The National Children's Orchestra is a very interesting and laudable acheivement, and I am not entirely sure how all the staff and tutors manage to coordinate it all, but somehow they do! Children between the ages of 7 and 14 are eligible to become a part of this company, and there are different orchestras for different age groups. Although their head offices are in deepest darkest Somerset, the organisation is a registered charity and aims to be fully inclusive with representing talented musicians from all over the British Isles. As well as regular workshops, residential courses, seminars and of course tuition, members of the NCO have the chance each year to perform in at least one public concert at a professional concert venue in the UK. The children gain invaluable training, experience and confidence-building, that goes without saying, but what also needs to be said is the incredibly high standard these youngsters reach.
This evening's orchestra was the 'Main Orchestra', which I believe is made up of 13 and 14 year-olds who have had already some experience with the NCO. For some on the platform this evening, this may well have been their final NCO concert, but they are just at the very start of their musical journeys and will hopefully go on to train at places like Chetham's School Of Music and then The RNCM, before becoming a fully-fledged musician. It's a hugely exciting time of their lives, and an experience like playing at Manchester's premier classical music venue, The Bridgewater Hall, isn't one they are going to forget in a hurry.
This evening the orchestra had chosen to perform three works which, although on the surface seemed completely different and unconnected, they were in fact rather cleverly linked by the compsers' use and love of folk music - especially Yiddish music - which they manage to interpolate into their scores. The two pieces before the interval were unknown to me - although I certainly knew other works from each composer. First came Erich Korngold's Schauspiel Overture. An Austrian composer who, despite being something of a child prodigy, 'sold out' to Hollywood and scored so many of the classic Hollywood movie scores of the 'Golden Era'. However, this evening it was a piece of purely concert classical music which was written by Korngold when he was only 14 years old. - the same age as the majority of the members od the orchestra. The piece has been hailed as one of the most significant and mature pieces od classical music ever written by any composer at that age. Listening to this piece of late Romanticism, it is harmonic, melodic, clever, precise, and yet also bombastic with a slight hint of snubbing the establishment in there too.
The second piece came from yet another composer who successfully managed the cross-over from classical to film music composition. Indeed, the name John Williams is synonymous now with so many contemporary blockbusters it is difficult to keep up with. This evening we heard music from a film I wasn't even aware that he had written the soundtrack for, 'Catch Me If You Can'. We heard the three movements entitled 'Escapades'. The scoring of this piece was a little unorthodox, as it required a trio of alto saxaphone, double bass and xylophone - although doing a little research prior to writing this review then the original scoring calls only for a solo alto sax and concert band. However, an un-named and uncredited young man played the xylophone this evening, whilst one of the orchestra's young bassist played the plucked bass line [coping well with an errant amplifier!], and the saxophone was played by guest soloist Jess Gillam. [who for some reason seemed to find herself stuck behind a very prominent, intrusive and unmovable microphone stand - again coping with this obstacle adroitly].
At just 20 years old Gillam is already a name to be reckoned with, as her many awards and world-wide concert appearances attest, not least her closing the BBC Proms in 2018. She is an NCO Artist In Residence, and this evening delighted us not only with her playing these three short movements but finished the first half with another Klezmer-inspired piece too, using the orchestra's strings in a very folk-style dance. An amazing talent with incredible command of her instrument/s.
After the interval and I was back on musical terra firma, with a piece of music I know really rather well. Mahler's wonderfully lyric first symphony. Originally conceived as a long symphonic poem, it was premiered in Vienna in 1896 as a four movement symphony. It is a work of intricacy, irony, mock-heroicism and the overlapping of ideas both thematically and melodically; and is not an easy ask for any orchestra let alone one made up entirely of young teenagers. They coped with this work masterfully, and although there were a few instances where I had to clench my teeth a little - due in no small part to the over zealous nature of conductor Jonathan Bloxham, allowing timpani and brass to cut loose a little too fortissimo, it was a very sensible and sensitive rendering of this epic score.
This is only the second time I have had the good fortune to be able to listen to the NCO. But as last year, I was once again blown away by the dedication, commitment, talent, skill, and musicality of so many professionals-in-the-making. I am already looking forward to next year! Congratulations to them all.
Reviewer - Matthew Dougall
on - 10/8/19
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