BBC Young Musician 2016

[pastoralguy]

IMVHO,

1. 'Cellist

2. Saxophonist

3. Horn

[ferneyhoughgeliebte]

One on either side of the front door with bulbs in the bell...

[pastoralguy]

[DracoM]

I know the saxophonist from her playing locally.
Got to say, I was pretty unhappy with the piece she chose for the concerto - the Nyman. Oh dear., oh dear: the lass has got a lovely singing tone, and that piece did little more than give her squealing heights to scale, and I do mean 'scale'. Gosh.

[Bryn]

I know the saxophonist from her playing locally.
Got to say, I was pretty unhappy with the piece she chose for the concerto - the Nyman. Oh dear., oh dear: the lass has got a lovely singing tone, and that piece did little more than give her squealing heights to scale, and I do mean 'scale'. Gosh.

Of the three played, the concerto I am most familiar with is the Shostakovich, followed by the Nyman, then the Strauss, which I am not at all familiar with. That maybe why my first choice would go to the horn player.

[Tony Halstead]

Of the three played, the concerto I am most familiar with is the Shostakovich, followed by the Nyman, then the Strauss, which I am not at all familiar with. That maybe why my first choice would go to the horn player.

If only the saxophonist had chosen e.g. the Glazunov concerto then we would have heard her 'lyrical style' rather than her 'forced style' in the Nyman.
The horn player was indeed a superb player but - for all its cleverness and ultra-sophistication - Strauss's 2nd concerto has always been (for me) a poor relation to his astonishingly attractive 1st concerto in terms of its sheer 'audience appeal'.
The performance of the Shostakovich 1st cello concerto was truly inspirational and the decision to award the 1st prize to the superb young 17-year-old cellist was IMHO the absolutely right/ correct one.

[Barbirollians]

Glad Jackie Campbell won the Walter Todd Bursary - the 2014 winner's performance of the first movement of Prokofiev 3 reminded me how much more impressive a pianist young Jackie Campbell was

Thought the cellist was the worthy winner of tonight's three finalists.

[ardcarp]

Three fabulous players.

Got to say, I was pretty unhappy with the piece she chose for the concerto - the Nyman. Oh dear., oh dear

Yes, one thinks of Beecham's remark, "I once trod in some".

...and

Strauss's 2nd concerto has always been (for me) a poor relation to his astonishingly attractive 1st concerto in terms of its sheer 'audience appeal'.

...I agree absolutely with that, too.

The BBCSO was playing (IMO) on a different plane in the Shotakovitch, and what a gift that concerto is to a cellist. That cadenza! The performance was really worthy of a definitive CD release, and I think Sheku was a deserved winner. I wish the other two the best of luck with their careers too.

I skipped through all the gushing guests, and was surprised at the ludicrous amount of time spent NOT playing music!!!! Please let's hear all 5 finalists next time and CUT THE CACKLE.

[Hornspieler]

If only the saxophonist had chosen e.g. the Glazunov concerto then we would have heard her 'lyrical style' rather than her 'forced style' in the Nyman.
The horn player was indeed a superb player but - for all its cleverness and ultra-sophistication - Strauss's 2nd concerto has always been (for me) a poor relation to his astonishingly attractive 1st concerto in terms of its sheer 'audience appeal'.

I played the 1st Horn Concerto with the Ernest Read Summer School at Sherborne.
I would say that it is nowhere near as difficult to play as the second concerto. It was written at the beginning of the 20th Century for the composer's father, who was a distinguished horn player.

But the second concerto, written in the late 1940s is far more technically advanced - as were instruments by that time, and the music and lyricism of the first concerto have (IMHO) been sacrificed in the cause of technical showmanship.. Only the slow movement is lyrical in its content (shades of those early tone poems) and RS seems in places (particularly in the 1st movement) to ignore the fact that wind players need somewhere to snatch a breath!

I have to say that, like many solo works, technical virtuosity has replaced heart-rending emotion.

I have played both concertos. The 2nd because I was asked to and the 1st because I wanted to.

HS

[Nick Armstrong]

I skipped through all the gushing guests, and was surprised at the ludicrous amount of time spent NOT playing music!!!! Please let's hear all 5 finalists next time and CUT THE CACKLE.

