Alfred Hickling 

National Youth Orchestra of Scotland review – brave and exuberant

The young players touched on swing and bebop before scaling Richard Strauss's massive An Alpine Symphony, writes Alfred Hickling
  
  

Vividly realised episodes … the conductor Michael Francis.
Vividly realised episodes … the conductor Michael Francis. Photo: Marco Borggreve Photograph: Marco Borggreve

The National Youth Orchestra of Scotland has a very distinct personality from Britain's other young ensembles. The intake is greater, ranging from ages 12 to 25, and it is the only youth orchestra to offer specialist courses in jazz.

The swing element could be keenly felt here in the exuberant opener, William Walton's wonderfully erratic Johannesburg Festival Overture, which the composer described as a "non-stop gallop … slightly crazy, hilarious and vulgar". The young players obeyed those instructions to the letter.

There was a more abstract, postbop influence drifting throughout the central piece: Sally Beamish's Trumpet Concerto, originally commissioned by the NYOS for performance at the 2003 Proms with Håkan Hardenberger – then, as now, the stellar soloist. Hardenberger seems to combine the agility of a baroque player with the soul of Miles Davis, though the orchestra's trumpet section responded with some stunningly secure obbligato support of its own.

The cool, urban tone of Beamish's concerto was partly based on the imaginary metropolis of Italo Calvino's novel Invisible Cities, though if it put one in mind of any particular place it might be Detroit, with its desolate landscape and crumbling automobile factories. For the clamorous finale the percussionists explored the scrapyard timbres of a fuel tank and brake cylinders, even attacking suspension springs with hammers.

Richard Strauss's massive An Alpine Symphony was a bold choice that left the orchestra with a mountain to climb. It made a certain kind of sense, as the ensemble has sufficient forces to cover it and Strauss's tone poem was based on memories of a near-disastrous Alpine excursion made when he was himself a teenager. Michael Francis's account had some vividly realised episodes, though sheer weight of numbers is not enough by itself to convey the work's spiritual message. It was a brave attempt, though the scrappy arrival at the summit felt more numerous than numinous.

• The programme is repeated at Three Choirs festival, Worcester, (0845 652 1823) on 1 August and at Usher Hall, Edinburgh, (0131-228 1155) on 2 August.

 

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