Strings Final BBC Young Musician

The winner of the BBC Young Musician 2012 Brass Category Final is

Alexander Kelly.

Last week, we saw 16-year-old bass trombonist Alex Kelly

impress the judges with his rich sound and musicality,

to win the brass category title and a place in the semi-final.

He joins 15-year-old pianist Yuanfan Yang,

whose dazzling playing won him the keyboard prize.

Tonight, the focus is on strings,

as three violinists and two cellists compete

in the category finals of BBC Young Musician 2012.

17 young performers have been named BBC Young Musician

since it was launched back in 1978 - seven of them strings players,

making this historically the strongest category.

They include cellist Natalie Clein who triumphed in 1994.

Six years later, it was the turn of fellow cellist Guy Johnston.

In 2002, violin prodigy Jennifer Pike took the title, aged just 12.

And in 2004, another violinist Nicola Benedetti lifted the trophy.

This year, the standard is incredibly high again,

and tonight's final promises to be a little bit special.

But remember, it's not just the strings title that's at stake.

There's also that all-important spot in the semi-final.

For those who make it through, it's a big step towards the main prize.

Whoever wins this competition is suddenly presented

with a lot of engagements.

I feel very grateful to the competition for really helping

to launch a very exciting career.

We have to get every note to the highest possible standard you can,

and that, of course, develops you as a musician.

It's hard work, but it's a labour of love.

I'm sure you will not have a single performer here

who doesn't absolutely love what they do.

It's just a wonderful, wonderful thing.

I wouldn't be here right now if I hadn't won it. It's amazing.

In a short while, we'll see the first of our strings finalists

perform on this very stage,

here in the Royal Welsh College of Music and Drama's Dora Stoutzker Hall.

It's not only our expert jury they will have to convince,

they'll also have to deal with the pressures of the TV cameras -

tonight, they're literally in the spotlight.

But this is just the latest step in a journey that began back in October.

Here's a reminder of the competition's structure

and how our five strings finalists made it this far.

Just over four months ago, a flood of young hopefuls arrived

for auditions at the Royal College of Music in London.

These 122 musicians had been shortlisted

from over 450 original applicants.

After playing their hearts out to an expert panel,

just 25 were chosen to go through to the televised stage -

five from each instrumental category.

The winners of each category will take their place

in the semi-final

and go head-to-head for just three places in the final

of BBC Young Musician 2012.

The five string players getting ready to compete for the category title -

and that all important place in the semi-final - are...

violinist Julia Hwang, aged 16,

from Bristol...

When I first entered this competition,

my original aim was to just get through the first round,

and whatever the outcome, I'm very happy that I've come this far.

..17-year-old cellist Joel Sandelson,

from London...

It's a competition I've really grown up with.

I've watched it since I was very young.

I remember thinking, "I'm never going to make it."

So it's a really exciting opportunity.

..Juliette Roos, a 16-year-old violinist from Surrey...

My dream is to become a solo violinist, as I love it so much.

I love playing.

..cellist Laura van der Heijden, from West Sussex, who, at 14,

is the youngest performer still in the competition...

I can't really describe how I feel about being here.

It still doesn't feel real, although it's the day today.

I have already gained so much out of the previous rounds

and I am really very, very lucky to be here.

..and finally violinist Cristian Grajner-De Sa, 17,

from Bedfordshire...

When I got the news that I was going to come down here,

I was over the moon, so I think it's a real life-changer,

this competition, something that'll be great for any of us to win.

Now, I might be a bit biased,

but as a violinist,

I'm particularly excited about this final.

The word on the street is that we're in for a real treat,

and it's going to be close.

So for three important people, there's a tough night of decision-making ahead.

I'm glad I'm not in their shoes!

They are...

Lesley Hatfield, a respected solo violinist

and leader of the BBC National Orchestra of Wales...

I shall be looking for somebody who has great musical maturity,

somebody who can really inject a bit of magic into the performance,

that can really touch the audience.

..Rosie Biss, a soloist and chamber musician,

she's principal cellist with the orchestra of the Welsh National Opera...

