City Hall, Glasgow

As ever, the final of the Scottish International Piano Competition on Saturday night stoked up the emotions. I had a heated discussion at the end, while the jury deliberated, with a group of very distinguished professional musicians as to the likely outcome. We were all wrong.

UK pianist Tom Poster, who played Rachmaninov's Second Piano Concerto, walked off with the first prize of £10,000 and a further £500 for the best performance of the commissioned piece by Judith Weir. Lithuanian pianist Lukas Geniusas won second prize of £5000 after playing Beethoven's Fourth Piano Concerto, Frenchman Tristan Pfaff, playing Prokofiev's second concerto was third with £2500, and Russian Violetta Khachikian, playing Chopin's first concerto, fourth. All eight pianists who made it to the semi-finals received £750, and the final results were based not just on the performances on Saturday but throughout the competition.

Now for the music criticism. Poster's winning performance of the Rachmaninov was splashy, flamboyant, with much swaying and emoting, though with little below the flashy surface. Geniusas's exquisite Beethoven was beautifully poetic and articulate, Pfaff's Prokofiev an interpretation of real Gallic poise and style, though a little underpowered, while Khachikian had song and poetry at her fingertips in the Chopin.

Now the real criticism. All of them were poorly served by conductor James Loughran and the BBC SSO with accompaniments that were inadequately coordinated, badly balanced, lacklustre, woolly in attack, and crucially failing to provide a framework of confident support for the young players.

Lack of rehearsal time might have been one factor, but you could feel the adrenalin draining out of performances that failed to take flight. Not good enough, I'm afraid.