If you’ve ever hankered after an extra tuba or two in Wagner’s overture to The Flying Dutchman or idly wondered how Mahler’s First Symphony might sound with nine trumpets and eight trombones – almost double what the composer ordered – the National Youth Orchestra’s 2024 Proms appearance was for you.
But of course it’s not just the size of this ensemble that is striking – it is also the musicians’ visible delight and the energy that fizzes constantly on stage. Sometimes that energy was focused into quiet passages of remarkable tone quality, and solos played as if nothing mattered more. Sometimes it was released in massive climaxes, making the return of a big tune a moment of shared joy. Not one of NYO’s members is older than 19 but their performance was unequivocally professional.
That tuba-heavy Wagner overture was like forgetting the neighbours and turning up the volume to “monumental”. Conductor Alexandre Bloch sweated the small stuff – finicky string details, shades of woodwind phrasing – and ensured the huge brass section was crisp as well as roof-raising. The Proms premiere of Missy Mazzoli’s Orpheus Undone was similarly detail-driven, its textural layers moving with almost machinic precision.
The same approach worked less well in the Mahler. There were some glorious moments: the tumultuous scramble of the first movement’s close; the outrageous suavity of the second movement’s trio; the finale’s euphoric coda with the brass on their feet, bells aloft. But elsewhere Bloch verged on musical micromanagement, with too much of this big-boned symphony falling into disparate fragments.
The world premiere of Dani Howard’s bright, post-minimalist Three, Four AND… saw nearly 100 players from the NYO Inspire scheme joining in from the choir seats, the upper tiers of the auditorium, the gallery and, by the end, the aisles. It was a near miraculous feat of coordination from Tess Jackson, conducting in 360 degrees. Best of all was the encore, the Farandole from Bizet’s L’Arlésienne Suite No 2. Instruments were quickly replaced by voices: beatboxing here, triple-tongued twiddly bits there, the Inspire forces also singing its unselfconsciously virtuosic conclusion. Showcases of inclusion and collective voice don’t get more powerful than this.
• Available on BBC Sounds. The Proms continue until 14 September
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