bit quiet on this but I thought the horn player Ben Goldscheider who won the brass final was outstanding watching it tonight .

I enjoyed the Enescu piece "Legende" by Zoё Perkins but haven't seen the rest of the programme.

[Hornspieler]

'You've just completed your driving test and you've been awarded a pass.

Yipee! Now you can take those L plates off Dad's old Ford Escort and drive without the need to be accompanied by a qualified driver.
You are licensed to drive a car, without supervision.

You've demonstrated your understanding of The Highway Code, done a 3 point turn, reversed round a corner, made an emergency stop, used your rear view mirror correctly and given the correct traffic signals at the to inform other road users of your intentions.

But ... Hang on! Have you driven at night? On a busy motorway? Through a thick fog? On Black Ice? Through hailstones as big as golf balls?

Maybe you are not quite as qualified as you think. There is a lot to learn before you can claim to be a SAFE DRIVER.

The same caution applies to Young Musicians who have won praise for their performance on this popular BBC programme:

There is still a lot to learn about earning your living as a professional musician and the place to do that is one of the colleges of music which abound throughout the British Isles.

You have demonstrated your ability to play accurately and musically and probably passed a test in sightreading and "instinctive" interpretation but you need guidance in such matters as tetchy conductors, aggressive desk partners, coping with travel sickness and tiredness - so many extra requirements which you will have to face for the first time in your musical career.

As a newcomer, you will certainly need help and advice from some of the second or third year students in order to settle into your new environment, where you are not a top dog, but an instrumentalist with a lot still to learn.

When I was awarded a scholarship to the Royal Academy of Music in 1949, I was sixteen years old. I found myself in the midst of students ranging from 18 to 30 - some ex military, who had been in the music profession prior to conscription in WW2 and some 20 to 22 year-olds, who had just completed their National Service.

I was fortunate to be "adopted" by an older horn player, Charles Farncombe, who shepherded me through those months of uncertainty, found me a lot of paid engagements and for whom I played with his own ensemble "The Handel Operatic Society".

Here is a brief extract about Charles' career, thanks to Wickipedia.

Farncombe was born in London and received his early musical training as a chorister at Canterbury Cathedral. He continued his education at Dulwich College and at Imperial College, London, where in 1940 he took a degree in civil engineering. After two years of work in that field with John Mowlem and Co. (involved in the laying of cats' eyes), he saw service in the second world war as captain of a tank recovery unit (21st Army Group) with the Royal Electrical and Mechanical Engineers. A severe wound received at Caen ended his active involvement and left him with a slight limp, though it never inhibited his subsequent enjoyment of walking and swimming.

During recuperation, Farncombe decided to change to a musical career, taking up the French horn. He returned to Canterbury to study at the Royal School of Church Music (1947–48), and went on to graduate from the Royal Academy of Music in London (1948–51).

I'm tired now, but I will continue on this subject of "Experience versus Talent" later.

HS

[ahinton]

'You've just completed your driving and you've been awarded a pass.

Yipee! Now you can take those L plates off Dad's old Ford Escort and drive without the need to be accompanied by a qualified driver.
You are licensed to drive a car, without supervision.

You've demonstrated your understanding of The Highway Code, done a 3 point turn, reversed round a corner, made an emergency stop, used your rear view mirror correctly and given the correct traffic signals at the to inform other road users of your intentions.

But ... Hang on! Have you driven at night? On a busy motorway? Through a thick fog? On Black Ice? Through hailstones as big as golf balls?

Maybe you are not quite as qualified is not what you have thought. There is a lot to learn before you can claim to be a SAFE DRIVER.

The same caution applies to a Young Musician who have won praise for their performance on this popular BBC programme:

There is still a lot to learn about earning your living as a professional musician and the place to do that is one of the colleges of music which abound throughout the British Isles.

You have demonstrated your ability to play accurately and musically and probably passed a test in sightreading and "instinctive" interpretation but you need guidance in such matters as tetchy conductors, aggressive desk partners, coping with travel sickness and tiredness - so many extra requirements which you will have to face for the first time in your musical career.

As a newcomer, you will certainly need help and advice from some of the second or third year students in order to settle into your new environment, where you are not a top dog, but an instrumentalist with a lot still to learn.

When I was awarded a scholarsh to the Royal Academy of Music in 1949, I was sixteen years old. I found myself in the midst of students ranging from 18 to 30 - some ex military, who had been in the music profession prior to conscription in WW2 and some 20 to 22 year-olds, who had just completed their National Service.