What I'm really looking for tonight is someone who can really speak

as an artist but who shows me their craft as well,

someone who had the technique to back up their musical ideas

and really speaks to the audience.

..and our general adjudicator Gareth Jones,

conductor and founder of Sinfonia Cymru.

We will be looking for as balanced a programme as possible,

demonstrating that, through the technique that you have,

you are able

to encompass music of different periods and different characters.

Well, preparations are over. There's a real sense of anticipation building in the hall.

Our five strings finalists are waiting nervously backstage.

And first on, it's 16-year-old violinist Julia Hwang.

Julia Hwang is no stranger to appearing on television.

Last year, she was invited to perform

for the BBC Four documentary on The Lark Ascending.

She plays regularly in public and has made two CDs.

I recorded the first CD when I was 11, and the second CD,

called My Recital, was recorded when I was 12.

And that was all recorded in one day, which was quite tiring!

Julia is a pupil at Clifton College in Bristol.

It was here, aged 7, that she first began to play.

My teacher said, "Why don't you start an instrument?"

So I said, "Oh, OK. I'll have a go at the violin."

And it kind of started from there on.

She's currently studying for her GCSEs.

It can get a bit hard,

trying to juggle the music and the academic commitments,

but my teachers and all my friends are so supportive of me.

And my friends will help me by getting the worksheets

that I may have missed, and so on.

Somewhere between her musical and academic life,

Julia manages to keep up other interests.

As well as being an avid reader, she's also a keen artist.

I also love drawing everything,

so it may range from my friends' portraits

to a piano to a hand to manga,

which is a Japanese style of drawing.

I do enjoy it, because you can express so much with manga,

and I have quite a lot of pictures I stick up on my wall.

In addition to doing hours of practice,

Julia rehearses several times a week with her accompanist,

music teacher James Drinkwater.

It's a fascinating relationship working with Julia,

because she demands a sort of zero tolerance approach to rehearsals,

which makes for a really intense rehearsal process

but very productive.

This gets quieter here.

I think the way also she speaks so maturely about the music

means you get a real sense of her interpretation

being out of a deep understanding of the music.

Julia is playing a rare 17th-century violin

that has been lent to her by a local well-wisher.

We went to hear a concert in Clifton College Chapel,

and Julia was playing, aged 9,

on a three-quarter-size violin, which wasn't nearly good enough

for her playing.

Hello, Julia! Come on in.

'My wife and I immediately thought why don't we ask her

'if she'd like to use our violin, which is a special violin.'

The violin is thought to have been made around 1698.

It's one of just a few made by Peter Guarneri of Mantua.

It has an incredibly warm sound, and when I play on the bass strings,

it really sings to the people.

I'd like to think that when I play it well,

it can touch people's hearts.

It's a loan that she repays with interest

with a performance at a local senior citizens' club.

Every Sunday morning at 6am, Julia travels from Bristol to the Royal College of Music in London

for a four-hour lesson with her teacher,

Professor Rashkovsky.

She is a real performer.

Not only does she like to perform, but she likes to affect the listeners

and to connect to the audience.

Her musicality is developing with time and age.

She became more mature.

I see a very promising future here.

APPLAUSE

Here is Julia to open this strings category final.

She begins her bid for the title with a piece

by the 20th-century Polish composer, Lutoslawski.

It's titled Subito.

Subito means, literally, suddenness.

I chose the piece because of the varied dynamics,

which vary from forte to piano,

and it's a bit like cat chasing mouse, so it's very exciting to play.

APPLAUSE

To follow the cat and mouse of Lutoslawski,

Julia is going to play a piece by the Czech composer Josef Suk,

Pisen Lasky, which means love song.

The Pisen Lasky is an incredibly delicate piece

and requires a lot of different colours from the violin,

which is a challenge but is also exhilarating

when I get the different vibratos and tones from my instrument.

I think Julia has got the strings final off to a cracking start.

The Lutoslawski is a really difficult piece.

Interesting opener. Quite nerve-racking, I'd have thought.

Not necessarily the most audience-pleasing either,

but she really held it fantastically well.

