Review: The performance given by the National Youth Choir of Scotland on Saturday in Perth was a tour de force. But a tour de force of what? Sometimes a concert performance just hits you as a package; on other occasions it triggers questions.
National Youth Choir of Scotland, Perth Concert Hall
Star rating: ****
The performance given by the National Youth Choir of Scotland on Saturday in Perth was a tour de force.
But a tour de force of what?
Sometimes a concert performance just hits you as a package; on other occasions it triggers questions: Why is this as good as it is? What are the elements?
Such was the case at the weekend with NYCoS.
Of course it was a triumph of technical accomplishment.
The horrendous difficulties of Kenneth Leighton's breathtakingly antiphonal Laudate Pueri, for three choirs singing at and across each other, just dissolved in the face of a fully-focused NYCoS interpretation where, although I don't know the detail of the score, it sounded as though they did not put a foot wrong.
And, under Christopher Bell's calm, idiomatic shaping of the piece, with just the right emphases in Leighton's slightly pungent textures, what resulted was a thrillingly-balanced performance that pinned you to your seat.
Similarly, though, at another expressive extreme, with Five Tippett's Spirituals and Tavener's iconic Funeral Ikos, NYCoS singing was heart-stopping in its control of the softest, warmest dynamics, while the high-speed articulation in Nobody Knows was as clear as it was electric.
On top of these and other elements, however, it was the sense of assuredness and innate confidence within the choir that underpinned the singing, permeated the music being delivered and seeped into the audience.
You absolutely trusted them.
And it was there to hear, too, in the NYCoS Training Choir, which, conducted by Michael Kibblewhite, subdivided to give girls and boys separate platforms to demonstrate their own nascent confidence and maturity, before the two choirs joined in a whacking performance of Zadok the Priest.
- By Michael Tumelty
National Youth Jazz Orchestra of Scotland, Queen's Hall, Edinburgh
Star rating: ***
There was something in the nature of a work experience programme about the National Youth Jazz Orchestra of Scotland 2009 edition's first adventure into live performance at the weekend. Any onstage time is likely to benefit young musicians but even so, there was preparation here for most eventualities that orchestral jazz players might meet these days.
From the classic big band approach of Thad Jones's Kids Are Pretty People, the orchestra moved into blues and two items from Yellowjackets saxophonist Bob Minzter's portfolio, a highly evolved arrangement of Herbie Hancock's Eye of the Hurricane and Home Basie, which repositions the essential Basie groove in a more contemporary setting. The results illustrated what a fine job Malcolm Edmonstone and returning Edinburgh boy Andrew Bain are doing with their charges, with strong, disciplined and expressive playing from the horn sections and solid rhythm propulsion. Soloing was more mixed, but there was a general ambition and purpose that bodes well.
Mancunian guitarist Mike Walker's arrival as guest soloist on an orchestrated version of his recent album, Madhouse and the Whole Thing There, took the youngsters into territory Walker knows well from working in George Russell's ultra-groovy Living Time Orchestra, and introduced dancing Brazilian rhythms, voice samples and hip urban beats alongside Walker's feverishly fluent improvising.
If ultimately episodic and in the final sequence's case, more a tape loop than an orchestration, it still showed the adaptability that's being instilled into young Scottish jazz musicians while nurturing the talent to meet professional requirements.
- By Rob Adams
