I had been looking forward to the young musician of the year competition, which began last night on BBC4 with the woodwind 'category final'.
Yet the four talented young players were done a great disservice by the format of the programme. Forty-five minutes of the one-hour programme were devoted to personality portraits of the young musicians, using the recipe we've grown used to in programmes like Pop Idol. They were shown clothes shopping, bathing the dog, attending parties and contacting one another on Facebook, which was mentioned so often that it might almost have been a programme sponsor.
In the last quarter of an hour, we got to hear some playing. I mean "some", because no sooner had we been allowed to hear a few bars than the judges' voices were superimposed on the music, telling us their views. Not a single piece was heard uninterrupted. It was clear that an editorial decision had been made to focus on human interest rather than music.
They were all delightful people but in this kind of complex and intense music-making, it's well known that there is often a disjunction between musicians' offstage persona and their communicative ability onstage. No matter how normal, cool or good-looking they may be, there is no direct or measurable correlation with their talent.
Someone at BBC4 has clearly decided that the "way in" to classical music is to make people realise that musicians are ordinary people with computers, pets and fashion headaches. A little of this is enjoyable but it is absolutely not the same as letting us experience the force of their musical talent. It's a disgrace that a format like this was allowed through all the planning stages and onto our screens. Is it to be repeated the whole week long with all the other category finals?
It's as if, on the previous evening, the snooker final had focused on Ronnie O'Sullivan's home life and leisure activities for 75 per cent of the programme and had then shown us a few brilliant shots at the snooker table by way of "coverage of the final". The audience wouldn't stand for it and they shouldn't in young musician of the year either.
