A 17-YEAR-OLD clarinettist who studies in Manchester has become BBC Young Musician of the Year 2006. It is the first time that a clarinettist has won the award since Emma Johnson in 1984.

Mark Simpson is also a burgeoning composer, and is principal clarinet of the National Youth Orchestra (NYO). At the weekend it was his turn to stand in the spotlight as the soloist in one of the trickiest clarinet concertos — the one Carl Nielsen wrote in 1928, towards the end of his life.

When Marin Alsop, chairwoman of an eminent jury, announced the winner, there was a degree of surprise but little objection. If virtuoso showmanship and sheer entertainment value were what they were looking for, they could have found it in the remarkable one-man gymnasium that was Toby Kearney’s performance of James MacMillan’s percussion concerto, Veni, Veni, Emmanuel. There’s an incom parable moment of theatre at the end, where, to the tinkling of chime bells, the soloist ascends high to the tubular bells and stands there like a great archangel.

If, on the other hand, high intelligence and immaculate professionalism were the order, Huw Morgan fitted the bill to perfection in his sun-kissed yet super-cool Trumpet Concerto by Henri Tomasi. Morgan, also a principal with the NYO, will surely make it to the top whatever happens.

But, as an all-round musician and communicator, Simpson did, indeed, have it all — and in a more subtle, ultimately more engaging balance.

The Nielsen is as difficult for the audience as for the player. Yet Simpson was a compelling guide on the journey. And Nielsen allowed him to reveal just about every trick in the clarinettist’s trade, as well as a high degree of imagination and sheer enjoyment.

So much for the best. And the rest? As Alsop said, every soloist was a real winner. Although their repertoire didn’t perhaps show them off to the best, the guitarist David Massey (with Rodrigo’s Fantasia para un Gentilhombre) and Cordelia Williams (Saint-Saëns Piano Concerto No 2) deserved their ovations.

Those who watched the final on television doubtless enjoyed the glitz and glamour bestowed by luxuriant lighting and cunning camera work. For those of us there live, it has to be said that the event (not its individual performances) was underwhelming and undersold.

The shabby presentation and near-invisible local presence of what is one of Britain’s major competitions simply didn’t match the professionalism of the young soloists, and the Northern Sinfonia with their conductor, Yan Pascal Tortelier, who accompanied each highly challenging piece with sensitivity and robust support.