Then to go into that beautiful Suk piece,

an arrangement for the violin, means Love Song,

and she infused it with a huge amount of expressiveness and soul.

So far, she's shown off that she's got the technical firework capacity,

that she's got emotional expressiveness as well.

To finish, Julia has chosen a fiendishly difficult set of variations

on tunes from Rossini's opera, The Barber Of Seville.

It's such a technical piece,

but it's so fun when you've mastered the technicality

that you can put in the different nuances and the glissandos,

which adds the humour to the already fun and exciting operatic piece.

APPLAUSE

Well, I enjoyed Julia's performance. Sounds like the audience did too.

Let's see what the judges thought.

Her performance was very compelling

and very brilliant and very enjoyable.

She obviously loves playing the violin.

Did you feel that energy in that room?

Certainly the audience love your playing.

It was a very warm audience, which really helped

settle the nerves.

I was able to get controlled and yet play with such passion.

Very exciting, but I would have loved to hear a softer side, longer phrases.

It was dispatched with great security and aplomb

and very strong communication with the audience.

I really loved the whole experience.

-Do you feel like you want to go back up there and do it all again?

-Yes.

We'll keep our fingers crossed. Very best of luck. Congratulations.

A great start to this strings category final.

Next to face the jury is cellist Joel Sandelson.

APPLAUSE

Fencing is one of a handful of hobbies that Joel pursues when he's not playing the cello.

I like fencing, because it's not a huge amount of exercise

and it's one of the few sports I don't have to worry about injuring my hands.

BLADES CLANG

Joel is in his last year at St Paul's School for Boys in London.

He's doing A Levels in music, English literature and French.

HE SPEAKS FRENCH

The big issue has been how to reconcile his academic studies

with his cello practice.

I'm the first one to get to school in the morning. I get here an hour before school starts.

I do an hour then.

By now, I have quite a few free periods,

so I get another hour or two from there,

then in lunch break.

After school, I stay for however much longer I have to

until I've done the job.

It usually works out about four hours a day.

I've always wanted to be a soloist.

I've always wanted to be a cellist.

I can't remember a time when I didn't.

When he wants to take a break, Joel heads to the senior common room.

The thing I find surprising about Joel

is his ability to turn off that side of his life.

He's just a great mate.

He's also got one of the best senses of humour.

He's probably the funniest of my friends.

If you ever have a conversation with Joel,

you know it's going be either an enlightening conversation

about something really deep

or it's just going to be a laugh.

I occupy a slightly strange position in my year.

I'll say in lunchtime I'm going off to practise,

and they'll say, "Haven't you done enough practice...for your life?

"Don't you know how to play the cello yet?"

School over, it's back to the family home and yet more practice.

From the moment he started learning the cello at the age of five,

it's been the main focus of his life.

He's been a very determined musician

with a great ambition.

Joel practises a lot at home.

I've got used to it now. It's just like background music

whenever he's here.

But, you know, at least it's nice music!

Given that he's a teenager, we could have had a lot worse.

Yeah, exactly.

Time to find out if all those hours of practice have paid off.

Joel's made a bold choice to open with -

opting for restraint over showy virtuosity.

I chose Brahms - E Minor Cello Sonata, the first movement,

because it's so emotionally sincere,

and there's so much to communicate to an audience

and such a big range of colours in cello playing that you can get across,

and so it's nice to get away from pure virtuosity for once piece.

The thing that really strikes me about Joel

is he's incredibly musical,

and that really came through in his Brahms.

Despite the fact that he's playing with that music which is wonderful,

he seems to me slightly less engaged with the audience and therefore the judges

than perhaps the judges will want him to be.

But it's a fantastic performance,

and, as I say, he's really impressed me so far with his musicality.

He's just getting some absolutely luscious sound out of that cello.

APPLAUSE

17-year-old Joel Sandelson with an impressive performance

of that challenging piece by the contemporary Polish composer

Krzysztof Penderecki.

In his 20-minute programme,

he also played Spinning Song by David Popper.

Fantastic playing, beautiful programme,

very brave start with the Brahms.

