BBC Young Musician 2024

23 October 2024

I've followed the biennial BBC Young Musician competition closely since it started in 1978 and I have written here about it every two years since 2006. You can read all my previous posts about BBC Young Musician at: http://culturaldessert.blogspot.com/search/label/BBCYoungMusician. BBC Young Musician 2024, which came to its climax last weekend, saw some significant changes to the format, doing away with the instrumental categories that have defined the competition since it began. Rather than separating the contestants into strings, woodwind, brass, piano and percussion until the grand final, this year 50 young musicians were auditioned to select the 12 best players, regardless of instrument. Two quarter finals and a semi-final then reduced the field to 3 for the concerto final (broadcast on Sunday). I was surprised how well this radical change worked: it allowed the same three judges to oversee the entire competition (rather than having specialists for each of the instrument categories) and by broadcasting excerpts of all 50 auditions the television audience saw many more young musicians than in previous years and saw more of those who made it right through to the final, building our understanding of their personalities and musicality. But the lack of categories did seem to further favour string players and pianists (who were already the most common overall winners of the competition) - with no brass players or percussionists (and only two wind players) making it beyond the initial auditions. (Though I suppose you could argue that the category format may have previously prevented many more outstanding pianists or string players from getting to the concerto final.) The standard of contestants seemed even higher than in previous years, with many 'wow' moments throughout the various rounds. And I think Sunday's concerto final at Bristol Beacon was one of the best ever, in that I think all three finalists will go on to be well-known professional musicians - comparable with the 2016 final (which featured Sheku Kanneh-Mason, Ben Goldscheider and Jess Gillam - now firmly established as the perfect TV presenter for BBC Young Musician). But I did have some criticisms of the final. After the 2022 final restored the incredible spectacle of a concert consisting of five full concertos it was a great shame that we were restricted to three concertos again this year. And, by doing away with the instrumental categories, for the first time ever the final featured two musicians playing the same instrument. The fact that both pianists then chose to play the same concerto (Rachmaninov's 2nd Piano Concerto) was an amazing and fascinating twist but even further reduced the sense of the final as a concert. Comparing two very different performances of the same work was surprisingly compelling - and reminded me of the experience of playing the Rachmaninov 2nd Piano Concerto with the Northampton Symphony Orchestra in two consecutive concerts in 2019 with two different pianists who took contrasting approaches to the piece (reviewed here in October and November 2019). I was also disappointed that the concerto final was not broadcast live. Knowing that it had been recorded a few weeks ago made me paranoid about accidentally reading something online that would give away who won - making me feel like Bob and Terry in that episode of 'The Likely Lads' where they are desperately trying to avoid finding out the result of a football match so they can watch the highlights later without knowing. The insights into each movement of the concertos provided by BBC National Orchestra of Wales conductor Ben Gernon were really interesting and helpful but inserting these video clips between the movements in the broadcast ruined the atmosphere of the live performance. I was surprised by the dropping of the tradition of a performance at the end of the concerto final by the winner of the previous BBC Young Musician competition and the disappearance of the Walter Todds Bursary, previously awarded to a performer or performers who show great promise but do not reach the Final. But these are minor quibbles: the TV coverage continues to be beautifully put-together, entertaining, serious and respectful. And all three 2024 finalists - Ryan Wang, Shlomi Shahaf, and Jacky Zhang - gave thrilling performances, with Ryan Wang an outstanding winner.

