Music Man

The standard of musicianship in the BBC's "Young Musician of the Year" was as high as ever. I wish I could say the same about the standard of the programming. Firstly, the semi-finals, as it were, were put out on BBC4, which is unavailable to those who have not yet gone digital. And then the whole thing has been cursed with this modern trend for "personalisation" - where the people become more important than the product. We learned an awful lot about the contestants, their families and friends, their hobbies and so forth, but heard precious little of their abilities on their instruments. Even the final was "bitty". In the past the BBC have been content to let the music speak for itself - can we go back to that please?