I was fortunate to be "adopted" by an older horn player, Charles Farncombe, who shepherded me through those months of uncertainty, found me a lot of paid engagements and for whom I played with his own ensemble "The Handel Operatic Society".

Here is a brief extract about Charles' career, thanks to Wickipedia.


I'm tired now, but I will continue on this subject of "Experience versus Talent" later.

Please do but, in the meantime, I have two observations to make.

Firstly, your new driver analogy, whilst it may have some parallels with what follows, is not entirely an appropriate analogy, I think. Were the government to increase the standard required of its own driving test to that of IAM, each "apprentice" driver would have learned and experiances those additional things that you mention and probably some more besides before taking the test and, whilst nothing substitues for experience (not even that), the likelihood is that the standard of driving technique would be increased considerably and the proportion of drivers deserving to be deemed "safe" would do the same.

That said, in what you write next, just as there's no realistic and reliable way of "testing" the kinds of thing to which you refer before granting degrees, diplomas or other certification to musicians at the end of their period of formal study, much the same might be said about the lauding of certain BBC Young Musician entrants; whilst it isn't intended to - and indeed doesn't - convey to most people the assumption that these musicians have all had years of professional experience behind them as orchestral players, conductors, singers, chamber musicians, organists/choir directors et al, I don't see this as undermining, let alone invalidating the BBC Young Musician principle.

[Hornspieler]

PLease do but, in the meantime, I have two observations to make.

Firstly, your new driver analogy, whilst it may have some parallels with what follows, is not entirely an appropriate analogy, I think. Were the government to increase the standard required of its own driving test to that of IAM, each "apprentice" driver would have learned and experiances those additional things that you mention and probably some more besides before taking the test and, whilst nothing substitues for experience (not even that), the likelihood is that the standard of driving technique would be increased considerably and the proportion of drivers deserving to be deemed "safe" would do the same.

That said, in what you write next, just as there's no realistic and reliable way of "testing" the kinds of thing to which you refer before granting degrees, diplomas or other certification to musicians at the end of their period of formal study, much the same might be said about the lauding of certain BBC Young Musician entrants; whilst it isn't intended to - and indeed doesn't - convey to most people the assumption that these musicians have all had years of professional experience behind them as orchestral players, conductors, singers, chamber musicians, organists/choir directors et al, I don't see this as undermining, let alone invalidating the BBC Young Musician principle.

Thank you for a very helpful and well-reasoned replyy.

In this post I shall address my reply to the content of your first paragraph and my reason for quoting my choice of driving tests as an example of the problems that possession of a document indicating competence to proceed further is fraught with danger:

Ernest Read, professor of music at the RAM started a summer orchestral course for members of school orchestras. The two weekly course drew young musicians from all over the British Isles and many well known stars of later years began their experience of orchestral playing on those courses. There were 4 orchestras, reflecting the standard of competence among the participants and the music rehearsed concentrated on sightreading, interpretation and knowledge of the range of composers and the type of musicwas varied both in its context and difficulty..

Unlike the NYO, founded later by Dame Ruth Relton, these courses concentrated not on honing and polishing 5 or six works to be given a public performance at the end of the week, but a variety of works to be read through, ranging from Gordon Jacob to Igor Stravinsky and each of the 4 orchestras would give a short concert at the end of the week for the other three orchestras and a few friends and parents.

So now, having set the scene, I return to the reason for my choice of driving tests as an example of documents bearing false and dangerous promises.

It was in 1948, at one of those Sherborne courses that, sitting up in the horn section of orchestra "A", I noticed, among the violin section, the most beautiful girl that I had ever seen.

I was in love. I just had to meet her; and by devious means I managed to get to know her, where she came from and our relationship blossomed from there, so that after the course was finished, we kept in touch by letter and even contrived to meet occasionally in London to take in a theater visit and have a meal together.

The problem was that She lived in Slough (Berkshire) and I lived in Beckenham (Kent)In 1949, I commenced my studies at the Royal Academy of Music and she started a couse at a teacher training college near Chalfont St Giles in Buckinghamshire.. Too far away for frequent meetings but, in 1950, at the age of seventeen, I passed my driving test.
So now we could meet more often and I was invited to her home to meet her parents and have lunch.
In the afternoon, I took her for a drive around Buckinghamshire, saw her Teacher Training college and had a hilarious moment when I too a wrong turning and we found ourselves at the gates of a Maternity Home!


