Review: National Children's Orchestra, Leeds Town Hall, Saturday, August 13, 2016

THE Under 13 Orchestra's annual concert in Leeds Town Hall was preceded by a week-long residential course at Sedbergh School. Nearly 120 (impossibly) young musicians refined their interpretive skills and the art of working together as a team under the expert guidance of NCO's dedicated tutors and support staff.

Johann Strauss' effervescent Overture to Die Fledermaus was taken at a cracking pace by NCO artistic director and principal conductor Roger Clarkson. Ensemble was as tight as a drum with a full string tone and some delicate woodwind including a beguiling clarinet solo. Saint-Saens' Danse Macabre made an interesting foil to the glittering atmosphere of 19th century Vienna. Orchestra leader Menglin Li's solo violin effectively conjured up an atmosphere of the supernatural. The rapidly changing rhythms of Gershwin's Symphonic Picture from his folk Opera Porgy and Bess were realised with dazzling panache. A langorous saxophone solo crowned this richly atmospheric reading.

The Allegro Molto movement from Rachmaninov's Symphony No 2 in E minor oozed rhythmic vitality. Perhaps the NCO's Under 13 Orchestra will be emboldened to programme the entire Symphony on a future occasion. The sense of space evoked by Borodin in his orchestral miniature, In the Steppes of Central Asia, was sensitively conveyed by these brilliant' young musicians. Beautifully shaped solo woodwind contributions embellished a haunting performance. An unquenchable enjoyment of making music together is writ large on the shining young faces of the NCO, not least the line-up of six percussionists. They had an absolute beano in Rimsky Korsakov's ebullient Capriccio Espagnol - a performance suffused with Mediterranean warmth.

by Geoffrey Mogridge