Concert review: NZSO National Youth Orchestra, Auckland Town Hall

The NZSO National Youth Orchestra. Photo / APN

Last September, the NZSO National Youth Orchestra spread out to the far reaches of the town hall stage for Rachmaninov's Second Symphony. On Saturday, just 55 players presented a programme that, if modest in terms of numbers, set up all the right challenges for its aspiring professional musicians.

Mendelssohn's A Midsummer Night's Dream Overture is a paean to the effervescence of youth and conductor Tecwyn Evans kept it bright and breezy, even if the woodwind and horns did not always live up to the promise of their opening four chords. Nevertheless, the piece had drive and gusto, with the violins making the lyrical most of their wistful signing-off.

The second half of the concert had its own overture, Gluck's Iphigenie en Aulide, dressed up in ponderous orchestral garb by Wagner; a creaky score, delivered with a nice sense of mock seriousness.

The soloist in Shostakovich's First Cello Concerto was Santiago Canon Valencia, whose talent and artistry earned him top honours in the 2010 Beijing Cello Festival.

There was much to savour in Valencia's playing, particularly in his sweet astringency in the slow movement.

Yet the opening Allegro seemed unsettled and sometimes in too much of a scurry; the Finale needing more savagery from all involved as the composer ripped into Stalin's favourite folksong.

Valencia's cadenza was the emotional heart of his interpretation, thoughtfully pursued.

Stravinsky's Pulcinella suite was an adventurous choice, a work that, with all its major and minor chords, was almost as radical for 1920 as the Rite of Spring had been seven years earlier.

Brio abounded and the many solo turns, crowned by some lustily bucolic fiddling from concertmaster Hilary Hayes, augur well for our orchestras of the future.

A shame though that we won't be hearing the orchestra's September concert, a Christchurch-only event.

REVIEW

What: NZSO National Youth Orchestra
Where: Auckland Town Hall
When: Saturday.