{"id":4043,"date":"2018-01-10T10:57:59","date_gmt":"2018-01-10T10:57:59","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.larkreviews.co.uk\/?p=4043"},"modified":"2018-01-10T10:59:24","modified_gmt":"2018-01-10T10:59:24","slug":"lsso","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.larkreviews.wickedlemon.co.uk\/?p=4043","title":{"rendered":"LSSO"},"content":{"rendered":"

Barbican Hall, 9 January 2018<\/span><\/strong><\/p>\n

The Planets<\/em> is the perfect piece for an accomplished youth orchestra such as LSSO. Its massive scale and orchestral colour means that there\u2019s plenty for everyone to do and you can scale it up a bit to involve even more. After all, if you can muster four harps and six percussionists (including two outstanding tympanists and two sets of timps) then go for it.<\/p>\n

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The initial 5\/4 col legno<\/em> rhythm in Mars<\/em> took a few bars to settle but very soon warmed as Richard Armstrong \u00a0smiled and coaxed \u2013 clearly a man who\u2019s comfortable with young players. The grandiloquent Jupiter<\/em> passage with strings and horns was as rich as I\u2019ve ever heard it and the dynamics of the tubular bells in Neptune<\/em> were immaculately controlled. Then the LSSO choir produced a suitably magical, mystic sound at the end of Uranus<\/em>. It was a fine performance by any standards and the presence of three cameramen on stage, one of whom was directing the others with gestures, didn\u2019t seem to be putting anyone off.<\/p>\n

The evening had begun with Bernstein\u2019s cheerful, tuneful Candide <\/em>overture which was played with professional panache and youthful enthusiasm \u2013 a powerful combination. The percussion opening isn\u2019t for the fainthearted but in the hands of these competent, confident youngsters the concert got off to an upbeat start in every sense.<\/p>\n

LSSO\u2019s large forces were reduced to a chamber orchestra for Samuel Barber\u2019s wistful, lyrical Knoxville: Summer of 1915<\/em> with Louise Adler, an LSSO alumna, as soloist. It gave the strings, in particular, the chance to play in a completely different style \u2013 including a delightful string quartet moment played by the four principals – \u00a0and Adler sang James Agee\u2019s words with great beauty and smiling sadness.<\/p>\n

The orchestra was excellently led by A level student, Samuel Woof-McColl. His grins and elfin qualities make him a charismatic player to watch and I\u2019m sure we shall see and hear more of him.<\/p>\n

LSSO is the most senior performance group at Centre for Young Musicians, London\u2019s music service for talented young musicians which operates as an arm of Guildhall School of Music and Drama. Their discipline is striking \u2013 filing silently on to the stage in the right order to take their seats at the beginning for example.<\/p>\n

Players are drawn from all over London and one of the things I admire about LSSO almost as much as the quality of the playing, is the diversity. Both the names in the programme and the faces on the platform tell a fabulous story of integration. The families of many of these youngsters have arrived in London at some point in the past from all over the world but here they are totally bonded by classical music. Anyone who worries about lack of diversity in professional orchestras should take hope form this. Some of these young people will undoubtedly be playing in \u201cgrown up\u201d ensembles before long.<\/p>\n

Susan Elkin<\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Barbican Hall, 9 January 2018 The Planets is the perfect piece for an accomplished youth orchestra such as LSSO. Its massive scale and orchestral colour means that there\u2019s plenty for everyone to do and you can scale it up a … Continue reading →<\/span><\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[3],"tags":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.larkreviews.wickedlemon.co.uk\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/4043"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.larkreviews.wickedlemon.co.uk\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.larkreviews.wickedlemon.co.uk\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.larkreviews.wickedlemon.co.uk\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.larkreviews.wickedlemon.co.uk\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=4043"}],"version-history":[{"count":3,"href":"https:\/\/www.larkreviews.wickedlemon.co.uk\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/4043\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":4047,"href":"https:\/\/www.larkreviews.wickedlemon.co.uk\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/4043\/revisions\/4047"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.larkreviews.wickedlemon.co.uk\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=4043"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.larkreviews.wickedlemon.co.uk\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=4043"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.larkreviews.wickedlemon.co.uk\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=4043"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}