Music
NYOS Senior Orchestra
Glasgow Royal Concert Hall
Michael Tumelty
four stars
GOOD Lord. What a total, comprehensive transformation in playing power in the NYOS Senior Orchestra on Wednesday night, from a watery, indefinite and uncomfortable account of Tchaikovsky’s Swan Lake Suite, worth two or three stars at best, to, within an hour, a blazing, rocketing and riveting performance of the Symphonic Dances from West Side Story that would have had Leonard Bernstein himself grooving to the electrifying playing of the teenage orchestra. He was here a long time ago, and I will never forget the sight of him doing just that to the rhythms of Candide.
The problem on Wednesday was the context. Because the orchestra was playing at the big education conference in the hall, the musicians were in at the deep end with Swan Lake. Nobody and nothing seemed comfortable. Nobody was warmed-up or on a roll. Conductor James Lowe seemed ill at ease. Soloists within the orchestra were edgy and uncertain. I know this band: it was not a performance to write home about.
The instant the Tchaikovsky was done, the difference was palpable. You could feel the musicians settle into the groove and mood of Oliver Searle’s Accidental Dances, with its lovely transatlantic accent and feeling of Copland with touches of Ives. And then the orchestra, the playing, James Lowe and the music all soared in West Side Story. The stunning textural clarity in the Cool Fugue was breath-taking, the impact of the dance (punch-up) at the gym was awesome, and the NYOS Seniors, in every department, played as though there was no tomorrow. Ultimately, it was a knockout performance.
Why are you making commenting on The Herald only available to subscribers?
It should have been a safe space for informed debate, somewhere for readers to discuss issues around the biggest stories of the day, but all too often the below the line comments on most websites have become bogged down by off-topic discussions and abuse.
heraldscotland.com is tackling this problem by allowing only subscribers to comment.
We are doing this to improve the experience for our loyal readers and we believe it will reduce the ability of trolls and troublemakers, who occasionally find their way onto our site, to abuse our journalists and readers. We also hope it will help the comments section fulfil its promise as a part of Scotland's conversation with itself.
We are lucky at The Herald. We are read by an informed, educated readership who can add their knowledge and insights to our stories.
That is invaluable.
We are making the subscriber-only change to support our valued readers, who tell us they don't want the site cluttered up with irrelevant comments, untruths and abuse.
In the past, the journalist’s job was to collect and distribute information to the audience. Technology means that readers can shape a discussion. We look forward to hearing from you on heraldscotland.com
Comments & Moderation
Readers’ comments: You are personally liable for the content of any comments you upload to this website, so please act responsibly. We do not pre-moderate or monitor readers’ comments appearing on our websites, but we do post-moderate in response to complaints we receive or otherwise when a potential problem comes to our attention. You can make a complaint by using the ‘report this post’ link . We may then apply our discretion under the user terms to amend or delete comments.
Post moderation is undertaken full-time 9am-6pm on weekdays, and on a part-time basis outwith those hours.
Read the rules here