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S<\/span>chools were closed for Easter and family television shows were in high demand. The equation certainly favoured the first BBC Young Musician of the Year<\/strong><\/a>, which came to the small screen in 1978 and instantly hooked an audience of millions. \u2018I think you\u2019re going to be startled by the quality of the musical talent that\u2019s revealed,\u2019 suggested the competition\u2019s presenter and co-founder. Humphrey Burton\u2019s prediction hit the bull\u2019s-eye dead centre. <\/span><\/p>\n I remember watching each of the instrument category finals and the concerto finale with chums on a schools orchestra course. We gathered round the box, jeered when we felt the jury had picked the wrong winner and suspended green-eyed envy to cheer those outrageous talents who contested the ultimate prize. Here was a first in television history: a programme that inspired instrument-learning school kids to practise their scales and arpeggios.<\/span><\/p>\n More than three decades after its launch, BBC Young Musician of the Year<\/strong><\/a> stands as a national institution. Much has changed since the first competition, from frocks, suits and hairdos to the style of television presentation. But its core business \u2013 that of discovering excellent young artists and encouraging others to follow their lead \u2013has held constant. Everyone will have favourite memories of the programme from the past 30-plus years, so we asked Humphrey Burton for his top ten moments from the competition. What was it about these performances that turned them into the stuff of Young Musician legend?<\/span><\/p>\n Find out more about BBC Young Musician here<\/strong><\/a>.<\/em><\/p>\n Caroline Dale is fondly remembered as the competition\u2019s first string category winner. A cellist whose subsequent career included solo cello soundtrack credits for Truly, Madly, Deeply<\/i> and backing band dates with Oasis, flew the flag for her native Middlesbrough in the 1978 final with an impassioned reading of part of Elgar\u2019s Cello Concerto. <\/span><\/p>\n \u2018She was only 13 at the time of the final,\u2019 recalls Burton. \u2018Her teacher thought it would be too arduous for her to play all three movements so she only played two. Had she performed the whole thing, I believe she would have won the title. That said, just consider the quality of the pianists in that opening year. Stephen Hough, Paul Coker and Barry Douglas were the incredible talents to be revealed on one evening!\u2019<\/span><\/p>\n It would be hard to imagine a stronger line-up of finalists for the first BBC Young Musician of the Year<\/strong><\/a>. Clarinettist Michael Collins and 17-year-old trombonist Michael Hext joined Stephen Hough and Caroline Dale for the competition\u2019s televised showdown, with piano lion Stephen Hough the favourite. \u2018Winning the whole thing was a huge shock!\u2019 Hext remembers. \u2018I was happy to win the brass category and thought it was the most I could expect given the quality of the other finalists. I was very pleased to have gone that far.\u2019<\/span><\/p>\n After winning that inaugural contest, Hext progressed through college to become principal trombone with the London Philharmonic<\/strong><\/a> and Royal Opera House orchestras. \u2018Many people who perhaps knew little about classical music watched and enjoyed the programme,\u2019 he notes. \u2018It was fantastic to be recognised in the street. I loved the fame while it lasted!\u2019<\/span><\/p>\n Read all Stephen Hough reviews<\/strong><\/a><\/p>\n A nation held its breath when darkness descended on Naomi Atherton during the 1984 Young Musician brass final. \u2018The adjudicators mentioned it, but I didn\u2019t think it was that dramatic. I could still see my music and that was all I needed! Even Bernhard Henrik Crusell\u2019s most fervent admirers would agree that his music had never moved a massive audience, measurable in millions, before Emma Johnson\u2019s Young Musician victory. The 18-year-old from Orpington seized the 1984 crown with a barnstorming performance of the Scandinavian composer\u2019s Clarinet Concerto No. 2 in F minor, the technical command and sheer passion of her performance winning the hearts of viewers throughout the land.