It's incredibly difficult to go out and start so gently and quietly.

I would like maybe the piece to then open out a little more after that,

but it kind of stayed a little, for me, slightly cocooned.

Any hairy moments or did it all go to plan?

No, it all went OK, yeah.

Were you thinking about the judges?

I was trying not to. I was trying to just play to the audience,

but when they're on a panel right in front of you, lit up,

it's a bit difficult.

There were some really beautiful moments,

but there were times when I was just lacking intensity

towards the ends of the phrases sometimes.

We've heard from two of our fantastic strings players.

Still to come, 17-year-old violinist Cristian Grajner-De Sa,

as well as the youngest finalist left in this year's competition,

14-year-old cellist Laura van der Heijden.

But first, 16-year-old violinist Juliette Roos.

Juliette is by no means the only talented musician in her family.

My sister is a violinist. Her name is Tanya,

and she is a year and a half younger than me.

So how about for that second time we do it not as loud,

because we still have the fortissimo later and it's still in piano?

Maybe a bit more legato too. To make it richer.

Us both wanting to go into the same field is a negative

and also a positive at the same time,

but we learn a lot from each other

and we really mean a lot to each other.

Juliette was always very interested in sound,

and you could tell that from a very early age.

I remember my early memories of her just tinkling on the piano,

barely able to reach,

but, yeah, that's how she started.

Another notable musician in the family is Juliette's grandmother,

concert violinist Lydia Mordkovitch.

When I was five, I went to see my grandma do a concert

and I really enjoyed it and I asked my mum if I could play,

so she let me.

When she was five, we decided to start.

Today both Juliette and her sister

are pupils at the Yehudi Menuhin school in Surrey.

Yehudi Menuhin's philosophy

was that this was a school for children

who don't fit into mainstream education.

That's because they have a passion for music making

and they're not necessarily understood if they're at a traditional mainstream school.

I'm doing my ASs right now. So, I'm doing English, Music and History.

In essence, they cover the same academic work

they would cover at any other school in half of the time.

So half of the day is spent on academic activity

and the other half on musical activity.

Musical activity, which includes chamber music sessions,

orchestral playing and, you've guessed it...

..hours of solo practice.

We have practice time allocated, but it's not quite enough,

and my ideal is to do about five or six hours a day.

In my free time, I like to relax a lot, because I'm always busy,

so I talk to my friends a lot, sit around having coffee

and just relaxing

and watch TV and listen to music together.

So that's usually what I do.

As a further break from music and study,

Juliette has got a part in the school play.

Minnies. Enormous ones. About 20. Three bang in the trench.

They're doing Journey's End, a drama set in the trenches of the First World War.

Do you know, the big German attack is expected any day now.

I really like drama, so I wanted to be involved in it.

We hold about 200 yards of front line.

We've got a Lewis gun here and one here in this little sap.

As well as rehearsing for her dramatic role,

Juliette is busy practising for her appearance

in the BBC Young Musician strings category final.

She's asked 16-year-old fellow pupil Bella Tang to accompany her.

I was very keen on asking to her to play with me for BBC,

and she was very happy to do it.

Well, there's Juliette with Bella backstage,

but to open her programme, she's going it alone.

Please stand by, then, Juliette.

Bravely, the first piece she's chosen is unaccompanied.

APPLAUSE

It's a Partita For Solo Violin written by Huw Watkins just six years ago.

It's really interesting to play modern music.

It's not something we do all the time.

We tend to play a lot of 19th- or 20th-century music,

and it was written in 2006.

Um...it's a very interesting piece.

It's quite fiery and has lots of energy.

She's obviously a very confident performer, Juliette.

Her decision to open her programme with the Watkins Solo Partita

obviously took huge guts, so hats off to her for that,

cos it's very relentless, that Watkins.

But then again, an incredibly bold choice,

she was very accomplished, really had her fingers around it.

Yeah, she's a very impressive performer. It's tough.

Tough gig so far.

APPLAUSE

Juliette's now being joined on stage by Bella Tang,

and they're going to perform a Beethoven sonata.

