The National Youth Orchestra of Great Britain visited Manchester's Bridgewater Hall this evening as their first port of call on a whistle-stop three-venue tour ending at The Royal Albert Hall on Saturday as part of the BBC Proms.
The Orchestra is open to all teenagers from all walks of life, all that they require is that you are a resident of Great Britain and that you can play your chosen instrument to a proficient standard. Listening this evening to their chosen programme, I would say that that standard is more than simply 'proficient', so instead insert, 'highly accomplished, adept, and excellent'.
To start the concert this evening, we heard the world premiere performance of a new work written specially for this orchestra by American film composer, Danny Elfman. The piece was in three movements and was a substantial and difficult work to tackle, and called, 'Wunderkammer'. The orchestra, comprising of some 180 instrumentalists (including 4 harps!), took the bull by the horns, and under Andrew Gourlay's conducting, brought this interesting work to light. One could immediately hear Elfman's compositonal roots, as hidden within this sweeping and cinematically structured work is the unmistakable 'Oingo Boingo' feel. It's a programmatic work which offers each section of the orchestra a challenge. Short melodies or melody fragments are jostled around a framework within this 30-minute piece. The work is 'traditional' only in the sense that it starts with a loud and fast movement, ends with a loud and fast movement, and sandwiches between a much slower, quieter and more reflective movement. In fact in the second movement I adored his lovely woodwind melody to pizzicato strings and the female voices pitted against the harps.. just wonderful. If you want to have a better idea of what this music actually sounds like, then it is a kind of 'Sorcerer's Apprentice' / 'Harry Potter' mash with a bit of Tim Burton thrown in for good measure!
Next on the programme was Ferde Grofe's arrangement of Gerschwin's 'Rhapsody In Blue'. This is the most popular concert version of the work, and the one played by most orchestras. Grofe's understanding of both Gerschwin and the American Jazz sound is excellently observed in this piece and although Grofe's score was for 'jazz band and piano', the jazz band is usually a concert orchestra. To play the piano for this concert, we welcomed Simone Dinnerstein.
After the interval, we returned to hear the orchestra tackle yet another substantial and technically difficult work, Ravel's scoring of the ballet, 'Daphnis And Chloe'. Rarely heard in its entirety these days, and more commonly and popularly known from the two orchestral suites made from this music; however here, the NYO played the whole 60-minute piece without even breaking into a sweat. This is Ravel's longest work, and was premiered by the Ballet Russes in 1912. The work also includes an offstage chorus, but here, this was cunningly and superbly provided by the orchestra themselves, playing their instruments one second, and then proving to be a beautiful-sounding a-capella chorus with beautiful harmonies and a lovely line too, the next. In fact, the dynamics for the whoe of this piece were incredible. Ravel is known for his sudden changes in pitch and idea, and his harmonic and melodic structures are difficult both to play and even sometimes requiring the listener to concentrate much harder than normal. There are moments of beautifully lush lyricism, but they are juxtaposed with enharmonic discords and crazy time signatures. When played well, it is a most rewarding experience for player and listener alike. Here it was played msterfully.
Even without any further music, this was a meaty and lengthy concert. However, three more pieces of music made it into the programme as 'suprise additions'. In between the first two pieces in the first half, whilst the stage was being reconfigured, some members of the NYO Associates' Programme were positioned on either side of the gallery and performed a short piece unconducted. This was stereophonic sound and was cleverly played, one instrumentalist taking their cue from another on the opposite side. I have no idea what the music was, but it was a lovely idea and worked well in order to cover the rather lengthy change-over between advertised programme pieces.
The final piece before the interval was also not in the programme. One of the percussionists from the Youth Orchestra conducted, and Simone Dinnerstein was once again the pianist. It was a contemporary arrangement of Gerschwin's 'The Man I Love'. However, whose arrangement it was, and why this young female percussionist was conducting it, eluded me. The source material was unrecognisable and the whole was a discordant barrage of sound.
And the last 'surprise' for us this evening came in the form of a postlude. The orchestra and conductor had taken their bows and we had all applauded. Some audience members had started to leave the auditorium and the orchestra and stage staff were packing up and clearing the stage, whilst the group of Associates had assembled on the choir seats above and behind the stage to play another piece for us, this time conducted. Again, I have no idea what the music was, but it sounded lovely and was a good idea to have them play a postlude for us. However, this experience was hugely dampened by the fact that it was used as "exit" music. Had the orchestra stayed seated in position and there had been a short announcement that this postlude would take place, I feel sure the whole audience would have stopped and stayed to listen to it. As it was, the vast majority of audience had already left long before this postlude came to an end, and there was much noise in the auditorium because of it. Also, the stage was busy with musicians and techies dismantling the seats etc, and so it was also very distracting. Congratulations to the Associates for continuing and playing so well under those conditions, and also to the handful of audience members who had the good grace to stay and wait for the concert to finish.
Starting at 7:30pm and not finising until 10:15pm is, I would suggest, too lengthy for a youth orchestral concert. However, the whole was extremely enjoyable, and played by some hugely talented, enthusiastic, and highly accomplished musicians. Bravo!
Starting at 7:30pm and not finising until 10:15pm is, I would suggest, too lengthy for a youth orchestral concert. However, the whole was extremely enjoyable, and played by some hugely talented, enthusiastic, and highly accomplished musicians. Bravo!
Reviewer - Matthew Dougall
on - 3.8.22
on - 3.8.22
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