Music
NYOS Junior Orchestra
Perth Concert Hall
Keith Bruce
four stars
IN the progression of young talent through the classical ensembles of the National Youth Orchestra of Scotland, the Junior Orchestra is open to musicians from the age of eight, and this Summer Concert marked the first time that age group had been asked to play a symphony in its entirety. Dvorak’s Eighth may not be the composer’s longest, but it is still a major undertaking, with a lot of music for every section of the orchestra. Under the baton (nick-named “Nick the Stick”) of Natalia Luis-Bassa, the young ensemble was plainly unfazed by the task.
Luis-Bassa is a product of Venezuela’s Sistema and London’s Royal College of Music, where she is now a Professor of Conducting, and she appeared to have found a swift rapport with the young musicians in rehearsing a programme that built towards that first symphonic journey. Perhaps one player was a little early out of the blocks for the opening arrangement of Brahms’s Hungarian Dance No.5, but the conductor steered the orchestra deftly through the rest of the score’s stop/starts. Walton’s Crown Imperial Coronation March, a feature of Royal Nuptials in 1937, 1953 and 2011, revealed the remarkable quality of the horn section, and some fine brass playing.
Former NYOS Principal Mark James was the accomplished soloist on the 1950 Trumpet Concerto by Alexander Arutiunian, which did expose the under-staffing of the viola section (there were just four of them, alongside 10 cellos and six basses), but included some fine Hollywood-swell violins, a lovely central section in which the muted soloist is accompanied by muted ensemble strings, and a dramatic ending dispatched with collective aplomb.
Although the concert had been wittily presented by young horn-player Ben Dickinson and trombonist James McCorkindale, the conductor took time to introduce us to her baton before the Dvorak. There was a lovely flow through Adagio Second Movement, and if the orchestra was a little ragged at the start of the Third, she and “Nick” swiftly sorted that, producing effective concentration on the shifts of tempi in the finale.
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