De La Warr Pavilion, Bexhill 

Saturday July 28

Brahms is generally regarded as a composer of ‘serious’ music but his Academic Festival Overture from 1880 which opened the evening was the exact reverse. With the brass secion to the fore, it rolled merrily along, largely versions of students’ songs, ending with the traditional Gaudeamus Igitur which most recognise.

Continuing in this joyous vein was Dances of Galanta from the pen of Hungarian composer Zolan Kodaly a homage to his home town.  Kodaly emulated the British folk song expert Cecil Sharpe, in travelling countrywide collecting the words and music of folk songs and national dances.  Some of the former were designed to encourage military recruitment, some were solely for recreation. Welded together, they made an attractive contrast.  The introduction of the czardas, the national dance of Hungary, made an attractive prelude to the outstanding feature of the work, a breath-taking extended section for clarinet, a solo which the audience truly appreciated, expertly played with assurance by the leader of the woodwind section Luke Wiltshire. 

Sibelius’s Fifth Symphony in E flat major, universally acknowledged as his most popular work after Finlandia, reflected his love of nature with instruments representing its various aspects. In the first movement, the woodwind served as the birdsong, the strings the breeze through the trees, with the lower-registered instruments combining in sombre recognition of the vast wildernesses of the composer’s homeland. The second movement opened in bright dance form, but swiftly changed to an almost threatening atmosphere. The last movement began with the strings, then the horns, repeated by the double basses joining in a crescendo of sound ending on a sequence of six impressive chords by the entire orchestra.

Colin Metters founded the Youth Orchestra over three decades ago and has conducted every end-of-the-academic-year occasion ever since.  Surely this must have been the most impressive of all? The audience, including amongst its distinguished guests several professional musicians, certainly thought so.

A considerable number of the players will be going in September to Music Academies or University music courses and we wish them every success in their chosen – and sometimes hazardous – profession. For those heading for more conventional careers, they will assuredly look back on their time with the Music Service with affection and carry with them a lifetime’s joy in music.  MW