To go from Watkins to Beethoven is quite difficult,

as Beethoven requires a lot of exactness,

and everything has to be perfectly in place.

APPLAUSE

Juliette's clearly no faint heart.

Her finale is one of THE great show-stoppers - Ravel's Tzigane.

I always wanted to play this piece, as it's very virtuosic

but still very interesting and not just simple music.

APPLAUSE

Ravel's Tzigane, performed by Juliette Roos.

Well, Mum certainly looks pleased, and I reckon that might be

the biggest audience reaction of the evening so far.

But what did the judges think?

Juliette was absolutely spellbinding.

I was just on the edge of my seat for the whole performance.

Juliette is a total all-round consummate musician and performer.

-Juliette, the crowd went wild. How did it feel?

-Um, pretty...

it was like a whirlwind, it went by so quickly.

She chose a really... I think THE most balanced programme,

which told me masses about her as a musician.

I was so excited, I hardly wrote anything during the performance.

It was just wonderful playing.

-Congratulations. You did fantastically up there.

-Thank you.

With the task of following Juliette, it's cellist Laura van der Heijden -

the youngest performer left in BBC Young Musician 2012.

Laura going on.

Laura van der Heijden is not only the youngest competitor,

she's also the only one who leaves her instrument behind

when she goes to school.

I go to school in West Sussex. It's a very normal state school,

and the way they support me is they give me a lot of free time,

and I can kind of take time off when I want to, to do music.

At the weekend,

Laura travels to London to attend Junior Royal College of Music.

At my school, there weren't many people who were like me,

involved in music, so I wanted to see what it was like to have people like-minded.

I come every Saturday, and my day starts at 9 in the morning

and finishes at 5.

I have several things like quartet and piano lessons

and orchestra and singing lessons and Alexander technique and...

-..one more thing...!

-Improvisation.

-Improvisation! Yeah.

RHYTHMIC CLAPPING

Spanish dance improvisation may seem a slightly off-beat activity

for a cellist, but it's all about

getting students to listen and communicate.

And communication is at the heart of Laura's chamber music activities.

I mean, solo playing, as in playing with a pianist,

is also chamber music, really.

To be able to communicate not only with your pianist

but also with the audience makes a huge difference.

Laura travels even further afield for her one-to-one tuition,

to Hanover in Germany.

The teacher she travels so far to see

is Russian cellist Leonid Gorokhov.

I began with Leonid when he still lived in England,

and soon after I started with him, he moved to Germany.

And because he's so fantastic, I have followed him to Germany

and I now come to Germany quite regularly.

It feels like you're really trying to get something out,

and it needs to be...

The other way round is when you have loads of springs inside,

that are just holding something that's about to really explode.

Like this.

'She's very young on one hand, having loads of fun,

'very grown up on the other hand.'

I would talk to her as I would talk to myself, I suppose.

There's absolutely no difference, no barrier. It's quite extraordinary.

Just steer this bow a little bit, the end of the bow.

'She's a very, very nice person. She's not competitive.'

Of course, she wants to be very good, but it's not for her own sake,

it's just she wants to bring loads of joy to others.

To make the trip worthwhile,

Laura usually spends two days at a time in Germany.

Her mother goes with her and they stay overnight with Leonid's family.

I'm trying to contribute a little bit by cooking some meals and...

you know, just help a little bit around the house.

Laura is fluent in Swiss, German and Dutch,

and now she's learning Russian to socialise more easily

with Leonid's other pupils.

He's got 16 students, and a huge variety of countries that they all come from,

and I've made some really good friends.

I think she fits very well into that crowd.

She already met loads of people here and made friends,

and we're all hoping that she's going to come here when the time comes.

APPLAUSE

To open her recital in this final, Laura has chosen

a piece from the baroque era, a cello sonata by Pietro Locatelli.

The first movement of Locatelli's Sonata in D Major is a very fun

and sparkly piece of music.

I chose this piece to start my programme,

because it really catches the attention of the audience.

APPLAUSE

A very warm reaction there for Laura's first piece,

Locatelli's D Major Sonata.