BBC Young Musician 2022

14 October 2022

One of the lesser-noticed impacts of the Covid-19 pandemic was how it broke my proud record of having reviewed here every one of the biennial BBC Young Musician competitions since 2006. The 2020 competition was interrupted by lockdown, with the Concerto Final eventually going ahead in May 2021. I did manage to watch it - and percussionist Fang Zhang was a worthy winner - but it took place while we were away on holiday and I wasn’t able to post my review. I am delighted to say that normal service has been resumed in 2022, and even more delighted to say that the television coverage of this year’s BBC Young Musician was the best I can remember. Wonderfully the BBC bowed to the inevitable and asked Jess Gillam (a finalist in 2016) to present the coverage, as a double-hander with the equally impressive Alexis Ffrench. And remarkably (and I like to think this must be in part a result of my moaning here since 2008) they have finally reinstated a final that features five full concertos - rather than cruelly depriving two of the five category winners from their moment on stage accompanied by an orchestra, as has happened since 2010. It was brilliant to watch the live broadcast, on Sunday evening, of five full back-to-back concertos - a thrilling, incredibly varied and fantastically moving concert. I was very smug at having correctly predicted all five finalists from watching their category finals (which moved me to tears several times). But I must admit I was completely wrong-footed by the decision to award the overall title of BBC Young Musician 2022 to the percussionist Jordan Ashman. He was brilliant, and gave a very impressive performance of the spectacular Percussion Concerto  by Jennifer Higdon, but I really thought the choice was going to be between two of the other finalists. Nevertheless the whole competition was really enjoyable and very fully and respectfully presented. Finally BBC Young Musician is once again as good as it used to be!

You can read all my previous posts about BBC Young Musician at: http://culturaldessert.blogspot.com/search/label/BBCYoungMusician

BBC Young Musician 2018

18 May 2018

2018 is the 40th anniversary of the BBC Young Musician competition, making me feel very old as I can remember the first one in 1978 (and most of the subsequent biennial competitions). I have written here about the past six finals (see: http://culturaldessert.blogspot.com/search/label/BBCYoungMusician) and I think the 2016 Concerto Final (reviewed here in May 2016) may have been the best ever. It was always going to be difficult for this year’s Concerto Final, at Symphony Hall in Birmingham last Sunday, to match the level of its predecessor but it did feature another astounding winner. Most of my writing about BBC Young Musician seems to relate to my own degree of success in predicting the winners. This time I must admit I initially misjudged the eventual winner Lauren Zhang. She didn’t even feature in my top three of the five competitors in the keyboards category final as I mistook her shyness and intensity for a lack of musical personality. By the time I had seen her perform again in the semi-final last Friday I realised my mistake and became convinced she would emerge as the overall winner of this year’s competition. Her performance in Sunday’s final of Prokofiev’s ‘Piano Concerto No 2’ was astounding: I think she could have won on the basis of the remarkable first movement cadenza alone. It was a good example of how the competition often seems to unearth someone really special. After a few years in the wilderness the BBC has now got its coverage of Young Musician just about perfect – restrained, respectful and very focussed on the music. So it was a real shame to end the final by pointing a microphone at Lauren Zhang at her moment of triumph to ask her “how do you feel?” – just don’t do that. But otherwise it was a lovely final with excellent performances by ‘cellist Maxim Calver and saxophone player Rob Burton before Lauren Zhang’s Prokofiev took us to a different level.

BBC Young Musician 2016

18 May 2016

This is the sixth time I have written here about the biennial BBC Young Musician competition – a competition I have followed avidly since it started in 1978. You can read all my previous posts at: http://culturaldessert.blogspot.com/search/label/BBCYoungMusician. Two years ago I proudly boasted that I had correctly managed to pick three of the five category winners while watching the category finals. This time I am even more smug, having correctly predicted all five – though I should acknowledge that if you watch the TV coverage very carefully you begin to pick up subtle clues from the cautiously non-committal comments of the presenters and judges after each performance. No such clues were necessary however to spot that, from his first appearance in the strings final, 'cellist Sheku Kanneh-Mason was clearly going to win the whole competition. Like another young 'cellist, Laura van der Heijden in 2012, there was something special about his performances – passionate, thoughtful, intelligent and incredibly mature for one so young. And his off-stage shyness, politeness and humility only made him an even more likeable winner. The 2016 BBC Young Musician competition felt like one of the best ever, with a concerto final at The Barbican in London that included a horn player for the first time in many years (Ben Goldscheider playing the 'Concerto No 2' by Richard Strauss) and a remarkably charismatic performance by the first saxophone player ever to reach the final, Jess Gillam from Ulverston in Cumbria (who played 'Where the Bee Dances' by Michael Nyman). But Sheku Kanneh-Mason's outstanding performance of the 'Concerto No 1' by Shostakovitch was a fitting climax to a wonderful competition.

