What: Wellington Youth Orchestra conducted by Gregory Squire.
Music by Sibelius, Brahms.
Where: Town Hall, 26 May 2008.
Reviewed by: John Button, The Dominion Post, 28 May 2008
This was the first concert in Wellington by that enduring phenomenon, the Wellington Youth Orchestra, under its new musical director, Gregory Squire, and some things stay the same. This splendid group has never drawn an audience, but the emptiness of the Town Hall was almost ridiculous. I know these young players have not got the financial support they deserve, and that prevents anything but the minimum of advertising but, still, I would have expected more of the city’s music lovers to have turned up. They missed what we have come to expect –splendid playing.
Squire, a first violinist in the NZ Symphony Orchestra, is a highly experienced musician, but he is not perceived as having the experience or charisma of a Marc Taddei. Not that there was anything wrong with his conducting or, clearly, his preparation of his players, for the playing was uniformly splendid and musically informed.
The opening Finlandia rang with authority through all sections. Sonorous brass, plangent woodwind and crisply unanimous strings made all the patriotic points. The five Brahms Hungarian Dances were a novelty, for these were not the usual set, but some orchestrated by Dvorak that are rarely heard. These are tricky works, and the complex inner rhythms showed up the players somewhat, but the overall effect remained impressive.
Most of the rehearsal clearly went into the Sibelius Second Symphony, and it was performed with confidence and no little passion. Squire built the work gradually, allowing the finale to make its passionate points with power and grandeur, with sweeping strings and confident brass. The brass, in particular, have improved dramatically. The accuracy and tonal splendour they now display would have been unthinkable just a few short years ago.