Select Page
The first of our guest Repertoire Reports, submitted on behalf of the CBSO Youth Orchestra by their manager, Richard Bratby:
Dear Ken,
Hope you’re well! Since you’re just doing your repertoire reports, I thought I’d let you know what the CBSO Youth Orchestra has been up to in 2013.
As usual, they’ve only three concerts this year, but I’m keen for people to know about them, partly because of some silly things that I’ve heard said lately: about young people not having the attention span for large-scale music, about their supposed lack of interest in serious repertoire, and the idea that to interest young people, you have to stick to popular classics and film scores. I still hear these patronising (and defeatist) ideas repeated depressingly frequently.Everything we do with this orchestra is grounded in the exact opposite of these ideas – our young musicians adore this repertoire and I can testify that they played the socks off it! It was particularly thrilling to watch them fall in love, en masse, with the Revueltas, Messiaen and Korngold. Coming in 2014: “Zarathustra”, Metamorphosen, and premieres by Turnage and Charlotte Bray!

Best wishes, and Happy New Year,
Richard
Debussy: La Mer (Ilan Volkov)
Korngold: Much Ado About Nothing – suite (Michael Seal)
Messiaen: Poemes pour Mi (Ilan Volkov / Allison Bell)
Mozart: Symphony No.36 “Linz” (Michael Seal)
Ravel: Piano Concerto for the Left Hand (Andrew Litton / Jean-Efflam Bavouzet)
Ravel: Mother Goose – ballet (Michael Seal)
Revueltas: Homenaje a F D Lorca (Michael Seal)
Sibelius: Symphony No.5
Mahler: Symphony No.5 (Andrew Litton)