BBC Young Musician 2014

19 May 2014

This is the fifth time I have written here about the biennial BBC Young Musician competition. Reading through my previous posts (you can read them all at: http://culturaldessert.blogspot.com/search/label/BBCYoungMusician) I think I have probably done enough moaning about the TV coverage. I have some sympathy for the points made in this article in The Independent: http://www.independent.co.uk/arts-entertainment/classical/features/bbc-young-musician-2014-forget-the-format-give-us-the-music-9364814.html but, apart from my ongoing sadness that we are no longer treated to five concerto performances in the final, I really enjoyed this year's competition. Possibly for the first time, I managed to watch every minute of the coverage on BBC Four (which is no mean feat if you want to be ready to watch the concerto final live!). And my record of spotting the winners is improving: this year I picked three of the five category winners, correctly predicted the three who would make it through to the final and identified the overall winner before the start of the semi-final. More importantly, the 2014 concerto final was the best I can remember. All three performances were worthy of winning the title and all were immensely enjoyable – showcasing three teenagers with a very special blend of technical virtuosity, personality, musicality and emotion. It's a cliché but it is incredibly difficult to compare Elliott Gaston-Ross's performance of the percussion concerto 'African Rise/Manhattan Rave' by Dave Heath, Sophie Westbrooke playing Gordon Jacob's 'Suite for Recorder and Strings' and Martin James Bartlett performing the 'Rhapsody on a Theme of Paganini' by Rachmaninov. But I think the young pianist was the correct winner – an astounding performer in an outstanding concert.

BBC Young Musician 2012

16 May 2012

I have written extensively here before about the BBC Young Musician competition (in May 2006, May 2008 and May 2010) and I’m pleased to report that, compared to the dark days of 2008, the BBC coverage of the 2012 finals continued the return to a sense of dignity that I observed here in 2010. The TV coverage of BBC Young Musician 2012 was slick and modern but also serious and respectful. It’s just really sad only to see three concerto finalists rather than all five category winners getting the chance to perform at the Sage, Gateshead, with the Northern Sinfonia. Once again this year there was no brass concerto in the final concert. Apart from this, however, 2012 was a vintage year for the competition. The field seemed stronger than I can remember it and amazingly, after predicting the winner for the very first time in 2010, this year I knew Laura van der Heijden was going to win as soon as I saw her performance in the Strings Final. She was clearly something special and her performance of the Walton ‘Cello Concerto on Sunday was mesmerising. It is hard to believe she has only just turned 15. So well done Laura and well done BBC but how disgraceful that none of the national newspapers reported the result of BBC Young Musician 2012, see: http://www.artsjournal.com/slippeddisc/2012/05/not-one-uk-paper-reports-bbc-young-musician-result.html.

BBC Young Musician 2010

21 May 2010

I said here in May 2006 that "I love the BBC Young Musician of the Year competition" but in May 2008 I felt it was a major disappointment “that the impact of this landmark musical event should be so watered down in its thirtieth anniversary year”. So I approached the BBC Young Musician 2010 with some nervousness to see whether full coverage of the competition had been restored after the debacle of 2008. Overall I was pleased and greatly relieved: the extensive coverage of the five category finals on BBC4 showed plenty of the actual performances, mostly uninterrupted, and the concerto final was broadcast live and in full. But clearly the wonderfully indulgent concert of five concertos is something that no longer warrants clearing the schedules, and the price of live classical music on BBC2 was a pruning of the format to only allow for three finalists. This meant the introduction of a semi-final in which the five category winners reprised their solo recitals in order for three to be chosen to perform concertos with the BBC National Orchestra of Wales. I really felt for the two unsuccessful semi-finalists, who in any of the previous competitions would have taken their place on the final stage with the orchestra. It was very disappointing that, for the first time in 32 years, the final didn’t include a brass concerto. Nevertheless it was a wonderful concerto final with three fine performances and a clear and worthy winner. Regular readers will be amazed to learn that, for the first time in the history of the BBC Young Musician competition, I correctly predicted the winner! (Though I was only picking from three, rather than five contenders of course.) And all the broadcast performances were beautifully presented and excellently filmed – the BBC really does the visual presentation of classical music brilliantly well. In 2010 the BBC Young Musician competition regained a sense of dignity and I suspect it will long be remembered for the truly wonderful, astounding performance of Saint-Saëns' Piano Concerto No. 2 by the 16-year-old winner Lara Ömeroğlu. See for yourself at http://www.bbc.co.uk/programmes/b00s3fk5

