Youth excels
Garth Wilshere
NZSO National Youth Orchestra, Conductor – James Judd, Soloist – Cameron Chambers (organ), Wellington Town Hall, September 2. Reviewed by Garth Wilshere
THE annual National Youth Orchestra concert is always a highlight and this one was no exception with accomplishment, excellence, youthful passion and exuberance on display.
And as there was an organ soloist it was great to hear them playing in the fine acoustic of the Wellington Town Hall.
There was commitment and excitement in their playing with the weight, sweep, and bite in the strings, glorious, and quite astonishing in such young players. Their magnificent performance of Rachmaninov’s Symphony No. 2 was wonderful to hear. I consider the NYO second only to the NZSO in New Zealand orchestras and this year’s orchestra proved the point again.
This big romantic symphony requires great playing and it got it, with all sections excelling themselves, a few moments in ensemble aside. The razor-sharp trumpets cut through the orchestra were thrilling. The whole, with accurate and crisp percussion and characterful winds backed by the rich sweep of the strings made for a memorable performance.
The expert guidance and judgment of conductor James Judd’s was constantly evident.
Composer-In-Residence Alexandra Hay ‘s opening work in An Atlas of Unfixed Stars is an accomplished, well-constructed, cerebral piece, sparse with delicate fragmentary instrumental phrases requiring concentration from the players, but old-fashioned and backward looking in style for me. Clever but arid, atonal and demanding for the audience. Disappointingly it didn’t use the orchestral resources available, and at first-hearing it was unsatisfying.
Flamboyant and flashy young American organist Cameron Carpenter is aiming to change the fusty image of the organ, and with his glitzy, showy Swarovski Crystal–encrusted Liberace-like costume he certainly did that.
He is formidably talented with amazing technique, especially in his pedal work making the, rarely heard Samuel Barber Toccata Festiva Op.3 exciting and exhilarating with the orchestra in ravishing support in this relatively minor piece. His encore of an arrangement of Liszt’s Funerailles was showy vapid posturing for effect, and musically didn’t fit, or suit this organ at all.
THE annual National Youth Orchestra concert is always a highlight and this one was no exception with accomplishment, excellence, youthful passion and exuberance on display.
And as there was an organ soloist it was great to hear them playing in the fine acoustic of the Wellington Town Hall.
There was commitment and excitement in their playing with the weight, sweep, and bite in the strings, glorious, and quite astonishing in such young players. Their magnificent performance of Rachmaninov’s Symphony No. 2 was wonderful to hear. I consider the NYO second only to the NZSO in New Zealand orchestras and this year’s orchestra proved the point again.
This big romantic symphony requires great playing and it got it, with all sections excelling themselves, a few moments in ensemble aside. The razor-sharp trumpets cut through the orchestra were thrilling. The whole, with accurate and crisp percussion and characterful winds backed by the rich sweep of the strings made for a memorable performance.
The expert guidance and judgment of conductor James Judd’s was constantly evident.
Composer-In-Residence Alexandra Hay ‘s opening work in An Atlas of Unfixed Stars is an accomplished, well-constructed, cerebral piece, sparse with delicate fragmentary instrumental phrases requiring concentration from the players, but old-fashioned and backward looking in style for me. Clever but arid, atonal and demanding for the audience. Disappointingly it didn’t use the orchestral resources available, and at first-hearing it was unsatisfying.
Flamboyant and flashy young American organist Cameron Carpenter is aiming to change the fusty image of the organ, and with his glitzy, showy Swarovski Crystal–encrusted Liberace-like costume he certainly did that.
He is formidably talented with amazing technique, especially in his pedal work making the, rarely heard Samuel Barber Toccata Festiva Op.3 exciting and exhilarating with the orchestra in ravishing support in this relatively minor piece. His encore of an arrangement of Liszt’s Funerailles was showy vapid posturing for effect, and musically didn’t fit, or suit this organ at all.
Have Your Say
0 Comments
No comments.