“One of the anomalies of the ‘dying’ art of classical music is that every year, music schools the world over graduate thousands of classical players, people in their teens and 20s who missed all the articles about the demise of the classics,” writes Robert Harris in Wednesday’s (7/31) Globe and Mail (Canada). “The cream of the crop do succeed in the world of classical music, and in Canada, the cream of the crop make up each year’s National Youth Orchestra of Canada…. Over its 50-plus year run, the NYOC has supplied almost 30 percent of all current members of Canadian symphony orchestras, as well as orchestras around the world. These kids are good—really good. That’s what makes the annual summer concert of the NYOC inevitably one of the best of the year.… [Under] Conductor Alain Trudel … the Four Sea Interludes from Benjamin Britten’s Peter Grimes were beautifully presented, with their interesting sonorities and dark undercurrents both expertly rendered.… The National Youth Orchestra of Canada reminds us why we were drawn to classical music in the first place. They revive for us the heart and soul of this special art form, and present it with skill and the exuberant joy the young seem to have as their birthright.”
Posted July 31, 2013
