National Children’s Orchestras of Great Britain, the Under 13 Orchestra, Leeds Town Hall, Saturday, August 18, 2018

THE Inspirational National Children’s Orchestras (NCO) have been nurturing musical excellence for an astonishing forty years. The youngest of the five national age-banded orchestras is for children under ten. Every student is imbued with the spirit and true meaning of listening to one another and playing together. NCO’s preparatory residential courses culminate in public concerts at some of the country’s most prestigious Halls. Sedbergh School in Cumbria is the idyllic rehearsal setting for the Under 13 Orchestra’s annual Leeds Town Hall concert, conducted on this occasion by Peter Stark.

What’s more, these gifted young musicians play a full concert of well over ninety minutes of music. This year’s typically ambitious programme opened with George Gershwin’s exuberant Cuban Overture.

Peter Stark then informatively sketched in the background to Aaron Copland’s Lincoln Portrait. No other composer so graphically depicts America’s rugged grandeur and the stillness of her vast open spaces. The cinematic quality of this music was enhanced by the airy textures of the sixty strings and four harps, finely articulated woodwind and mellowed brass. This spacious sonic backdrop cushioned National Youth Theatre member Poppy Gilbert’s ringing declamation of Abraham Lincoln’s famous Gettysburg Address.

Three Dance Episodes from Leonard Bernstein’s musical On the Town completed the first half. The 113 musicians clearly relished Bernstein’s Big Band sound, his many tempo changes, swing rhythms and sultry saxophone solos.

Dvorak penned his Symphony No 9 in E minor ‘from the New World’ during his stay in America. The haunting themes inspired by his love of African-American traditional melodies were superbly realised by these splendid young musicians. An expressive solo cor anglais player in the slow movement merits a special mention, and the blazing brass section can be forgiven if they occasionally overpowered the climactic tuttis. What else could possibly follow such an awe inspiring performance? The Orchestra delighted a crowded Leeds Town Hall with their beautiful interpretation of the Concert Suite from Justin Hurwitz’s Academy Award winning music for Damien Chazelle’s 2016 movie, La La Land.

Geoffrey Mogridge