When growing up in the Nineties, I always used to look forward to the grand final of BBC Young Musician - because you would always be guaranteed a percussionist performing with a full orchestra. It was a way of sneaking in contemporary repertoire - sometimes it would work, sometimes it wouldn't. And that was the joy of it.
It was a huge injustice in 2012 that Hyun-Gi Lee was eliminated (as well as the brass category winner Alexander Kelly). In fact there is no purpose in having the semi-final stage at all as it is currently organised. If the aim is to see whether performers can cope with the demands of playing with an orchestra, let them play a movement from a concerto with an orchestra. It would have been far better, though, to have all five category winners performing a concerto of their choice - just as it was in the past. Otherwise it gives the general public a limited vision of what 'classical' music is.
Percussionists have to be resourceful and there were (mostly) successful arrangements of Baroque and Romantic repertoire. Best of all was Stefan Beckett's arrangement of Rachmaninov's Prelude in C# Minor. It gave him the chance to let the notes breathe and to use rubato effectively.
It was Matthew Farthing's misfortune to have his pieces labelled 'bold' by Milos Karadaglic - the euphemism of choice for 'unpopular'. His choice of pieces may not have been the most immediately ingratiating for an audience but they were the most unapologetic for the rebarbative nature of percussion. What the pieces may have lacked in lyricism they made up for in terms of rhythm, timbre and resonance. Cashian's Tag starts off with a metallic rumble on a snare drum seeming to rise up from the depths before entering into a groove punctuated by a few notes played on prayer bowls. There is no denying the minimalist influence in Psappha's Spike. However there is a build up of tension and moments of release that make this a compelling piece to listen to. Probably what the judges were looking for were some compensatory moments of melody.
There was the occasional world premiere with Dani Howard's shimmering Mind Games beautifully played by Tom Highnam. As much as BBC Young Musician is a platform for performers, it should also offer young composers the broadest possible audience. One can always expect novel and perhaps unintended timbres. When Jess Wood played Gerassimez's Asventuras it involved the beat of drum sticks interspersed with the tapping and sliding of the hands on the drum skin. This was tabla playing but not as we know it.
All of the players were hugely talented, showed great versatility and were highly musical. However the night belonged to Elliott Gaston-Ross. What he achieved in all his performances was an intuitive understanding of the requirements of each piece. In Novotney's Minute of News he gave a shape to what is essentially a snare-drum curtain raiser. He knows how to play quietly and in Mugasatsu's Land Gaston-Ross gave a performance at times that was not just mellow but consoling and genuinely affecting.
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