The Dunedin Youth Orchestra
Past Orchestra Reviews
All reviews courtesy of the The Otago Daily Times
| Autumn | 2004 | 2003 | 2002 | 2001 | 2000 | 1999 | 1998 |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Spring | 2004 | 2003 | 2002 | 2001 | 2000 | 1999 | 1998 |
Thursday, 16-September 2004
DYO concert enjoyable
The Dunedin Youth Orchestra, comprising 47 talented young musicians conducted by Anthony Ritchie, presented an enjoyable concert in the Glenroy last evening.
New Zealand composer David Hamilton's Puki Ariki , from Piece in Celebration (2003), began the programme. The build-up of brass fanfare in this work was rather top-heavy in volume and was the only place during the entire concert with noticeable sectional imbalance.
The strings (of whom I have often been critical) were exceptionally tight and resonant in all the works, and particularly so in Death of Aase (Grieg).
Forest (2003), a descriptive piece by University of Otago music student I-hsuan Lin, allowed the instruments to interpret forest sounds. Fine woodwind playing portrayed various melodious bird calls and twitterings.
Rondo from Manuka Suite (2000), by Leonie Holmes of Auckland, was an interesting mix of rhythm and texture, again well interpreted in all sections.
Awakenings (2002), composed by University of Otago music student Ryan Youens, who plays viola in this orchestra, developed a theme "depicting the first glimmers of life". A good build-up of intensity was achieved, with exposed woodwind well shaped and shaded.
Variations (1987), by Anthony Ritchie, based on a Hungarian-style theme, completed an interesting first half of New Zealand contemporary works.
The Lark Ascending, by Vaughan Williams, featured the orchestra's leader violinist Hwee Sin Chong as soloist. She negotiated bravura passages with confidence and strong lyrical interpretation, maintaining rapport with the good-sized audience.
A selection from the popular Peer Gynt Suite (Grieg), an ideal repertoire for this orchestra, was most enjoyable, and the programme ended with the overture to Verdi's Nabucco .
Helen Bevin (viola) and Tim Walsh (trombone) were awarded the orchestra's 2004 Young Musicians' Award.
Saturday, 22-May 2004
Mixed bag from young musicians
About 45 dedicated young musicians below the age of 25 meet weekly in the city, to play classical music. They are the Dunedin Youth Orchestra, and on Thursday evening I attended their Sentinel Community Trust Autumn Concert conducted by Nick Cornish, in the Glenroy Auditorium.
The first half of the concert was taken up by a major work - Symphony No 104 in D Major, The London Symphony (1795). Haydn is not my favourite composer at the best of times and I did try very hard, but I still found the performance of this work rather tedious, and tended to notice thin moments and cautious entries in the strings (which also had intonation problems) and a general insecurity which frequently led to untidiness in exposed passages. However, Tutti sections were secure, full-bodied and resounding. Very effective crescendos coloured the second movement and the Country Dance stood out as a highlight in the Finale .
Sir Malcolm Arnold's Concerto for Flute and Strings Opus 45 (1954) with soloist Kirsten Bevin was outstanding and I confess to emitting a shrill whistle during the long and deserved acclamation. The piece featured an excellent performance from the strings, with precise, well-packed staccato creating exciting atmospheric timbre for the soloist to ride upon. There was a good range of nuance throughout, particularly in the calm and tranquil passages before the final Con Fuoco , and a very professional performance from the soloist who characterised this contemporary work with considerable flair.
The final work, Sinfonietta (1948) by Francis Poulenc, was colourful, contemporary and in four movements. Melodies, many and varied, danced along with varying moods and rhythms in a generally satisfactory performance.
Monday, 22-September 2003
Skill and enthusiasm bode well
The Dunedin Youth Orchestra under Peter Adams gave an enjoyable concert in the Glenroy Auditorium on Saturday afternoon.
It is heartening for the future of orchestral music in Dunedin to hear young instrumentalists playing to a high standard. Most sections of the orchestra are strong, with some of the more experienced players acting as mentors for the younger ones.
It was also good to see excellence recognised with the presentation of two awards, one to flautist Kirsten Bevin and the other to violinist Hwee Sin Chong.
David Benson-Pope presented the awards, which give winners the right to perform a concerto with the orchestra next year. Last year's winner, Kelly Nichol, gave an outstanding performance of Dragonetti's Allegro and Rondo for double bass and orchestra. The slightly-built Nichol has no problem moving around the bass, with all registers covered with a good degree of agility. She also projects her tone nicely and has a musical approach to the shaping of the music.
