The good old days are back. The schedule thrown out of the window and the Tchaik SQ1 following the Prom starting around 10 minutes early. I wonder what the iPlayer Listen Again facility makes of it. 
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An enterprising programme produced an evening high on colourful playing, fine unity of attack and scrupulous concern for balance. Coll's Mural was true to its title and much broader in its brush strokes than other pieces that I've heard from the composer which have been exquisite miniatures. Coll has a finely tuned ear for sonorities but I'm yet to be convinced by his architectonic skills. The perfirmance was well projected and confident.
Polaris has become a modern classic over the last five years and it was great to hear resounding across and round the RAH's vast amphitheatre. Thomas Ades is a masterful composer and, possibly unlike his pupil Coll, he has a great feel for building complex structures over time. His music has foreground and background, bones, sinews, and flesh. Polaris is packed to its gunnels with tunes and those lyrical elements that were successfully projected by the vast forces of the National Youth Orchestra.
I was impressed by their Performance of the Rite of Spring: the big moments were projected with vim, vigour and vitality but, once again, expressive, melodic material was beautifully shaped, and, of course, there was that electricity that flows when youngsters meet and conquer a masterpiece. A heart-warming performance (despite its Dance of Death) , the only bathetic moment was in the final bars where everything didn't quite conspire to create a frightening shriek.Comment
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