Phenomenal Talent

Watching the final of the BBC Young Musician of the Year concert last night was wonderfully heartening. Whatever else is wrong with the world – and with music education – somehow these phenomenally talented youngsters keep emerging. The three finalists were whittled down from an original pool of several hundred video applications and forty auditionees, and, to judge by those who made it to the later stages, standards must have been very high indeed. For those who didn't see the final, the three contenders were the first-ever all-female line-up – an 18-year-old saxophonist, a 17-year-old recorder player, and an 18-year-old violinist. The saxophonist and the recorder player – who worked with six instruments on stage, including a gigantic contra-bass – performed contemporary works, while the violinist opted for Tchaikovsky's great concerto, which she played as if she had inhabited the piece for decades. A slight figure who looks even younger than her years, she played with effortless…