Shetland Youth Orchestra going from strength to strength
Our reviewer Barbara Dinnage thoroughly enjoyed the youth orchestra’s midsummer concert in the Lerwick Town Hall on Saturday. Here is her review:
IN THE beautiful main hall of Lerwick Town Hall the stained-glass windows looked resplendent in the evening midsummer sun as more than 40 seats and music stands were laid out as the young orchestral players came in and took their seats.
Schubert – First movement of his unfinished Symphony No 8 started with the cellos announcing the piece followed by the buzz of violins while the melody was played out by the woodwind section – flutes and clarinets with the double bass marking time.
It was beautifully played, as if the cellos were talking to the glockenspiel, as the tune passed to the brass section and back to the violins. It built up to a fairground feel with glockenspiel, trumpets and trombones, and then all instruments playing together by the end. It sounded finished to me.
The second piece was music from Stranger Things with a very polished beginning – the flutes taking the tune followed by xylophone building the sound up with the rest of the orchestra playing the Kate Bush melody Running Up That Hill and the melody took us right up that hill and back down again to the end.
The third piece was Smetana’s The Moldau. We could hear the lightness of the river flowing throughout the piece, flutes echoed by trumpets as it gained strength then slowing and bubbling softly before getting louder with the clever use of percussion and clarinet until the strings took the river up and down the waves to the end.
We were then treated to Martha Robertson (young musician of the Year) singing beautifully Sky Above the Roof by Vaughan Williams with such a gentle soft voice, accompanied by Annalie Irvine on the piano. Martha also plays in the percussion section.
Next was the string group playing a selection from the Chronicles of Narnia – violins and cellos harmonised beautifully as the double bass kept time. Some very accomplished playing.
Nayana Stephen sang Nice work If you Can Get It, a jolly musical piece beautifully with great mastery of all the key changes.
Having just returned from performing in Norway, the orchestra then played Homin Song, a Shetland traditional piece specially arranged by Annalie’s father Nigel Hayward to perform in Norway.
Sioban Macgregor then conducted the Song of the Papa Men, the second Shetland tune which was revved up and had a marching feel.
Again, it involved all instruments and finished with The North Ness Boys singing the words to what is sometimes called Rowin’ Foula Doon. The children’s faces clearly showed how they were enjoying playing and counting the bars till it was their turn to play was a delight to watch.
The next piece was Spinning the Croft, a demanding composition written by Alistair Justice, a former music teacher. We were treated to a romp around the croft and the wind farm with some of it in tricky timing during which the look of concentration on these talented young faces was very apparent.
You could imagine the turning of the wind generator blades, and it became very busy and at times sounded a bit like a Dutch clog dance.
This was followed by a piano recital of Chopin’s Minute Waltz performed by Lauryn Reid, played with an accomplished touch and very good sense of timing and a hint of glockenspiel in the background.
Jan Steibar was guest conductor for Griegs’s In the Hall of the Mountain King in which you can clearly hear things prowling around in the forest.
There were some soft woodwind and xylophone interludes before becoming a loud stomp as the piece gathered speed, then softened again and then became very loud again at the end with crashing of cymbals and banging of drums as it speeded up and then stopped.
Next up was the final movement from Tchaikovsky’s 5th Symphony. The violins began this fairly mournful but beautiful piece. Trumpets and flutes joined in as the sun came out lighting up the stained-glass windows in the town hall. A soft drum roll led up to some busy cymbals just to wake you up and take you into a somewhat frenzied march at the end.
The final piece of the evening (before the encore) was a tribute to Henri Mancini taking us through a bluesy Baby Elephant Walk, Charade, The Pink Panther, Days of Wine and Roses and Peter Gunn.
It was a big programme of music for a most enjoyable summers evening and a very big thank you is due to each of the three stalwarts Sioban, Annalie and Justin Rhodes who devote so much of their time to teach and encourage all these very lucky youngsters.
This orchestra goes from strength to strength.
