As presenter Clemency Burton-Hill said "Recorder players of the world, rejoice!"
The final of the Woodwind category of the BBC Young Musician 2012 took place on Friday last at the Royal Welsh College of Music and Drama in Cardiff. The lineup of five different instruments included clarinet (Jordan Black), flute (Luke O'Toole), saxophone (Lucinda Dunne), bassoon (Charlotte Cox) and recorder (Charlotte Barbour-Condini). The humble recorder, still trying hard to be recognised as the 'proper instrument' that it is, had only appeared three times in the 34 years of the competition, and had never won before. The youngest competitor of her category, 15-year-old Barbour-Condini (who also plays piano and violin), was a more than worthy ambassador for the expressive qualities and musical potential of the recorder. She played a captivating Medieval trotto with percussion, as well as the iconic Castello sonata and a contemporary piece by Hans Martin Linde, each with a different instrument, and delivered each piece with great musicality and poise.
The adjudicating panel – Gareth Jones and two former winners, clarinetist Emma Johnson and flutist Juliette Bausor – all agreed in how Barbour-Condini hold the audience's attention from the very first note to the last, in what is arguably rather obscure repertoire. There is no specific role for the recorder in the Classical or Romantic cannon, but this programme showed the tremendous versatility of this instrument: from Medieval dance music to the technical demands and outlandish sonorities of the contemporary repertoire.
As many of my students are aware, I spent eight years as a recorder and early wind instruments player with the Camerata de Caracas, and miss no opportunity to do my bit and introduce to my students the fantastic music written for the recorder.
The Woodwind final is available on iPlayer. Barbour-Condini will be playing again in the semi-final alongside the winners of the other four categories, at 6pm Sat 12 May on BBC Two, for a place in the final which is at 6pm Sun 13 May on BBC Two.