<\/span><\/p>\n \u2018It\u2019s no good being able to play wonderfully in your bedroom and not on stage,\u2019 Johnson reflects. \u2018BBC Young Musician of the Year<\/strong><\/a> gave me so much invaluable performing experience at just the right time. That helped me forge a path as a soloist rather than as an orchestral player, a career virtually unknown to clarinettists when I entered the competition. It was a great boon for a young musician to be offered so many chances to perform concertos and solo works.\u2019 <\/span><\/p>\n David Pyatt, the London Symphony Orchestra<\/strong><\/a>\u2019s co-principal horn, laughs at the idea that he\u2019d \u2018made it\u2019 after becoming 1988 BBC Young Musician of the Year<\/strong><\/a>. He says he was too busy with GCSE coursework at Watford Grammar School to be spoiled by overnight success. \u2018I was young enough for it not to make a big difference,\u2019 he explains. \u2018I think my mates were quite impressed, but I still had to get on with normal lessons the day after the final.\u2019<\/span><\/p>\n Pyatt\u2019s Young Musician performance of Richard Strauss\u2019s Second Horn Concerto, astonishingly mature and eloquent for a Freddy Kempf entered the 1992 Young Musician final as seasoned soloist and proven competition winner. His concerto career had begun six years earlier when he performed Mozart\u2019s Piano Concerto<\/strong><\/a> in A major K414 with the Royal Philharmonic Orchestra and gathered momentum in 1987 after he triumphed in the first National Mozart Competition. The 14-year-old became the Young Musician\u2019s youngest winner, which stood until violinist Jennifer Pike<\/strong><\/a>\u2019s victory a decade later. <\/span><\/p>\n \u2018Freddy Kempf was unmissable,\u2019 recalls Humphrey Burton. \u2018His mercurial performance of Rachmaninov\u2019s Rhapsody on a Theme of Paganini<\/i> is still talked about when we Young Musician oldies chew the fat about the good old days.\u2019 The 1992 final is less fondly remembered for the concert clothes created for contestants as part of a parallel Lloyds Bank competition for young fashion designers: Kempf\u2019s pin-striped outfit does Although Natalie Clein made history as the first Brit to win the Eurovision Competition for Young Musicians in 1994, she says that victory a few months earlier in the BBC Young Musician of the Year competition caused \u2018much more fuss\u2019. Her intense interpretation of Elgar\u2019s Cello Concerto<\/strong><\/a> certainly left an indelible impression on Young Musician connoisseurs, her performance still ranking among the finest in the competition\u2019s history.<\/span><\/p>\n We named the best recordings of Elgar\u2019s Cello Concerto here<\/strong><\/a>.<\/em><\/p>\n \u2018I knew when I won that I had a lot more work to do,\u2019 she notes. Studies at the Royal College of Music and with Heinrich Schiff helped shape her subsequent artistic development. \u2018In 1994, I was just on the cusp of the commercialism that has crept into classical music since. I think it would be much harder now for a 16- or 17-year-old to turn down tempting work offers to continue studying. Ultimately, though, the joy comes from the music and the playing, not from fame or celebrity.\u2019<\/span><\/p>\n One reviewer suggested that Adrian Spillett \u2018rampaged around the stage like a Tasmanian Devil\u2019 on his way to the 1998 Young Musician title. The metaphor matched the force of the percussionist\u2019s performance but said nothing for its laser-like precision, finesse and expressive range. Spillett navigated his way through Joseph Schwanter\u2019s Percussion Concerto, written a few years earlier for the New York Philharmonic\u2019s 150th anniversary. His supercharged interpretation beat off stiff competition from trumpeter Alison Balsom<\/strong><\/a> and flautist Katherine Bryan<\/strong><\/a>, who\u00a0BBC Music Magazine<\/em> named as one of the best flautists<\/strong><\/a>.<\/span><\/p>\nCaroline Dale<\/span> cello, 1978<\/i><\/span><\/h2>\n
2. Michael Hext<\/span> trombone, 1978<\/i><\/span><\/h2>\n
3. Naomi Atherton<\/span> horn, 1984<\/i><\/span><\/h2>\n
4. Emma Johnson<\/span> clarinet, 1984<\/i><\/span><\/h2>\n
5. David Pyatt<\/span>\u00a0<\/span><\/span>horn, 1988<\/i><\/span><\/h2>\n
6. Freddy Kempf<\/span> piano, 1992<\/i><\/span><\/h2>\n
7. Natalie Clein<\/span>\u00a0<\/span><\/span>cello, 1994<\/i><\/span><\/h2>\n
8. Adrian Spillett<\/span> percussion, 1998<\/i><\/span><\/h2>\n