United States World Orchestra Week (WOW!) – A Celebration of Worldwide Youth Orchestras: Carnegie Corridor, New York, 1 & 6.8.2024. (ES-S)
The event of proficient musicians via participation in youth orchestras has been a core a part of Carnegie Corridor’s mission for a few years. Every summer season, Carnegie Corridor’s Weill Music Institute (WMI) brings collectively proficient younger musicians from throughout the nation to type three ensembles. The Nationwide Youth Orchestra of america of America (NYO-USA) contains musicians aged 16-19. NYO2 engages orchestral gamers aged 14-17, with a selected concentrate on ‘attracting proficient college students from teams underserved by and underrepresented within the classical orchestral area’. NYO Jazz is particularly designed to ‘showcase the legacy and shiny way forward for American jazz’. Following a radical audition course of, the musicians accepted into these free packages prepare collectively for a number of weeks underneath the steerage of distinguished musical personalities, carry out in Carnegie Corridor’s Stern Auditorium after which go on tour.
This summer season, the group has additional augmented its involvement by organizing a weeklong pageant entitled ‘World Orchestra Week (WOW!), A Celebration of Worldwide Youth Orchestras’. Along with the teams from america, the pageant is internet hosting 5 different ensembles from totally different corners of the globe: the Nationwide Youngsters’s Symphony of Venezuela, the Africa United Youth Orchestra, the Beijing Youth Orchestra, the European Union Youth Orchestra and the Afghan Youth Orchestra.
The inaugural efficiency featured NYO2 instrumentalists underneath the baton of Teddy Abrams, Musical America’s 2022 Conductor of the Yr. Abrams, who has been the music director of the Louisville Orchestra for the previous decade, has introduced nationwide consideration to the Kentucky group. A lot of the ensemble members emerged on stage not from the aisles however by nonchalantly climbing the steps from Stern Auditorium’s parterre. The youngsters, wearing black t-shirts, pink sweatpants and sneakers, chattered their option to the orchestra chairs like a gaggle of highschool college students visiting the premises on a tour bus, uncertain of why they had been there. As quickly because the nonetheless boyish-looking Teddy Abrams, additionally sporting sneakers, made his presence felt on the rostrum, the ambiance modified radically. Everybody grew to become critical as the primary unison, five-measure-long name for consideration from Bernstein’s Symphonic Dances from West Aspect Story materialized from nothingness.
It’s tough to think about a extra appropriate symphonic piece for an enthusiastic group of extroverted younger interpreters. The efficiency was infused with crowd-pleasing power, because of its dancing rhythms, vibrant colours, ‘mambo’ shouts and finger snapping. Abrams masterfully managed the complete efficiency, capturing the twin nature of Leonard Bernstein’s compositional model, anchored by subtle harmonies and sophisticated orchestration within the European custom whereas concurrently evoking the spirited essence of New York Metropolis streets.
Bernstein’s West Aspect Story shares a thematic reference to Tchaikovsky’s Romeo and Juliet Fantasy Overture and a rhythmically revolutionary one with Stravinsky’s The Firebird, the 2 works performed after the interval. Predictably, the NYO2 members excelled within the dramatic, action-oriented features of Tchaikovsky’s rating, notably in a spirited execution of the sword battle the place they dispatched the frantic sixteenth notes with panache. Nevertheless, they had been much less profitable in conveying the lyrical, tender character of different moments, such because the sense of destiny underlying the chorale-like depiction of Friar Laurence and the anxiousness within the duets between the protagonists.
Witnessing the cohesiveness these younger musicians achieved in lower than two weeks of rehearsals, because of Abrams’s knowledgeable steerage, was notably spectacular, particularly in tackling the advanced 1919 The Firebird Suite. Past the balanced interaction between sections, the standard of the numerous particular person contributions woven all through the rating additionally stood out. The ensemble’s exact dealing with of the irregular and sophisticated rhythms, masterfully creating and releasing stress, infused The Firebird with a palpable sense of marvel, completely capturing the fairy story essence.
The night’s world premiere, KINSFOLKNEM, is described by its younger composer, Jasmine Barnes, as ‘a celebration of an prolonged Black household gathering’. In three actions – ‘The Sunday Dinner’, ‘The Repast’ and ‘The Reunion’ – Barnes’s new piece targeted on a gaggle of 4 wind gamers: flutist Demarre McGill, oboist Titus Underwood, clarinetist Anthony McGill and bassoonist Andrew Brady. She gave every soloist the prospect to showcase his mettle and beautiful approach, with ‘discussions’ anchored in gospel and jazz-like idioms that includes prominently. Nevertheless, the composer offered much less elaborate interactions between the soloists and the orchestra. Whereas the three different items on this system showcased the orchestra’s capabilities, the ensemble was typically relegated right here to producing harmonious waves within the background.
