BBC Four - Young Musician - Woodwind
This is always a competition worth watching. Started as a reaction to the complete absence of UK entries to the Leeds Piano Competition 30 years ago, Young Musician of the Year has produced a stream of excellent first rate players in its time. Every night this week, BBC Four is showcasing the instrumental finals, and tonight it was the woodwind. Four really talented musicians competing for a place in the grand final on May 11th.
But someone should remind BBC Four that this is about performances. What we got tonight was 45 minutes of biographies, 10 minutes of performance, and 5 of judging. The biography parts included footage of the contestants writing to eachother on their facebook wall pages - hardly groundbreaking stuff, and about as interesting as watching paint dry.
The 10 minutes of performance were interspersed with judges comments. It would have been better for BBC Four to give some credit to the viewer - give us a chance to make up our own minds about what we saw, and not be spoon-fed.
BBC Four will say that you can see everything on the internet, but that is hardly the point for a TV program. It is a shame to dumb down the coverage of Young Musician, because the talented players put so much serious work into their playing.
I am not alone in this view. Put on your hard hats and visit this Radio 3 messageboard.
May 10, 2008 at 12:22 am
BBC Official Response is simply not adequate. They say ………
Thank you for your recent e-mail.
The BBC knows it has a loyal and committed classical music audience, but if this genre is to thrive and grow we also need to encourage and attract a new and wider audience. To help achieve this, we try new production techniques and presentation styles while also have ensuring that our content is accessible across many different platforms.
The week-long BBC Four television series was designed as an introduction to the competition. Whilst we recognise that the music remains at the heart of the competition, alongside the performances and the competitors’ obvious passion and commitment to music, we felt it equally important to profile the people involved and explore their backgrounds and interests.
Having given audiences the opportunity to get to know the characters involved, the two-hour Grand Final of the BBC Young Musician of the Year 2008 on BBC Two on the evening of Sunday 11 May (to be re-broadcast on BBC Radio 3 on the evening of Monday 12 May) will then focus completely on the five performances from the finalists who will perform with a full concert orchestra in front of the judging panel at the Wales Millennium Centre.
This year’s BBC Young Musician of the Year competition will feature more than eight hours of television programming, over four hours on radio and nearly eight hours of music and performance online. We believe our extensive coverage of and commitment to the competition makes for a real celebration of classical music and young, British talent.
And to mark the competition’s 30th anniversary this year, we have special programmes including “Young Musicians Grown Old - BBC Young Musician at 30″ where 2006 winner Mark Simpson meets previous winners, and “BBC Young Musician of the Year - 30 Years” in which Gethin Jones examines the history of the biennial contest that began in 1978.
Thank you again for taking the time to contact the BBC.
Regards
BBC Complaints