BBC Young Musician of the Year 2008

13 May 2008

As I said here in May 2006 "I love the BBC Young Musician of the Year competition" so it was eager anticipation that I sat down to watch the broadcast of this year's concerto final. I don't think I would go as far as Susan Tomes who says on the Guardian website "the BBC ruined the Young Musician of the Year" but it was a major disappointment not to be able to watch the five concerto performances in full. This year the concertos were performed un-broadcast on Saturday (though later available on Radio 3 and can now be watched in their entirety at www.bbc.co.uk/youngmusician) and the finalists then returned on Sunday to each play an unaccompanied piece followed by a movement from their concerto. Apart from depriving us of the luxury of five full back-to-back concertos, it also reduced the fun of trying to guess the judges' decision as they had seen more of the finalists than we had. Nevertheless I maintained my record of failing to pick the winner. The performance by twelve-year-old trombonist, Peter Moore (the youngest ever winner) was actually the one I enjoyed the most but I was convinced he wouldn't be the judges' choice. I had narrowed it down to two - neither of whom won! As usual I enjoyed discovering some fantastic pieces of music. I really liked the Tomasi Trombone Concerto and the Flute Concerto by Ibert - neither of which I had heard before - and it was wonderful to hear the Rachmaninov 'Rhapsody on a Theme of Paganini'. Do watch the full performances online while you can but don't bother with the 'Grand Final' programme. How sad that the impact of this landmark musical event should be so watered down in its thirtieth anniversary year - I do hope we can return to a full live broadcast of the concert in two years' time.

BBC Young Musician of the Year

26 May 2006

I love the BBC Young Musician of the Year competition. I think it benefits from only taking place (despite the name) every two years and I have followed it closely from the first competition in 1978. In the early years all the rounds were held at the Royal Northern College of Music in Manchester. Somewhere in the vaults of the BBC archives there is a really good close-up of me and my brother concentrating studiously in the audience at the Brass Semi-Final in 1980. (No I wasn’t taking part myself – you had to have Grade 8 with distinction just to enter the qualifying rounds!)

My memories of the concerto finals are particularly vivid: for me the Rachmaninov second piano concerto will always have dual connotations – not just Brief Encounter but also the news of the start of military action in the Falklands appearing on the screen during Anna Markland’s title-winning performance in 1982. And few who saw it would forget the moment when Guy Johnston broke a string in the 2000 final at the start of the Shostakovich first ‘cello concerto and very coolly stood up, walked off the stage and returned a few moments later to restart the piece – and win the competition.

There’s also something wonderfully indulgent about a concert of five concertos – and it’s always a good opportunity to hear some interesting and unusual repertoire. Even though the commentators were a bit sniffy about it, I was particularly taken with the trumpet concerto by Henri Tomasi played by Huw Morgan at this year’s final on Saturday.

I maintained my record of incorrectly predicting the winner of every Young Musician final but I thought Mark Simpson was a worthy winner – it’s obviously good to see a Simpson winning! and he won playing the Nielsen clarinet concerto – one of my favourite composers. If you missed it you can see Mark’s winning performance at http://www.bbc.co.uk/bbctwo/ Roll on the 2008 competition …