BBC Young Musician on BBC4 - woodwind

[ardcarp]

The winner, recorder playing girl aged 15, was just lovely and exuded music from every pore. Interesting programme too. Again, how impossible this competition thing is. The flautist and clarinettist were fully formed players, technically astonishing and IMO fine musicians.

Just a quibble about the piano accompaniments. A couple were IMHO too loud...especially for the flautist...with the lid right up. Others (e.g. for the bassoonist) had the lid on its short prop which was much better.

[ardcarp]

Sorry:

http://www.bbc.co.uk/iplayer/episode/b01h26ct/BBC_Young_Musician_2012_Woodwind_Final/

[aka Calum Da Jazbo]

[Mr Pee]

I would like to have watched this but I'm afraid I can't cope with more than about 5 minutes of the awful presentation style. I have tried!

[MrGongGong]

I would like to have watched this but I'm afraid I can't cope with more than about 5 minutes of the awful presentation style. I have tried!

"Believe in better" ?



you missed an opportunity to promote your favourite satellite empire there Pee

Murdoch is Skynet ............

[ardcarp]

I'm afraid I can't cope with more than about 5 minutes of the awful presentation style. I have tried!

Keep trying! I've quite astonished myself because I find I can completely ignore the c**p and just look up when somebody's actually playing something. Just one thing still really bugs me and that's, 'the winner is...(five centuries elapse).....Fred Bloggs (air-punching, squeals, etc). Even Emma Johnson was bullied into doing the dramatic pause, unless it was put in afterwards by the producer.

[aka Calum Da Jazbo]

i find the held pause so clichéd and overdone that to term it dramatic is to either misrepresent it or to allow that it is dramatic in the worst possible way ...

[gamba]

Presentation made this just too awful to watch & listen to.

[Mr Pee]

Keep trying!

I did just try again, on the BBC HD Channel. But I gave up when the Brahms Clarinet Sonata started two-thirds of the way through the first movement. Pathetic.

[Hornspieler]

The winner, recorder playing girl aged 15, was just lovely and exuded music from every pore. Interesting programme too. Again, how impossible this competition thing is. The flautist and clarinettist were fully formed players, technically astonishing and IMO fine musicians.

What next? Nose flute? Ocarina? Harmonica?

And what about the strings? Ukelele? Sitar? Bouzuki?

Will there be a Piano Accordianist in the Keyboard section?

This competition is becoming as meaningless as "Britain's Got Talent" or "The X Factor" and that goes for the judges too.

HS

[Quarky]

The winner, recorder playing girl aged 15, was just lovely and exuded music from every pore. Interesting programme too. Again, how impossible this competition thing is. The flautist and clarinettist were fully formed players, technically astonishing and IMO fine musicians.

Agreed - the winner stood out head and shoulders above the rest. The other competitors seemed strangely wooden in comparison.

[MrGongGong]

What next? Nose flute? Ocarina? Harmonica?

And what about the strings? Ukelele? Sitar? Bouzuki?

Will there be a Piano Accordianist in the Keyboard section?

This competition is becoming as meaningless as "Britain's Got Talent" or "The X Factor" and that goes for the judges too.

HS

I hope you aren't using those hideous modern valve things on your Alex (if that's what it is ?)

how about this one ?

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=GHT8qbx260Q

or even

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=HHZjNoC3ga4

[John Skelton]

What next? Nose flute? Ocarina? Harmonica?

And what about the strings? Ukelele? Sitar? Bouzuki?

Will there be a Piano Accordianist in the Keyboard section?

This competition is becoming as meaningless as "Britain's Got Talent" or "The X Factor" and that goes for the judges too.

HS

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=vQatlvFvGdM

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=VYO35N3t1nQ&feature=relmfu

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=pUwHMCB-OTM&feature=related

[ardcarp]

HS I agree with you about the format of the programme becoming like 'reality TV' but can't quite share your reservations about the recorder. Perhaps if instead we called it a 'blockfloete' and revered its role in baroque music it might have a better press. A young lady I know well (ex-Wells) who majors on the 'flauto traverso' is also a brilliant exponent of the recorder....but, shock horror, she can also pick up a penny whistle and entertain the crowds for hours with her dexterity and musicality.

[MrGongGong]

The "problem" with the recorder is that it was taken up as an instrument in schools

In many ways it's a far from ideal instrument when compared to the whistle as to play well requires a great degree of breath control that it's hard to have when you are 8
If you visit primary schools in Ireland you find that everyone plays the whistle which has a much faster learning curve and pupils seem to enjoy playing together from the start.

(this is also one of the reasons why the whole "Sistema" style things that are happening in the UK are not such a good idea ! but that's another argument all together !)

The recorder, when played well, can be a wonderful thing to listen to ...........