SLYO concerts 25 August 2011

The English summer, such as it’s been, is drawing to a close. It would be easy to drift through these end-of-August days, but at JAGS 150 young people from all over South London have worked their socks off - and had fun – with their tutors, rehearsing concert programmes for families, friends and near-neighbours of JAGS

What a treat! SLYO 2 opened with a Holst Marching song, “a splendid piece to open any concert,” said their conductor, Jon Butcher, and totally fitting for the Holst Hall venue. We heard Scottish and Clog dances and a soothing Gondolier’s song without words: the Baracolle from The Tales of Hoffman by Offenbach, and finally a mini-symphony: Arnold’s Little Suite No. 1. Their quiet confidence and undoubted skill was rewarded with a rapturous reception from the audience.

SLYO 1 conductor, Leigh O’Hara told us the first orchestra was extremely talented and we soon found that out for ourselves. How could 54 players, together for only 4 days’ rehearsal, pull off such ambitious pieces and make such wonderful sounds? They captured so well the atmospheres of each piece, the harshness of Night on a Bare Mountain and the playfulness of Ravel’s Mother Goose Suite; the colours and tones striking vivid contrasts. I particularly enjoyed the different characterisations in The Conversations of Beauty and the Beast. Ravel’s orchestration of Mussorgsky’s Pictures at an Exhibition closed the programme and we traced the lush French influence on the Russian composition. It was a deeply impressive evening showing individual and group performance skill, and the audience was on its feet with enthusiasm at the end. Those young players have enjoyed a week connecting and re-connecting with others on the holiday course, learning from tutors of great distinction and being challenged to develop their range. Congratulations to them all.

Click here for the students’ comments

Photos by Mary Stamm-Clarke ©

Alison Venn

The next SLYO holiday course runs from 19 – 21 December 2011.
T: 020 8613 6444

http://www.jasspa.org.uk