Based by the late Claudio Abbado, the European Union Youth Orchestra contains musicians aged 16 to 26. The members of the ensemble have toured extensively collectively, and plenty of prestigious orchestras embody EUYO alumni amongst their ranks. On Tuesday night time, the ensemble was carried out by Iván Fischer, one of the crucial esteemed maestros lively right this moment and a famend Mahlerian. Consequently, their efficiency of Mahler’s Symphony No.1 was anticipated as one of many highlights of the ‘WOW! Competition’. Whereas it was unreasonable to count on the younger musicians to anticipate each nuance of the conductor’s intentions because the seasoned members of Fischer’s Budapest Competition Orchestra may, their efficiency was eagerly awaited.
Expectations had been solely partially fulfilled. Within the first motion, the brass gamers appeared tentative, and the cellists lacked conviction. Fischer’s concentrate on particulars generally overshadowed the overarching musical construction. Later, in an try to emphasise the distinction between the Scherzo and the Trio, Fischer launched some ritardandos within the latter that appeared exaggerated. Nevertheless, the efficiency grew to become extra participating because it progressed. Proper earlier than the return of the ‘Frère Jacques’ theme within the third motion, the dialogue between strings and winds was superbly customized. The finale was wonderful, that includes stress within the assertive segments and suavity within the lyrical ones. The coordination between the sections of the massive orchestra, which included ten double basses positioned within the again row, was almost ultimate.
The night’s opening salvo was Anna Clyne’s ‘Masquerade’, a five-minute eruption of intricate, festive and glissando-filled string traces. Composed in 2013 and receiving its Carnegie Corridor première on this event, ‘Masquerade’ evokes the imagery of eighteenth-century promenade concert events and consists of reflections of Previous English merry songs. The efficiency was an train in coordination and handed con brio by the younger musicians.
The concertante piece was a real rarity: Ernst von Dohnányi’s Variations on a Nursery Tune. It begins with an elaborate orchestral prelude, resulting in the stunning presentation of the theme: ‘Twinkle, Twinkle, Little Star’, often known as ‘Ah, vous dirai-je, Maman’, the title utilized by Mozart for his Ok.265 piano variations. Composed in 1914, the rating, anchored in custom, shouldn’t be solely stuffed with wit but in addition wealthy in lyricism – qualities that Fischer and his devoted instrumentalists delivered to the forefront with readability. He paid particular consideration to rendering Dohnányi’s colourful textures and diversified temper swings.
The soloist was the proficient younger British pianist Isata Kanneh-Mason, whose poise, immaculate approach and delicacy had been evident each in her solo moments and in her quite a few interactions with the orchestra.
Usually, the ultimate bars of Mahler’s Symphony No.1 are so overwhelming that an encore appears inconceivable. Nevertheless, this was a particular efficiency by a particular group. Because the conductor departed, the instrumentalists, standing and even dancing, wholeheartedly engaged in ‘Amparito Roca’, a several-minute-long ‘pasodoble’ composed in 1925 by Jaime Teixidor Dalmau. It was tough to evaluate the place the passion was higher: on the stage or among the many viewers!
By organizing this pageant with younger musicians performing for younger audiences, Carnegie Corridor has made a commendable effort to reinforce the standard of musical schooling in New York. The trouble is particularly praiseworthy given the present circumstances at Lincoln Middle, the place classical music’s contribution to each the common season and summer season packages has been drastically diminished, presumably underneath the pretext of its ‘elitist’ character and the necessity to accommodate performances for a broader viewers. It’s to be hoped that the pageant will proceed within the coming years and that different main cities and organizations will acknowledge the worth of such an initiative.
Edward Sava-Segal
1.8.2024 – Numerous: Demarre McGill (flute), Titus Underwood (oboe), Anthony McGill (clarinet), Andrew Brady (bassoon), NYO2 / Teddy Abrams (conductor).
Bernstein – Symphonic Dances from West Aspect Story
Jasmine Barnes – KINSFOLKNEM
Tchaikovsky – Romeo and Juliet Fantasy Overture
Stravinsky –The Firebird Suite (1919 model)
6.8.24 – Numerous: Isata Kanneh-Mason (piano), European Union Youth Orchestra / Iván Fischer (conductor).
Anna Clyne – ‘Masquerade’
Ernst von Dohnányi – Variations on a Nursery Tune, Op.25
Mahler – Symphony No.1