The Young Musicians Symphony Orchestra is for players who are on the threshold of a professional career, and its ranks include musicians likely to move on to play for the UK's leading orchestras. To run properly it has to exist in a state of almost perpetual fundraising – but anybody who has attended one of the concerts at their base in St John's Smith Square can be left in no doubt as to the worthiness of the cause.
This autumn concert showed all that is good about the organisation, and more besides. Conductor James Blair has been associated with the YMSO for more than forty years now and his commitment to and passion for the orchestra is abundantly clear. For this program he had devised a typically imaginative transition from darkness to light – the first half consisting of two pieces dancing with the devil, while the second allowed itself an indulgence in rich Italian flair.
The devil first, though – and a fine performance of Franck's Le Chausseur Maudit, which floated in serenely on the back of its attractive cello theme, but which swiftly began to move over to the dark side. With darkly coloured brass, incisive strings and sour woodwind at his disposal Blair wrung out a passionate performance, leaving us in no doubt as to who was the victor – the prognosis wasn't good!
Things turned ever more devilish for Liszt's Totentanz, a darker forbear of Rachmaninov's Rhapsody on a theme of Paganini. It even predates Rachmaninov's near-obsession with the Dies Irae chant in a series of fiendish variations, played with flair and imagination by pianist Ashley Fripp. Together with incisive orchestral contributions Fripp brought fire and brimstone to the piano writing, delighting in the virtuoso passages but not forgetting the use of expressive pauses between each variation.
The second half began with a Puccini rarity, the attractive Capriccio Sinfonico, completed when the composer was 25. This surged with lyrical themes, which Blair clearly enjoyed, and there was a nice sense of ebb and flow to the woodwind contributions in particular.
This was, though, an up beat to the main event, Respighi's orchestral spectacular the Pines Of Rome. It never fails to amaze that this, the first of the composer's Roman trilogy of symphonic poems, was written in 1924. Many a film score since has tried and failed to better Respighi's dazzling orchestration and wonderful sense of picture painting, here on vivid display thanks to the enthusiasm and virtuosity of the YMSO players.
Blair made good use of the venue, with the offstage brass up in the gallery, the organ turned up at the back of the church and the piano tucked away far left, so that when the rippling arpeggios rose up at the end of the 'Pines of the Janiculum', the effect was one of surprise. There were many wonderful solo contributions from the orchestra, but Cosima Yu's clarinet solo in the same movement deserves a special mention.
Respighi keeps a tight control on the piece and its expression, so that when the 'Pines of the Appian Way' reached its apex there was a massive sense of exhilaration, and the final pages, layer upon layer added to the sound until the goose bumps arrive, were utterly thrilling. So good was this performance that many a professional orchestra would have been proud to put their names on it – and yet those regulars at St John's were not surprised, for this is the standard the orchestra regularly reach.
This was, then, an extremely uplifting night – but a reminder, too, that organisations such as the YMSO hold a vital role in our musical and cultural society. It is important to give them the support that they deserve.
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