Manchester Evening News review 11 April 2016

NATIONAL YOUTH ORCHESTRA  Bridgewater Hall

THE National Youth Orchestra is a phenomenon, and nothing I say can take away from the fact that its members are outstanding musicians and deliver performances of professional quality which are extraordinary for a collection of teenagers.

But I’m sure they would also want to be judged as if they were professional musicians. By that standard, the first half of their concert at the Bridgewater Hall (the third delivery of the same programme in as many days, in different places) did not completely catch fire.

Fire was its theme, though, with music chosen by conductor Kristjan Järvi. The opening piece was Stravinsky’s Fireworks, and while the playing seemed well-drilled and the ensemble immaculate, there was never any hint of surprise in the way they did it.

Then we heard a violin concerto by American composer Michael Daugherty, with soloist Chad Hoopes, subtitled Fire And Blood. He’s a very good violinist indeed (his Telemann encore proved that in addition to the virtuosic demands of this concerto), but he had rather modest material to work with. Written 13 years ago, it was inspired by images of US car-making assembly lines and, not surprisingly, contained an awful lot of what are often known as motor rhythms. A long slow movement attempted to compensate, but for me evoked images of muzak in tea-breaks more than anything else.

But that was all before the interval. Afterwards it was as if a different orchestra had turned up. They gave a white-hot, blistering and very beautiful performance of Stravinsky’s The Firebird ballet music. This was the piece they had really come to play for us!

They followed Järvi perfectly through all its tricky changes of pace and rhythm, and he obtained a vast range of tone and power from the 160-odd players.

Magical moments included the Princesses’ Round Dance, the Infernal Dance and of course the Final Hymn. And the greatest glory of the playing was in the solo contributions from principal horn (Manchester player Livi Gandee), principal oboe, principal flute and principal clarinet. There are musicians there who surely must make their mark in future.

The concert ended with a brief version of Tchaikovsky’s Dance Of The Tumblers (from The Snow Maiden). By this time everyone was de-mob mood, and it made a hugely enjoyable valedictory.

***

Robert Beale