When I set off reluctantly to drive home, it was already getting dark and it was raining heavily. My route took me along the Great West Road (there was no M4 in those days). . The road was wet, the floodlighting of the big factories, like the Hoover Building, were distracting and a constant stream of traffic coming towards me were dazzling me with their headlamps, reflecting off the wet road.

I don't know how I managed to get home in one piece, but I was in tears of despair by the time I arrived.

What use was a piece of paper, certifying my competence to drive a motor vehicle, unaccompanied in those horrendous circumstances?


So, that's it for the moment, but I shall return to this, your message #22, tomorrow, to continue the subject of this thread.

Hornspieler.

Postscript

So what happened with that beautiful young violinist who would have received my vote as "Young Musician of the year?

Well, in 1982, I wrote a short piece called "The Girl in the Red Mini" If you want to read it, just send me a PM with your email address and I will send you a copy as an attachment in reply. I will not add your email address to my mail list unless you wish me to po so.

Meanwhile, lets go back to paragraph 2 of ahinton's message #22 regarding The BBC Young Musician of the Year 2016.

[Hornspieler]

Please do but, in the meantime, I have two observations to make.

Firstly, your new driver analogy, whilst it may have some parallels with what follows, is not entirely an appropriate analogy, I think. Were the government to increase the standard required of its own driving test to that of IAM, each "apprentice" driver would have learned and experiances those additional things that you mention and probably some more besides before taking the test and, whilst nothing substitues for experience (not even that), the likelihood is that the standard of driving technique would be increased considerably and the proportion of drivers deserving to be deemed "safe" would do the same.

That said, in what you write next, just as there's no realistic and reliable way of "testing" the kinds of thing to which you refer before granting degrees, diplomas or other certification to musicians at the end of their period of formal study, much the same might be said about the lauding of certain BBC Young Musician entrants; whilst it isn't intended to - and indeed doesn't - convey to most people the assumption that these musicians have all had years of professional experience behind them as orchestral players, conductors, singers, chamber musicians, organists/choir directors et al, I don't see this as undermining, let alone invalidating the BBC Young Musician principle.

I think that we may assume that the contestants for this prestigious award do not have "years of professional experience behind them as orchestral players, conductors, singers, chamber musicians, organists/choir directors et al,

Surely that is the whole point of the programme? And indeed some of the worthy entrants are playing instruments that would not feature as participating in any of the musical disciplines as described above.

[Alain Maréchal]

I was fortunate to be "adopted" by an older horn player, Charles Farncombe, who shepherded me through those months of uncertainty, found me a lot of paid engagements and for whom I played with his own ensemble "The Handel Operatic Society".

HS

I may have heard you play. In the 70s I knew very little of Handel operas, but I was persuaded to see "Ariodante". I was irritated by the acting in the "da capo" arias, which suggested "oh and another thing" as somebody was leaving the stage, but when Patricia Kern let fly with "Dopo Notte" I was hooked. I'm not convinced that a certain great mezzo who shall remain nameless did it better.

[ferneyhoughgeliebte]

... orchestral players, conductors, singers, chamber musicians, organists/choir directors et al,

... some of the worthy entrants are playing instruments that would not feature as participating in any of the musical disciplines as described above.

Are they?

[ardcarp]

If I may comment on the winning horn player, I thought he was not only a very talented and musical player, but seemed to have a degree of maturity that should see him through the trials and tribulations which Hornspieler describes.

We have to see competitions for what they are. In the BBC's case it's partly entertainment, as evidenced by the duo of glam presenters who (nothing personal) really get on my wick. But the judges claim to be seeking out extra-special musicianship in addition to technical wizardry. I don't think anyone suggests that competitions serve the winners up as fully formed professional musicians. Some will make it (many have) while others will lack the temperament and/or the inclination.

I too thought trumpeter Zoe was a great performer, and I hope she will have another go if she wants to.

[Barbirollians]

Spoiler Alert







Having just watched the semi-final I am more than surprised by one of the omissions in the pianist being left out . I thought he was outstanding and it seems he was excluded due to his repertoire choice . He strikes me as being in a completely different league to the 2014 winner.

The cellist I have been underwhelmed by on both occasions and the saxophonist is very mature but again does not move me much .

[Mary Chambers]

I was not happy when Stephanie Childress was not the winner of the strings final. Competitions are like that. I'm sure she'll have great career, anyway.

[Barbirollians]

True enough - I felt that Jackie Campbell was treated as if he was too self effacing - to my ears his performances were about the music rather than about himself .

I hope Ben Goldscheider wins but suspect the saxophonist is being lined up to .