Next, she's going to play Brahms.

The second movement of the Brahms Sonata in F Major

is a very warm, colourful piece of music,

and it is tricky to really carry out the line and keep it going,

but that is what I really love about the piece.

APPLAUSE

It's frankly incredible that Laura is the youngest competitor left

in BBC Young Musician, because she is just oozing confidence up there.

And really classy sophistication as well,

not just kind of blind confidence.

She's incredibly charming to watch, she's in total control,

she's got a wonderful rapport going on with her accompanist

and she looks like she's having the time of her life.

The variety in the piece is really huge.

There is some amazingly lyrical passages

and then totally crazy technical passages as well that I love playing.

APPLAUSE

Well, the audience and Mum certainly enjoyed that extraordinarily assured playing.

I suspect the jury did too.

Wonderful performance. I mean really very compelling.

The technical stuff was absolutely incredible,

she had total command of her instrument.

I would never have know she was 14.

The slow movement of the second Brahms Sonata displayed

playing of astonishing maturity for one so young.

Wonderful, stylish and witty

and beautiful playing,

and the Brahms really was just quite spellbinding.

-Huge congratulations.

-Thank you.

The judges seemed to love it, the audience seemed to love it,

did you love it?

Absolutely, I mean... Oh, what can I say?

I'm just so happy to have played and, er...

I kind of want to go out and do it again!

Following Laura and last to perform in this strings final,

it's 16-year-old violinist Cristian Grajner-De Sa.

Cristian wasn't always going to be a violinist -

his first love was the piano.

That was actually the instrument I thought I was going to play,

and my mum introduced me to the violin, and I played it,

but the piano really was the main instrument.

And when I was about nine or ten, I really took an interest

suddenly in the violin, I think I heard some amazing show piece

and I thought, "I didn't know the violin was capable of doing that."

Straightaway after that,

it was just the violin for me and that was my instrument.

Since then, he's ever looked back.

He's been a hard worker.

Sometimes, I don't know,

he's practising really early in the morning,

he gets up, and you think, "Oh, my God, he's started already."

Cristian's mother is a violin teacher at the Royal Academy,

but the family hasn't always found

having two fiddlers under one roof straightforward.

-He's requisitioned some of Erica's bows, doesn't he?

-Yes, he does, yes.

Shoulder rests, chin rests, French bows gone, that I had,

he uses that now.

She never complained or anything, so I sort of took advantage a little bit.

Er...

And then there's the question of who gets to use the music room.

My mum uses it for teaching and she tries to rearrange it and all that.

But as soon as I go in there, I rearrange it back the way it was.

I think I spend more time in there than she does, you know.

So I think it's my room, actually.

But now and again, Cristian gives his mum a chance to reclaim the room.

Cristian enjoys taking Max, our dog, out for a walk and he just loves it.

To relax, I suppose I'm just like anybody else.

Reading, teenage stuff, watching television.

I don't know if I should say this,

he's a fantastic supporter of Chelsea, so...

I don't think you should!

Every week, Cristian travels to the Royal Academy Of Music

in London for lessons.

His teacher is the French soloist, Maurice Hasson.

Very good. Myself, I do it up bow.

He's taught me so much.

Just watching him play, listening to him play,

there's so much you can learn from that,

and I'm so grateful to him that he's taken me.

I really hope that I can continue learning with him for many years.

He has a natural, beautiful sound, very powerful.

And he knows how to use it to project emotion.

So I think that the prospect is very great with that boy.

I am quite sure of his future, really.

I am sure he will do a great career, no doubt about it.

Last autumn, Cristian became a pupil at the Purcell School

for young musicians.

Here he gets regular opportunities to hone his skills

both as an ensemble player and as a soloist.

He also gets the chance to try out one of his competition pieces.

It's going to be a good opportunity to perform it to see

under pressure, I suppose, what goes not so well

and what to improve on in the practice room.

And hopefully it will be good for the competition.

Wherever he plays, his parents are always there to support him.

His mum, in particular, is always ready with advice,

both about his performances and about life in general.

