Reviews / Youth orchestra concert a ‘joyful summer celebration’
SHETLAND Youth Orchestra’s summer concert was held in the Lerwick Town Hall on Wednesday, and was certainly a time to celebrate.
It came on the back of the orchestra’s very successful summer school and concert in Unst earlier this month.
The young group of around 40 players communicated their energy and enjoyment right from the start with the fanfares of Handel’s La Réjouissance, a movement of his fireworks music, filling the town hall with sounds of celebration.
It was an evening of enjoyment for the audience too, with the orchestra playing an impressive variety of musical styles.
It seems the youth orchestra can tackle anything: from classical repertoire to films scores and popular music, and from slow airs to toe tapping pieces and smooth jazz.
A movement from Holst’s Planet Suite, Mars the Bringer of War, with its relentless and chilling musical description of an approaching army, showed off the skills of the percussion section.
This was followed by Jupiter the Bringer of Jollity, with its beautiful theme in the middle, known better as the hymn ‘I vow to thee my country’, where the audience could be heard humming along with the smooth playing of the strings.
There was so much to celebrate, with string solos from Ruben Ritch, Leah Sandilands and Megan-Leigh Smith, and a technically brilliant performance of Monti’s Czardas by Andrew Laurenson on saxophone, a deserving winner of this year’s Shetland Young Musician award.
Some members of the orchestra, leaving school or Shetland at the end of this year, have been playing with it for eight years or more.
The leaders of the group, Siobhan McGregor, Annalie Irvine and Justin Rhodes, are to be congratulated for their work with this young group of players, whose engagement and concentration was evident throughout.
It was good to see Lauren Abernethy, a string player, conducting a Bruno Mars medley with absolute control, and responses that included improvised solos from several members of the orchestra. These young folk can play jazz too.
We went to Russia, with a suite from Kabalevsky that was reminiscent of Russian military bands playing folk songs and Cossack dances.
Then to music from spaghetti westerns, with themes from The Magnificent Seven and The Good, the Bad and the Ugly. On to a more recent film: a medley of songs from Wicked by Schwartz, with the orchestra Dancing through Life and Defying Gravity.
A fitting end to the concert was a medley of music from How to Train your Dragon by Powell, with its adventure themes and Celtic influences, which showed this young orchestra’s members to full advantage with a lovely variety of fizzing orchestral colours.
This young orchestra continues to grow from strength to strength, and it was a pleasure to both watch and listen to them. A joyful summer celebration of Shetland’s young orchestral players!
Chris Horrix
Become a member of Shetland News
Shetland News is asking its readers to consider paying for membership to get additional perks:
- Removal of third-party ads;
- Bookmark posts to read later;
- Exclusive curated weekly newsletter;
- Hide membership messages;
- Comments open for discussion.
If you appreciate what we do and feel strongly about impartial local journalism, then please become a member of Shetland News by either making a single payment, or setting up a monthly, quarterly or yearly subscription.
Already a member? Sign in to hide this message.
