La Maestra

Well, two days late and I managed to watch the final of Maestro. I really enjoyed this, I thought it was a marvellous final. With the exception of the rather tedious Beethoven's 5th, I thoroughly enjoyed the music chosen. I do think the music throughout (except for the arias) was well chosen to be recognisable as well as easily likeable. Jane Asher chose the overture from Mozart's Marriage of Figaro, which I was very pleased at given that I knew this was Mozart and that I liked it, but I didn't know which piece it was.

Sue Perkins absolutely deserved to win. Had I been of the inclination to vote on such programmes and had I watched it live, I would have voted for her. She conducted using her hands, arms, upper body, body placement, head movements and facial expressions. She connected well with all of the orchestra and remained aware of their every move. Goldie, while being as his mentor said, a phenomenal human being, did not connect with the orchestra. Indeed, I felt as if he was performing something he had learned and his actions would have been identical had the orchestra not been there at all. I can't fathom why the judges awarded him so many points. The sound the orchestra produced was fine, but the sound produced when Sue conducted was far better. It was extremely tiring to sit through two performances of the Beethoven, but it was very interesting to hear the difference in sound between the two.

Maxim Vengerov's performance was sublime; he also used his face, head and body in the same manner as Sue and I found his conducting to be far superior to Sir Roger Norrington's for that very reason. One of the reasons this programme was so interesting is that I knew nothing about the role of a conductor, and clearly my knowledge is still lacking in that I cannot discern the difference between great and good.

All of the people in this programme were thoroughly likeable to the end. With the exception of Zoe Martlew I'm afraid, even tonight when she was being complimentary she was smug and "look at me, I'm giving you an 8, just because I'm lovely", which was annoying. I think all the celebrities came across well - I adored the silliness of the tag-conducting. My final opinion of Katie Derham is that I think I'd like her to be my sister in law. I'd like either Ivor the Mentor or Peter Snow to be my dad, I'd like Sue to be my best friend and I'd like a bigamous marriage to both Goldie and Alex James.

And on that frivolous note, I shall bid farewell to a programme that surprised me pleasantly.

(I know there's a performance on Saturday, but I doubt I'll watch that, I can't cope with Lesley Garrett)

Maestro

Being sheeplike and following the guidance of those I admire (Andrew Collins again in this case), I thought I'd catch up with the first two episodes of Maestro, something I was unaware of before. A reality show with celebrities learning how to conduct doesn't really sound like a lot of fun, but this is done very well with good celebrities. I like how this type of programme can bring out the best in a celebrity, unlike some other celebrity reality programmes which seem to exist merely to humiliate.

The celebrities on this are:

Peter Snow, who is immensely likeable (I have a huge Dad crush on him) and always good to watch, even when out of his depth.

Alex James, who is rather full of himself, but seems to have the ability here to show some humility and he still has fantastic hair, even if that is entirely irrelevant

Jane Asher, who still takes it very seriously and is a little too determined to be the best, comes across as more human than I have seen her before.

Katie Derham I was unaware of before, and I am feel inclined to dislike her based on the way she looks and speaks, but actually she's rather sweet and likeable.

Goldie, who is nothing like you'd expect and really incredibly down to earth and humble, is so likeable you simply can't help rooting for him.

David Soul is amusing and fun to watch, even if he is still rather aware of being a heart throb.

Bradley Walsh has never managed not to annoy me intensely, but he is rather sweet and little boy like here and I even find myself liking him, much to my surprise.

Sue Perkins - you can't not love both Mel and Sue, and Sue is her usual witty, clever and competent self here.

The music selected for the contestants to conduct is mainstream and pleasant (although I think they said it was to be opera next time so I may revise this) and Clive Anderson is mostly quite innocuous as presenter, with only the odd cringeable pun slipping in.

I agree with the first "evictee", that contestant was clearly the weakest, but I think personality won over ability with the second person to be eliminated. Having said that, I think the judges were possibly a bit harsh with the person that got saved. As the orchestra have the vote to save one of two people the judges deem weakest, you'd assume that they would have the best idea who is hardest to follow.

I think episode 1 is lost forever but episode 2 is still there on i-player to catch up on; otherwise it's on Tuesday nights on BBC2.