She knows it's a very difficult life, being a musician

and she's offered other options in life,

but it's just always been the option for me to be a musician.

You know, much to her despair or whatever, but...!

I'd just love to be a musician,

and there's not much she can do about that, really.

APPLAUSE

Cristian is going to begin his bid for the strings title

with the first movement from Beethoven's Violin Sonata in D Major.

It's very challenging. Not technically -

musically, it's very challenging.

It shows a lot of maturity if you can play it well.

APPLAUSE

Cristian's chosen to perform just two pieces in this final.

So his next, Sarasate's Zigeunerweisen, or Gypsy Airs,

is also his grand finale.

It shows off more or less everything the violin can do.

You've got, you know, left-hand pizzicato, up-bow staccato,

all these runs and harmonics and the rest of it,

so it's very technically challenging, a lot more than the Beethoven. Um...

but it shows everything, because, you know,

you have a wonderful section which is melodic, it's slow

and it's a real gypsy piece.

APPLAUSE

Cristian Grajner-De Sa bringing this strings final to a terrific close.

He's a really incredibly accomplished player

and makes a beautiful sound,

but what have the judges made of that performance?

Clearly, you know, a big technique here,

wonderful facility to get round the instrument.

I mean, he's a wonderful violinist, no doubt about it.

And the Sarasate was wonderfully free and gyspy-like,

as it should be.

-I was pretty pleased with that.

-Did you forget about the judges being there

-and treat it as a concert?

-Oh, yeah, yeah.

I didn't see any cameras, I didn't see any judges, I didn't see any people.

-I just saw this and my pianist, and that's it.

-Good.

He played his Beethoven the same as he played his Sarasate -

both of them were very valid and impressive,

but in a competition of this sort,

where you put two pieces against each other,

you have to show an absolute understanding

of both those types of music.

Well, to me, this strings final

really exemplifies what BBC Young Musician is all about.

We know that by the time we get to the category finals,

the standard's going to be incredibly high,

but we're looking for something beyond that, something extra special.

I'm pretty sure that, tonight, we've seen that.

Five spectacular performances.

Our competitors are all waiting nervously backstage,

because, of course, there can only be one winner.

Only one of them is going through to the semi-final,

and now it's time for the jury to make up their mind.

And making the decision tonight...

..and our general adjudicator...

The first person we heard this evening was violinist Julia Hwang.

She obviously enjoys playing the violin...a lot.

The Lutoslawski was a big piece to go on straight off.

It was brilliant, yeah.

I really enjoyed Julia - I thought she had fantastic energy. I...

don't feel that I know much about her, musically,

after her performance.

Clearly, the Suk was there to contrast with the two virtuosic pieces either side of it,

but it didn't really give us enough of a contrast, I think.

No, I agree.

We needed something more heavyweight in the programme

-to really judge her musicianship.

-I think so.

Brahms' C Minor, first movement.

It's a terrifying piece to start with. I thought it was very brave,

but, actually, he came on stage and he didn't settle.

It was very introspective,

but kind of almost remained introspective right the way through, I felt.

It didn't kind of open out in the way that I expected it to.

-It needed more intensity.

-Yeah.

And then the Penderecki piece.

Fantastic piece and really technically challenging,

and I thought he did fantastically.

Again, Penderecki is incredibly clear

about how to play almost every single note.

There are very clear dynamics, very clear articulation markings.

I didn't feel that Joel followed those to the tee.

-Really beautifully balanced programme.

-Absolutely, yes.

I think she absolutely inhabited every single piece of music.

She was like a different person in each piece.

She understood the way the music is written,

she understood what she was trying to achieve, emotionally, from it.

And had a wonderful relationship with her duo partner.

Yeah. Wonderful, wonderful piano playing, particularly the Beethoven.

Real chamber music playing.

It was really clean, clear playing.

-Very stylish.

-Very stylish.

-Yeah.

And the Ravel was stunning.

I absolutely loved her performance.

-I really enjoyed every minute of it.

-Me too.

I was totally convinced by everything that she did.

She's completely at ease on stage.

