A New Generation: An Evening With The National Youth Orchestra of the United States

Details

Parent Category: Film and the Arts

Category: Reviews

Published on Tuesday, 02 August 2022 20:19

Written by Jack Angstreich

NYO-USA, Photo by Chris Lee

At Carnegie Hall, beginning on the evening of Thursday, July 28th, I was fortunate to attend three splendid concerts presented by the National Youth Orchestra of the United States of America. The enjoyable first program featured NYO Jazz conducted by trumpeter Sean Jones, the Artistic Director and Bandleader, with guest vocals by the impressive Jazzmeia Horn.

Even better was a terrific concert the following night performed by the remarkable musicians of the National Youth Orchestra proper—under the admirable direction of Daniel Harding—which opened with Edward Elgar’s melodious, autumnal Cello Concerto with the eminent Alisa Weilerstein as soloist. The first movement is Romantic and soulful while the Lento introduction to the second is more lyrical if, maybe paradoxically, more inward, ensuing in a sprightly, even dramatic, scherzo. With the Adagio and concluding Allegro the work moves from the meditative to the anguished.

The second half of the event was enthralling, devoted to a compelling reading of Gustav Mahler’s magnificent Fifth Symphony. The beginning of the first movement is thrilling and suspenseful, the prelude to a beautiful funeral march that builds to great intensities before ending softly. The second movement is more turbulent but also with quieter passages, closing too on a hushed note. The increasingly eccentric Scherzo that follows begins with a cheerful and ebullient Ländler with a lovely, slower, waltz-like section. The celebrated Adagietto is unearthly in its majesty and the exhilarating finale has a more pastoral character but concludes exuberantly. The artists received an enthusiastic ovation which was answered by a fabulous encore: a dazzling performance of an abridged version of "Adventures on Earth" from John Williams’s wonderful score for Steven Spielberg’s film, E.T.: The Extraterrestrial.

The marvelous third concert—performed on the evening of Monday, August 1st—featured the absurdly precocious musicians of NYO2—which consists of instrumentalists ages 14-17—with Fellows of the New World Symphony and America’s Orchestral Academy, under the flamboyant direction of Mei-Ann Chen. The program began auspiciously with an accomplished account of the rewarding Soul Force by contemporary composer Jessie Montgomery which was notable for its effective orchestration. The excellent jazz soloist Aaron Diehl then took the stage for a brilliant performance of George Gershwin’s delightful Piano Concerto in F. The opening Allegro is sparkling, although very variegated in style and mood, while the second movement is bluesy and more subdued. The exciting finale is propulsive and virtuosic.

The second half of the evening—an assured rendition of Sergei Rachmaninoff’s enchanting Symphonic Dances—was equally memorable. The first movement is compelling with tuneful passages and the second is a captivating—if oddly eerie—waltz, with the last impassioned if quirky. Ardent applause elicited two outstanding encores: An-Lun Huang's extraordinary “Saibei Dance” from Saibei Suite No. 2, Op. 21 and Leonard Bernstein’s irrepressible Candide Overture.

• < Prev
• Next >