Agree totally with that, and likewise made extensive use of the fast forward button. But overall I thought it was a disappointing evening - the cellist was really the only one in the game. Unlike others, I love the Strauss 2nd horn concerto and I do think it can pack a wistful sort of emotional punch in the right hands (it's twinned in my mind with the Barber violin concerto in that respect). But the performance - well, I couldn't listen to it comfortably - how very different from David Pyatt's winning performance all those years ago, to which I still listen with pleasure. The sax piece - a non-starter, alas. So not the "brilliant final last night" as dutifully tweeted by Alan Davey this morning, imvvho.

[Barbirollians]

Perhaps the cellist benefited from the fact that Wigglesworth is renowned for his Shostakovich rather more than Strauss or Nyman .

[DracoM]

I fear that that Nyman choice was a suicide note from the saxophonist. who on earth advised her to do such.....? Jon Harle can get away with it, because people admire Jon Harle, and he's done far, far greater things in a distinguished career already before and after you hear his Nyman.

But for a young player setting out, the limitations on what and how to play implicit in the piece were so extreme as to make her no more than a footnote. I have heard her play on a number of occasions live, and she is a far, far better player than that Nyman piece allowed her to project herself as.

Really sad for her.

[oddoneout]

I skipped through all the gushing guests, and was surprised at the ludicrous amount of time spent NOT playing music!!!! Please let's hear all 5 finalists next time and CUT THE CACKLE.

Absolutely agree. Given that it's all on BBC4 now, which is supposed to enable greater coverage of 'the arts', without risk of contaminating the general public, why could we not have had a separate documentary style programme with all the background stuff to complement the finals, freeing up time for all five to participate.?
I'm so pleased that Jackie Campbell got the Walter Tod award, richly deserved.
Reading through the lists of past finalists and winners makes for interesting reading - there are some notable 'non-winners' who have gone on to do quite well for themselves, Benjamin Grosvenor for instance - and I think that is one of the good things about this competition. There is the opportunity to compete at the highest level, but not lifting the final trophy isn't the end of the world, and for the younger competitors there's the chance to try again.

[Hornspieler]

Super horn playing, IMHO.

Seconded by Dave2002 who wrote

Seconded. I hope our resident horn experts will agree. Superb.

I didn't watch last night (Somebody wanted to see that ridiculous Queen's Birthday Spectacular) so I had read all the previous comments before I caught up this morning on the iPlayer.

Strauss horn concerto Nº 2 in E flat

An almost flawless performance. Lovely sound of pure quality with not a trace of Brass band vibrato (or Eastern European tremulo)
What really impressed was the even quality of that tone from top to bottom of the instrument.

Did anyone else notice (see my previous post) the need to snatch hurried breaths in the middle of some phrases?

This young man has full technical command of his instrument and I have only one small criticism:

There is a very thin line between interpretation and rhythmic distortion and I'm afraid that our young soloist did cross that line on a few occasions.

Has somebody been coaching him? I have my suspicions but will say no more!

Difficult to choose between him and the young David Pyatt's triumph a few years ago, but I think my vote would go to this young man on account of his evenness of tone quality from top to bottom of the instrument.

pastoralguy said:

I don't like the saxophone as an instrument and I don't like Michael Nyman's 'concert' music but I thought that girl was fantastic!,

I love the smooth alto sax sound of Paul Desmond or Johny Hodges, the rasping tenor sax of Ben Webster or Dexter Gordon and the baritone sax growl of Harry Carney or Gerry Mulligan, but I can't stand the honking of the soprano sax, which sounds to me like it belongs to the Beulieu Motor Museum.

I can only say that the young lady showed amazing technical dexterity and was obviously in command of both instrument and audience,

Good luck to her for the future. She has an engaging personality, but for me it was not appropriate for this occasion.

I have yet to listen to the cellist. Maybe this evening. Reports are favourable so far on this message board.

Time for an afternoon nap.

HS

[Mary Chambers]

I love the smooth alto sax sound of Paul Desmond or Johny Hodges, the rasping tenor sax of Ben Webster or Dexter Gordon and the baritone sax growl of Harry Carney or Gerry Mulligan, but I can't stand the honking of the soprano sax, which sounds to me like it belongs to the Beulieu Motor Museum.

I can only say that the young lady showed amazing technical dexterity and was obviously in command of both instrument and audience,

Good luck to her for the future. She has an engaging personality, but for me it was not appropriate for this occasion.


HS

I echo all of this - except that I'm not very keen on any saxophone. The soprano one is the hardest to listen to, though, and I had to mute the sound from time to time, good as she was.

Yes, I did notice the horn player's snatched breaths, not because I'm a brass player but because I have sung music that demands the same thing.