In fact, she engaged the audience

from the minute she started the Locatelli.

-Yes.

-And wonderful, stylish playing.

The Brahms, for me, was a great highlight of the evening.

I thought it was beautiful playing, wonderfully mature.

-I wasn't so fond of the Rimsky-Korsakov as a programme choice.

-No.

I'd have liked to hear something different.

-But I'm very, very excited by her.

-Yes.

You don't hear someone with that depth of understanding

in a competition for young musicians very often.

Plenty of technique in evidence here.

Yeah, I mean, the Sarasate was...was great.

I mean, he was absolutely comfortable playing the Sarasate.

The Beethoven, I just felt...

didn't have the insight and maturity and understanding.

And there just wasn't enough difference between the Sarasate sound and Beethoven sound, I thought.

No. I sort of felt that if he'd come into the room

and played me a Beethoven sonata and nothing else, I would've thought,

"Gosh, what a lovely, really fantastic violinist. Really solid."

But the fact that he then played Sarasate with the same sound,

-there was no differentiation.

-No.

So it's time now for us to make a decision,

and I think it'll be a difficult one.

Yes, it's going to be very tough. I mean, I don't know how you feel,

but I think it's between two very strong candidates.

I'm absolutely stuck between the two.

MUSICIANS CHAT

They're all great,

but particularly the violinist at the end of the first half

had that extra something, you know?

The third player, the violinist was really good -

she had a really virtuosic programme.

Well, there was a young cellist tonight, she's 14 years of age...

To play with that maturity at 14, I think, is just astonishing.

Just the way she communicated with the audience,

it's just unbelievable that someone that young

can be so professional and so inspiring.

Maybe the cellist, the 14-year-old cellist,

or the 16-year-old violinist.

THEY LAUGH AND CHAT

What a night it's been -

another outstanding display of young musicianship.

But someone's got to win.

Here to announce the name of our strings category final winner,

and the third of our five semi-finalists,

it's jury member Lesley Hatfield.

APPLAUSE

On behalf of the jury, we'd like to congratulate all five candidates,

who've played really outstanding performances.

Sadly, our job tonight was to choose one of them to go forward.

And there were two outstanding candidates above the others,

and so that caused us some difficulty,

but I'm very happy to announce

that the winner of the BBC Young Musician 2012 Strings Category Final

and the person going through to the semi-final is...

..Laura van der Heijden.

CHEERING AND APPLAUSE

Well, a hugely enthusiastic response to that result,

and a remarkable achievement by the young 14-year-old cellist,

Laura van der Heijden.

And let's not forget Joel, Julia, Juliette and Cristian -

their contribution really has made it a night to remember here in Cardiff.

It was a very hard decision between two of them for us.

And I think, for me, Laura...

inhabited every single piece that she played. Couldn't fault her.

And, as I said, very, very difficult between two of them.

But, yeah, Laura came out on top.

This was such a hard-fought category -

the standard was incredibly high.

Does that kind of give it an extra-special edge to you?

I guess so.

I mean, the other four, they are all amazing and really nice people,

and I'm glad to have met them, and hopefully we'll stay in contact.

But I'm, yeah, really, really lucky.

We're lucky to have you. Congratulations. Go and give your mum a hug!

-I will! Thank you very much.

-See you later.

-Thank you.

-See you at the semi-final!

-Yes.

-Bye.

-Thank you.

SHE SCREAMS

CHEERING AND APPLAUSE

Well done to Laura, who we'll be hearing from again in two weeks' time,

when coverage of BBC Young Musician 2012

switches to BBC Two for the semi-final.

In the meantime, don't forget to join me here on BBC Four next week,

when it's the turn of five extremely talented young woodwind players to take to the stage.

It's been such an exciting journey.

Well, this is a massive occasion.

It's just a great thing to be part of.

I think you have to be quite arrogant on stage.

I'm really going to go for it.

She drew us straightaway into this ethereal world.

I'd love to know what he has for breakfast.

A sound like velvet and cocoa.

Fantastic finger dexterity there.

She totally convinced me.

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