Because of the nature of the double bass, intonation was always going to present some problems for the ensemble. However, overall this was a fine performance.
The orchestra opened the concert with Karelia Suite by Sibelius. After a tentative start, the orchestra gave a bright performance, with the brass section, especially the trumpets, packing a solid punch.
Peter Adams wisely set a steady tempo in the Alla Marcia, allowing the strings and winds to shine.
Some might question the wisdom of choosing Barber's famous Adagio for Strings for the orchestra to play, but I thought it was an inspired risk. It was obvious the players responded positively to the music and will have learnt a lot from it.
While there were difficulties keeping the ensemble together, a lot of poise was shown, especially in the high passages. The tone the strings produced in this work was impressive.
After the interval, the orchestra performed Beethoven's Symphony No 8 . The first two movements were very good, full of character and strong rhythm. It is heartening to hear bassoons playing a prominent role in the orchestra after years of absence. There were also subtle touches from the strings and winds in the humorous second movement.
The latter movements were not quite to this standard, with the finale featuring some overly-zealous trumpet playing.
However, the enthusiasm and skill of the players is obvious and bodes well for the future.
Monday, 2-June 2003
Impressive young musicians a pleasure to watch
Anyone with the idea that the Dunedin Youth Orchestra is just a group of youngsters having fun trying to play musical instruments would have altered their view very smartly had they been in the Kavanagh College Auditorium on Saturday evening.
This group of about 60 talented young musicians were having fun right enough, but their enjoyment came through striving to interpret a challenging orchestral repertoire, under the expert guidance of David Burchell. The orchestra deserved a bigger audience, as the results were impressive, considering most players are still teenagers.
The programme began with 30 minutes of Haydn's Symphony No 99 in E Flat Major . This was a well-paced performance with generally good nuance and sufficient spirit maintained throughout. There were a few tentative entries and "rough edges", especially from the violins, but nothing to detract from quite a scintillating performance.
A programmatic work , Hinterland by New Zealander Martin Lodge (Mozart Fellow at Otago 1990-91), developed from effective interchange of themes and motifs from individual sectional players sounding within the orchestra. The work expanded with some excellent solo lyricism, particularly from cello, oboe and violin.
The composer spoke briefly and congratulated the youth orchestra on a creditable performance, this being only the third public performance after the Auckland Philharmonia and NZSO (which has also recorded on CD).
Romanze No 2 in F Major for Violin and Orchestra by Beethoven featured soloist Sarah Fahey, a third-year honours performance student.
Not a performer with robust or flamboyant style, her solo lines were delivered with care and precision in a light lyrical delivery.
The Birds , a symphonic poem by Respighi, was great fun, as imaginative and witty orchestration sketched the character of several different birds, demanding much twittering, with colourful clucking, squawking and cuckooing.
Saturday, 21-September 2002
Young musicians deliver the goods
The Dunedin Youth Orchestra presented a concert in Kavanagh College Auditorium last evening, under direction of Peter Adams, with a programme of four varied works, two featuring talented soloists.
The opening Overture to Don Giovani (Mozart) showed good pace and nuance and the orchestra resonated superbly.
Concerto No 3 in B minor for Violin and Orchestra by Camille Saint-Saens was an ideal work to showcase Alexander Vaastra, the very talented University of Otago second-year music student. Many moods and contrasting passages are encased in this three-movement work, originally premiered in 1881 by the composer's contemporary, Spanish violinist Pablo de Sarasate.
The second movement barcarole theme, featured sections with violin and woodwinds, where rapport and passionate interpretation produced music of great beauty. The contrasting final movement Molto Moderato e maestoso gave opportunity for full-bodied vibrant playing, and this young violinist certainly delivered the goods, earning tumultuous applause and admiration.
A three-movement Concerto in A minor for Oboe and Strings by Anton Vivaldi demanded vital liaison between the solo instrument and string orchestra. Soloist Kate Donnelly, (another Otago second-year music student) gave strong rhythmic shaping to every phrase, with the variety of colour so essential to lift this type of Baroque work. She was also accorded resounding applause.
A Stravinsky suite in seven movements ( Pulcinella ) composed in 1922 included some impressive sectional highlights, and proved an ideal work to show the calibre of all musicians in this orchestra.
During the evening, Errol Moore announced the 2002 DYO Young Musician's Scholarship Awards and Bob Officer presented certificates and $1000 each to winners Kelly Nichol (violinist and double bass player) and Sarah Fahey (violinist).
