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 by means of participation in youth orchestras has been a core a part of Carnegie Corridor’s mission for a few years. Every summer time, 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 the US of America (NYO-USA) includes musicians aged 16-19. NYO2 engages orchestral gamers aged 14-17, with a selected give attention to ‘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 an intensive audition course of, the musicians accepted into these free applications 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 time, 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 the US, the pageant is internet hosting 5 different ensembles from completely 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. Many 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, crimson sweatpants and sneakers, chattered their method to the orchestra chairs like a bunch of highschool college students visiting the premises on a tour bus, not sure of why they have 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 turned critical as the primary unison, five-measure-long name for consideration from Bernstein’s Symphonic Dances from West Facet Story materialized from nothingness.
It’s troublesome to think about a extra appropriate symphonic piece for an enthusiastic group of extroverted younger interpreters. The efficiency was infused with crowd-pleasing vitality, because of its dancing rhythms, vibrant colours, ‘mambo’ shouts and finger snapping. Abrams masterfully managed your complete efficiency, capturing the twin nature of Leonard Bernstein’s compositional model, anchored by refined harmonies and sophisticated orchestration within the European custom whereas concurrently evoking the spirited essence of New York Metropolis streets.
Bernstein’s West Facet Story shares a thematic reference to Tchaikovsky’s Romeo and Juliet Fantasy Overture and a rhythmically progressive 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 struggle the place they dispatched the frantic sixteenth notes with panache. Nevertheless, they have 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 rigidity, 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 bunch 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 supplied 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 includes musicians aged 16 to 26. The members of the ensemble have toured extensively collectively, and lots of prestigious orchestras embody EUYO alumni amongst their ranks. On Tuesday night time, the ensemble was carried out by Iván Fischer, one of the vital esteemed maestros energetic 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! Pageant’. 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 Pageant Orchestra may, their efficiency was eagerly awaited.
Expectations have been solely partially fulfilled. Within the first motion, the brass gamers appeared tentative, and the cellists lacked conviction. Fischer’s give attention to particulars typically 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 turned extra partaking 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 rigidity within the assertive segments and suavity within the lyrical ones. The coordination between the sections of the big orchestra, which included ten double basses positioned within the again row, was almost supreme.
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 live shows and contains 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 shocking presentation of the theme: ‘Twinkle, Twinkle, Little Star’, also called ‘Ah, vous dirai-je, Maman’, the title utilized by Mozart for his Ok.265 piano variations. Composed in 1914, the rating, anchored in custom, will not be solely filled with wit but additionally 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 diverse temper swings.
The soloist was the proficient younger British pianist Isata Kanneh-Mason, whose poise, immaculate approach and delicacy have 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 troublesome to evaluate the place the keenness was better: 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 boost the standard of musical training in New York. The hassle is particularly praiseworthy given the present circumstances at Lincoln Heart, the place classical music’s contribution to each the common season and summer time applications 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 – Varied: Demarre McGill (flute), Titus Underwood (oboe), Anthony McGill (clarinet), Andrew Brady (bassoon), NYO2 / Teddy Abrams (conductor).
Bernstein – Symphonic Dances from West Facet Story
Jasmine Barnes – KINSFOLKNEM
Tchaikovsky – Romeo and Juliet Fantasy Overture
Stravinsky –The Firebird Suite (1919 model)
6.8.24 – Varied: 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
