Making it the second Proms DSCH7 to be televised in as many years... Not a complaint as such mind, just an observation...

I agree with every word, Mary. The ensemble may have been a bit seat of the pants at times but I wasn't in the mood for doing a Beckmesser and knocking off points for each slight mishap. I thought it was tremendous too with some lovely individual contributions. I'm not by nature a Mark Elder fan but I thought he paced it just right and helped them build up the tension, and their collective confidence, very effectively. I was just as dewy-eyed as some of the players at the end. Well done them!

sullen youth. white top. 3rd row. 

I thought the concert got better as it went on. The Kernis was trying to be too smart for its own good. The "turn-of-the-century" business was slightly off - the programme said 1992, I heard. That also spoils his implied snipe at Bush....

I really don't understand all the flap over at the other place on tonight's Leningrad: memories are pretty short it seems. Last year Masur and his French Band came over to do the same piece and were the butt of fairly strong criticism which was rather more deserved than tonight's. Anyone reading some of the comments across there could be led to imagine a very different performance to the one I've just caught up with. In a week when an orchestra leader and the ogle-object of Britain's unlikeliest peer both had their tricky moments it seems totally unrealistic to expect absolute perfection from these young amateurs. NYO concerts are always about something else in any case: the buzz of enthusiastic youngsters tackling big pieces with a freshness and commitment that is not always found in our professional orchestras. I couldn't give a throw whether it was the finest performance of the piece I've ever heard or not, because in all works as big as this there are always new things to learn and new perspectives to be discovered. Every face that was zoomed in on displayed a determination to give the best performance possible.

I loved the Kernis (he's a composer I've been aware of for some years now): yes, it's a showy slight trifle, but I'll tell you what; when the percussion section with the rapping insinuated itself via my headphones as I monitored the start of the radio recording, I got an involuntary rocket-trajectory rush of endorphins, and there's nothing more that I can ask of music. I watched the start of the TV broadcast, too, and it had the same effect in the same place.

Like Tony, I found that the Prokofiev made the least impression on me, though as yet I can't put a finger on exactly what it was that didn't click. The Shostakovich was a brave choice: it's not the strongest of the cycle, but it still contains a huge emotional journey: I'd not expect players of this age to have the life experience to be able to discover every last ounce of what it contains, not the least because there's a knife-edge balance between giving it full emotional value and allowing its structure to lose shape. The big first movement, with the tune that drives some people to distraction, isn't at all the heart of the symphony, so needs careful handling. I need to explore this performance in depth a little more perhaps, but I certainly came away from the first hearing aware that I knew more about the piece by the end (a couple of quotations from earlier works I'd not been as aware of structurally, for example). Had I been in the hall, I'd have been cheering: there's absolutely no way that I'd ever have been able to display a tenth of that professionalism at the same age.

Bravi tutti.

Perhaps I should stop posting so late at night because one point I meant to make in saying that the Prokofiev was the least successful (especially disappointing since it's a particular favourite of mine) was that the other two pieces were successful. (I remember using the delete button a lot when I wrote it because I was wary about the political stuff. It seemed to me that making a political point in what is a concert given by children - pace the 18-year-olds - was in poor taste. And we know Elder's views on jingoism - could he not miss an opportunity? But perhaps I'm being over-sensitive and it's no worse than kissing babies in Eatanswill.)

The Kernis was an excellent choice and might have been written specially for the occasion. I thought the Leningrad was well paced and the tension nicely controlled. There were no fluffs that bothered me and we got all the commitment we've come to expect from the NYO. As Ron said, these young people have worked long and hard to have got where they are, doing something that probably won't give them fame and riches (although they will get something far more valuable than that from it) and such a contast from the Big Brother mentality of instant fame for being famous. It's a shame this aspect of young people doesn't get as much coverage in the media as ASBOs do.

I agree.  I was rather incensed by the lack of generosity at TOP - the suggestion that youth orchestras have no place attempting the big works seems to me to be completely wrong.  On the contrary (and I write this as the parent of a member of a youth orchestra that has attempted some pretty demanding repertory - Mahler 5 over the past year, and Brahms 1 not so long ago), it's taking on these works that hones their enthusiasm.  It's not always easy for musically able children who see music as more than the latest pop - what they do is profoundly counter-cultural, and comes up time and again against the toxic ideology of "cool" that condemns achievement and enthusiasm in equal measure.

That there are some people posting at the other place who seem to be telling these kids, in effect, to stick to Dittersdorf really does make my blood boil ....