Monday, 27-May 2002
Variety from youth orchestra
Dunedin Youth Orchestra presented a concert in Otago Boys High School auditorium on Saturday night with approximately 50 musicians from teens to 28-year-olds, evidence of the dedication of Otago's instrumental teachers.
Opening the concert with the Overture from La Forza del Destino (Verdi), conductor Errol Moore immediately drew these young musicians into a tightly controlled unit.
Impressive "follow on" rapport, as sections took turn with mood and subject changes ever present in an overture, lyrical woodwind passages, and tidy negotiation of the strings' final scalic climax deserve special mention.
Andrew Crooks conducted two Gershwin songs, providing particularly fluid legato orchestral accompaniment for soprano Anna Leese. The young soprano delivered Summertime and the lesser-known My Man's Gone Now , with sincerity and great beauty of tone, especially in the full-bodied upward glissando spanning the singer's range at the end of the second song.
The orchestra coped well with the challenges of intricate detail and inventive scoring in the programmatic work Underwater Music , by Anthony Ritchie, and received long applause from the good-sized audience which included the composer.
Beethoven's Symphony No 7 was a massive undertaking and full marks for the result, a light, bright delivery and good tempo. Plenty of dynamic contrast maintained the unmistakable Beethovian sense of urgency and forward thrust, particularly in the Vivace. The heavier element of the Allegretto was achieved by strong string playing, and passionate shaping of flute and oboe melodic phrasing highlighted the entire performance.
Mention should also be made of the well-designed, colourful programme containing biographical and musical information.
Monday, 1-October 2001
Conductor David Burchell led the City of Dunedin Choir and the NZ Post Dunedin Youth Orchestra to higher planes of performance on Saturday night in Dunedin Town Hall, as they soared through an exhilarating performance of Mendelssohn's great oratorio Elijah .
Elijah was one Old Testament character left "unsung" by the great Baroque oratorio composers and, in 1846, Mendelssohn unleashed this massive work to satisfy the Victorian audience's love of contrast in volume and sound, complete with textual contribution for moral and social improvement of the middle and working classes.
The Dunedin audience, which only half filled the Town Hall (clashes with other events again), certainly revelled in the glorious full-bodied choral and orchestral effects.
All the big choruses achieved the required dramatic thrust and omnipotence.
Blessed are the men who fear him , Be not afraid , and Thanks be to God showed the 110-strong chorus excelling across all sections, with confident soprano higher register, and rich male sonority at the conductor's call.
Splendid climaxes were created, although at times, despite an English text, crisper consonants would have achieved greater emotional delivery, for example in creating even stronger degrees of anger in Woe unto him .
Soprano Anna Leese ( ODT Aria winner) was outstanding, handling her solos with poise and purity of tone.
Rebecca Murphy (Wellington), returning to her home city with a "new sound", matched perfectly in all soloist combinations, especially Lord bow thine ear to our prayer .
Rachael Gillet completed the trio in the unaccompanied beauty of Lift thine eyes .
Other minor soloists were Jenny Kempton and Prue Young.
A strong performance from Brent Read (Dunedin) showed his unique tenor timbre, ideally suited to the solo demands of this work.
Bass Jud Arthur conquered all his solos with style and decorum.
Full marks and congratulations to our Youth Orchestra, who, with organ support (Ronald Newton), maintained a truly professional accompaniment throughout this marathon work.
Several members of Oamaru's Whitestone Festival Chorus also sang with the choir.
At the performance, Youth Orchestra members Kate Donnelly (oboe) and Sarah Hooper (violin) were each presented with young musician awards of a certificate and $1000.
For the past five years, New Zealand Post has provided these young musician awards for all New Zealand Youth Orchestras. However, this funding has now ceased and the 2001 young musician awards for Dunedin's NZ Post Youth Orchestra were provided by the local Youth Orchestra Committee.
The committee is seeking new sponsorship for this award, intended to encourage members of Dunedin's orchestra for under-25-year-olds.
Monday, 4-June 2001
Young performers up to big undertaking
The New Zealand Post Dunedin Youth Orchestra presented a concert in the Dunedin Town Hall on Saturday evening, giving approximately 40 of their members and conductor Michael Joel performing experience in this large, acoustically grand venue.
The opening work, Mapoutahi Stands , by Dunedin composer Michael Norris, was commissioned for this orchestra in 1996 and is a vividly ultramodern soundscape, demanding strict attention to entries and rhythmic detail and care with intonation as glissandos and merging dissonant tonality might otherwise appear to stray. Winds, sea-spray and an essence of memories from an East Otago promontory and Maori pa site were all textured with conviction by these young performers in a very creditable performance.
