Edinburgh Youth Orchestra
Usher Hall, Edinburgh
Three Stars

Shostakovich’s Festive Overture provided a suitably vibrant opening to the Edinburgh Youth Orchestra’s spring concert, showing off the magnificent orchestral sound these talented young musicians can produce. There was everything from glizty brass fanfares to swaggering strings in this jubilant piece commemorating Russia’s 1917 October Revolution.

With standards in the EYO getting better all the time, it’s not surprising that over the years many players have gone on to establish successful careers in the industry. EYO conductor and artistic director Garry Walker and violinist Daniel Bell are both former players and they teamed up again for Beethoven’s Violin Concerto in D. This is one of the most challenging pieces in the repertoire so Walker set a safe but sure course with tempi tending towards the slow side, particularly in the first and last movements. While this tended to dampen much of Beethoven’s natural exhuberance, it did allow the honeyed tones of Bell’s violin to sing out against a carefully calibrated orchestral backdrop. This was a fairly by-the-book reading from Bell, but his sparky cadenzas suggest that with a bit more confidence he could make something quite special out of this piece.

The tales of heroic deeds in 1001 Arabian Nights are beautifully captured in Rimsky-Korsakov’s ravishing Scheherazade. Again, this was an ideal piece for the EYO with opportunities for solo instruments to shine and the orchestra to revel in a sumptuous and exotic soundworld.

Susan Nickalls