The National Youth Orchestra, Royal Concert Hall, Nottingham, 05 January 2024. 5*****: William Ruff:

Nottingham

The National Youth Orchestra

Royal Concert Hall, Nottingham

05 January 2024.

5*****: William Ruff

“The NYO’s spectacular playing bodes well for the future of classical music.”

There can be no better way to kick-start Nottingham’s new musical year than with the annual visit from the National Youth Orchestra. The playing of so many talented teenagers – an astonishing 170+ of them – not only inspires in the here and now but it reminds us of the rich tradition on which it draws. It also points to the future, giving us hope that the tradition will continue. The challenges that classical music faces grow year by year – but the stream of young musical talent is flowing with as much energy as ever.

First on their programme was a new work by Dani Howard called Ascent, a piece which set the evening’s theme in motion: the view from the summit is richly rewarding but only if you put in the necessary effort. And this applies not only to mountaineering but also music and life in general. Ascent (scored for brass and percussion) started from nowhere, the musicians appearing gradually on stage until all the horns (17 of them) were ranged across the front whilst the other instruments stretched across the back. The sounds were other-worldly, building up layer upon layer and doing strange things to the listeners’ ear drums. Percussion set up insistent rhythms; the players started rotating, bending at the knees, stamping their feet. It was all hypnotic and hugely involving, right up to the moment when the musicians disappeared as quietly as they had appeared. The audience loved it.

Then Nottingham’s favourite conductor, Sir Mark Elder, took to the stage to conduct the full orchestra in Smetana’s tone poem Vltava, the famous musical portrait of the river from its source to its magnificent entry into Prague. It is much-performed in the concert hall but few can have heard it played like this. Here was a river in full flood, the richness of such a huge body of strings adding to its grandeur. Ensemble was always tight and the young players minutely responsive to Sir Mark’s direction. The wedding polka was danced with a real spring in its step; the moonlit scene was tenderly magical; the rapids crashed mightily – but the orchestra kept the biggest climax till the end, when the river flows past the great castle on its banks.

In Richard Strauss’s Alpine Symphony the NYO encountered music whose dimensions matched their own. Its composer loved the mountains, his music telling the story of an ascent one day in his youth. It starts in darkness, has an explosive sunrise, describes woods, a waterfall, meadows, a glacier, mists, a spectacular thunder storm – and then the descent into sunset and darkness. It’s a piece which makes colossal musical and physical demands on the players – but the rewards are in proportion. The NYO played with pinpoint accuracy and were all in tune with the spiritual aspects of the score as well as its vivid evocations of scenery. This was summed up beautifully in the section describing the arrival at the mountain’s summit: not loud (as you might expect) but suddenly quiet, as if the grandeur of the scene can’t be grasped. Only gradually did the magnificence of the view make itself felt – and then the NYO allowed the music to swell majestically. This concert also witnessed the young players reaching their own mighty summit, suggesting that the future of classical music couldn’t be in better hands.

The National Youth Orchestra conducted by Sir Mark Elder