Khachaturian's Spartacus Suite No 2 was an ideal choice, with lively dance movements orchestrated to give opportunity to all sections.
A good balance of woodwind and strings, with pianoforte arpeggios substituting for harp, was maintained throughout and some particularly beautiful moments occurred at main theme re-entries in the first movement.
The second movement, Dance of the Roman Courtesan and General Dance (more familiar to "the olds" as the Onedin Line theme), set a good pace with well-controlled opening brass and again effected some spine-chilling rapport at the thematic repeats.
The second half of the concert was given solely to Haydn's Symphony No 104 in D Major (known as the "London"). Haydn is not among my favourite composers and I found 26 minutes of his classical orchestration rather dull after the scintillating first half.
The third movement ( Minuetto and Trio ) was reasonably compelling listening, but I confess my attention was mostly taken by watching individual performances, ranging from the talents of the intermediate school-age cellist to the more experienced full-time university music students.
The experience for this orchestra of performing a four-movement symphony should have been followed by a short, bright encore.
Wednesday, 4-October 2000
Contrasts in youth concert
The New Zealand Post Dunedin Youth Orchestra's concert presented a programme of contrasting works with different conductors at Kavanagh College last night.
Opening with Second Suite for Symphonic Band by Holst, fourth-year music student Matthew Leese conducted this toe-tapping potpourri of British folk tunes with good pace and colour.
Third-year student Sonia Kao's conducting debut with the orchestra and soloist Jonathan Williman was Mozart's Flute Concerto K313 . which was well controlled, but lacking a little in spirit and life, as so often happens, with Mozart's music appearing deceptively simplistic at times. This work ideally showcased the young flute soloist from Central Otago.
The Hanging Bulb , by local composer Anthony Ritchie and conducted by Peter Adams, has passages of strident percussive mood and demands imaginative interpretation which these young musicians achieved.
The programme ended with Concerto for Viola and Clarinet, composed in 1911 by Max Bruch, conducted by Peter Adams from a handwritten manuscript obtained from Germany. This orchestra has the honour of giving New Zealand's first performance of the work, with well-known Dunedin musician and conductor Michael Joel playing viola and his brother Andrew (also a 1999 Award winner) on clarinet.
The orchestra is giving a concert in Queenstown this weekend and I recommend Central Otago music-lovers make the effort to attend especially to hear the "new" Bruch.
Saturday, May 2000
This Saturday's concert of the New Zealand Post Dunedin Youth Orchestra, under the baton of Jack Speirs, will feature three works requiring quite different musical forces.
The concert will begin with Johann Sebastian Bach's Concerto In D Minor For Violin And Oboe , performed by the University of Otago's Marama Chamber Orchestra. The youth orchestra will then be joined by the 50-member Southern Youth Choir for a performance of Brahms' Schicksalslied before the final item, Tchaikovsky's second symphony.
The concert begins in the Dunedin Town Hall at 7.30pm and will end about 9pm, making it suitable for families with younger children. Tickets are available at the Regent Theatre and door sales will be available at the Town Hall from 6.30pm on Saturday.
Monday, 20-September 1999
Young musicians receive awards
Two New Zealand Post Young Musicians Awards were presented at a concert by the New Zealand Post Dunedin Youth Orchestra in the Glenroy Auditorium last Saturday evening.
In recognition of musical growth, potential and commitment, NZ Post representative John Delaney presented $1000 awards to Andrew Joel, who plays clarinet, and flautist Jonathan Williman.
Andrew is from Dunedin and plays violin and piano but changed to serious study of the clarinet just three and a-half years ago.
Jonathan comes from Wanaka and is studying sciences at the University of Otago. He plans to put his prize-money towards purchasing a piccolo.
Last year's winners also featured on the programme. Anita Cavanough performed solo flute in a baroque concerto by Joachim Quantz, and the orchestra also presented Ewan Clark's national composition winner Landfall .
Approximately 180 attended the concert at which both the youth orchestra and the combined orchestra of Otago Girls High School and Otago Boys High School were conducted by Nick Cornish.
School orchestras tend to fluctuate in standard and this latter orchestra is currently in excellent form. Its performance from Ma Vlast (Smetana) displayed impressive tonality, dynamics and phrasing throughout.
The youth orchestra also paid meticulous attention to dynamic shading in all its works, with particular clarity and vibrancy in the four contrasting movements of Greig's lyrical Peer Gynt Suite No 1.
Symphony No 8 in B minor (Unfinished) by Schubert produced secure, emotive delivery from all sections of the orchestra, totally captured by the rapport with a conductor dedicated to inspire these talented young performers achieve increasing levels of musical interpretation and experience.
Tuesday, 25-May 1999
Talented performance augurs well for future
Dunedin's young music talent was showcased last night in a concert by the NZ Post Dunedin Youth Orchestra with the Marama Chamber Orchestra and Southern Youth Choir.
Under the experienced baton of Jack Speirs, the young players and singers performed with an assurance that was heartening. There were moments of magic, as in the bold opening of the finale in Dvorak's 8th symphony, or in Tecwyn Evans' beautiful song, God be in my head.
All the forces combined for the first item, Serenade to Music by Vaughan Williams. Here, the augmenting of the Youth Orchestra with students from the Marama Chamber Orchestra paid rich dividends, due to the rich string sonorities in the music. Orchestra and choir responded well to Speirs' interpretation and I was particularly impressed by the fresh soprano voices.
The Southern Youth Choir, conducted by Jonathan Lemalu, then sang a bracket by themselves, and showed their strength in the slower, more harmonic items. They didn't quite have the strength in the male voices for Rautavaara's Spanish songs but it was good to see them tackling demanding items such as this.
While it was nice to hear Spohr's Fantasy for harp, this addition to the programme lengthened the evening well beyond the promised "home time". Robin Ward showed he is a very promising harpist.
The Dunedin Youth Orchestra seems to have got stronger in certain key positions, especially in the wind and brass. Overall this was a very good performance and augers well for the future.
Monday, 28-September 1998
Variety in enjoyable concert
The dramatic introduction to Also sprach Zarathustra by Richard Strauss opened the NZ Post Dunedin Youth Orchestra's concert on Saturday night. From then on the choice of music provided variety, continuity and fun contrasting with profundity.
Balfour and Paterson - A Dedication by local composer Ian Sinclair showed that you really can write music about engineers. By focusing on the energy of a new community with nowhere to go but ahead, and the tragic deaths of Balfour and Paterson, Ian Sinclair captured something in sound of all those photographs of early Otago.
Jonathan Lemalu then demonstrated the talent that recently gave him success at the Mobil Song Quest. Lemalu has a very mobile face that enhanced the expression of every phrase he sang in two Mozart arias. Later, the orchestra and singer's performance of Jerome Kern's Ol Man River was evocative of the rhythms of a river and equally did not miss the irony in George Gershwin's I Got Plenty o' Nuttin . The beautiful textures and melodies of Pavane by Gabriel Faure provided the perfect continuity between the two vocal items.
After being entertained by a piano rising from beneath the stage during the interval, the concert continued with the presentation of the New Zealand Post young musicians' awards. These were presented to Anita Cavanagh (flute) and Ewan Clark (trombone) and recognised outstanding commitment and achievement.
Andrew Crooks left his post as principal oboe to solo in the "Allegro assai" from Mozart's Piano Concerto No. 16 in D, giving a very creditable performance. The piano then returned to the depths and the programme ended with Franz Schubert's Symphony No. 9, the "Great C Major". The DYO managed the dynamic contrasts and variety of colours and textures with much energy and skill.
This was a thoroughly enjoyable concert performed with the right degree of informality. The whole was very ably held together by Peter Adams on the podium.
Tuesday, 2-June 1998
High standard achieved by city's youth orchestra
The first concert by the Dunedin Youth Orchestra for 1998 was held in the Glenroy Auditorium yesterday and set a high standard for future performances.
Contributing to the success of the concert was the interesting programme, including well-known works which clearly were enjoyed by the orchestra and audience alike. Opening the afternoon was Lilburn's Aotearoa Overture , in which the orchestra demonstrated good sectional co-ordination and thematic contrast. The overture set a suitable atmosphere for Bruch's Concerto for Violin and Orchestra in G minor, which allowed the orchestra's leader, Claire Anderson, to demonstrate her abilities as a solo performer. The work requires an expressive approach from both the soloist and the orchestra, and this was particularly evident in the second movement, when the soloist explores the instrument's expressive lower registers.
In the second half, the orchestra again demonstrated its ability to play expressively with a fine performance of Beethoven's Symphony No. 5, perhaps one of the best known works in the symphonic repertoire. The rhythmic interaction in the opening movement is challenging, but thanks to strong control from conductor Michael Joel this was overcome.
The rapport between the conductor and orchestra was particularly evident in the second movement, with good contrast between the variations, and the finale was a suitably energetic end to an excellent afternoon's entertainment.
