PERTH YOUTH ORCHESTRA

Leader: Darryl DickConducted by Mr Allan Young

ANNUAL CONCERT

7.30pmSUNDAY 11th APRIL 2010

PROGRAMME £1

PERTH CONCERT HALL, HORSECROSS

1970 - Lesley Johnston (piano)1971 - David Miller (clarinet) 1972 - Clare Almond (violin)1973 - Stuart Duncan (piano) 1974 - David Armstrong (trumpet) David Coventry (trumpet) Alan Haddow (trumpet) 1975 - Ian Scott (clarinet) 1976 - Jane Garvie (oboe) 1977 - Mhairi Gray (violin) Margaret Miller (viola) 1978 - Sheila Reid (piano) JuneScott(flute)1979 - Frances Patterson (clarinet) Peter Symon (trombone) 1980 - Charles Berthon (violin) 1981 - Karen Thomson (clarinet) David Bennet (violin) Steven Wiggets (oboe) 1982 - Elizabeth-Anne Neil (violin) Scott Mitchell (piano) 1983 - Graeme Hodge (horn) MarkSpencer-Bowles(flute)1984 - Laura Ashton (oboe) Katherine Mathieson (clarinet) 1985 - Pamela Thorby (treble recorder) JacquelineInglis(flute) Anne McFarlane (horn) 1986 - Fiona Bushby (bassoon) Philippa Gallagher (clarinet) 1987 - Alan Smith (violin) Philippa Gallagher (piano) 1988 - Claire Harkess (viola) Carole Marnoch (voice) Lindsay Moir (bassoon)1989-MarySharp(flute) Heather Nicholl (clarinet)

1990- Joanne Gallagher (cello) Mark Bousie (piano) 1991 - Richard Payne (viola) Carol Baker (clarinet) Lindsay Kettles (horn) 1992 - Heather Wade (piano) Douglas Waterston (trumpet) 1993 - Kay Baker (violin) JohannaRobertson(flute)1994 - Helen Neilson (cello) Hilary Moore (piano)1995 - Heather Nicholl (clarinet) 1996 - Kirstin Mills (cello) Alasdair Beatson (piano) 1997 - Joanna Swingler (horn) Nicholas Dover (saxophone) 1998 - Jenny Handford (bassoon) Elizabeth Smith (violin)1999 - Amy Little (cello) KimberleyBoyle(flute)2000 - Alastair Edmonston (piano) Andrew Mann (clarinet) 2001 - Michael O’Donnell (oboe) Rowan Hellier (voice) 2002 - Morag Young (violin) Tom Norris (bassoon) 2003 - Anne Williamson (piano) Hazel Lindsay (saxophone)2004 - Lawrence O’Donnell (bassoon) StephenO’Donnell(flute)2005 - Fraser Moffat (saxophone) Catriona Steele (viola)2006 - Elizabeth Coe (cello) Rosanna Young (piano) Ben Norris (violin)2007 - Sean Law (double bass) Ruth Lindsay (violin)2008 - Holly Hunter (piano) Allan Young (electric guitar) Iain Murch (violin)2009 - Darryl Dick (violin) Rachel Wilson (cello)

Celebrating our SoloistsName ___________________________________

Address _______________________________________

______________________________

Town ______________________________

Post Code _________________

Telephone ______________________ Date ____________________

I enclose £_________ (minimum £10 per person)

Please detach or copy and forward to:-

Sheona Glenville-Sutherland, 33 Queens Avenue, Blairgowrie, PH10 6PG sheonags@btinternet.comCheques payable to Perth Youth Orchestra (Renewal date - 30th April each year)

PYO is grateful for the support of its many individual and corporate spon-sors, both for their financial support and for their regular attendance at con-certs and other fund raising events for which they receive advance notice and priority bookings. Patrons also retain voting rights at the orchestra’s Annual General Meeting.

JOIN TONIGHT- FORMS AVAILABLE AT THE DOOR

Become a PYO Patron...Join tonight

www.perth-youth-orchestra.org.uk

From the President

I would like to welcome you to Perth Youth Orchestra’s Annual Concert in Perth Concert Hall. Our young musicians have just returned from an intensive week at Dounans Camp, Aberfoyle. Our thanks go to Allan Young and his staff for all their work throughout the year; to the families who have supported these young musicians, and to the players themselves who are a great inspiration to us all.

Special mention to tonight’s soloists – Andrew Forbes (piano) and Rachel Steele (’cello) – they gained their places admidst very strong competition within the orchestra this year. Indeed, it was in recognition of such a wealth of talent, we were delighted to accept an invitation from David Murdoch for a fund raising recital at Methven Castle last month.

Plans are well underway for this year’s concert tour, to Perth’s twin city in Germany. Although it will be our fourth visit to Aschaffenburg, the last one being in 1993, it is fittingthatwewilltakeaflavourofPerth’s800thanniversarycelebrations.

As always, we are grateful for the generous support of Perth and Kinross Council, the Gannochy Trust, the Soutar Foundation, Perth Guildry, the Common Good Fund, the Duncan and the Melville Gray Charitable Trusts and all our major sponsors, and I would also like to acknowledge the work done by the Perth Youth Orchestra com-mittee this year.

Our regular appearances at the British Festival of Youth Orchestras have come to and end. After an unequalled thirty year appearance by Perth Youth Orchestra we were were saddenned to learn that the National Association of Youth Orchestra’s has decidedtodiscontinuetheeventfollowingtheclosureoftheirEdinburghofficelastyear. Undaunted, however, we plan to continue our autumn concert schedule starting with the traditional tour ‘Thank You’ concert for our sponsors, and we are planning performances in Edinburgh’s Greyfriars Kirk on Wednesday 1st September, and the following day, at the Royal Scottish Academy of Music and Drama in Glasgow.

As a part of our major fund raising programme for this year’s concert tour, I plan to lead the way to Aschaffenburg - cycling most of the route! No doubt you will have an opportunity this evening to pledge your sponsorship. Please be generous in your support - it will help to ease the pain!

Thank you for attending this evening’s concert and we look forward to seeing as many of you as possible at these future events.

Martyn Glenville-SutherlandHonorary President 2010

Mr Alister Y Allan George & Deirdrie BeatonRichard & Margaret Beith Mr D Eoin Bennet Dr Moira Bulcraig Dr & Mrs D Brown Dr & Mrs Peter Coe Coupar Angus, Ardler & Bendochy Community Council Neil Copland & Maureen RutherfordDr & Mrs Peter Dallas RossE Donachie Mr M J & Mrs J K Drew Mrs Jan EsparonDr & Mrs Duncan Forbes Ms Clare Gibbon Mr & Mrs M Glenville -Sutherland Mr Alistair Godfrey

Rhona Godfrey Mr Iain M Halliday Mr & Mrs M A Hope John Kinloch Mr Neil McCorkindale Mrs Sheena McNaughton Hugh & Elizabeth MartinMr & Mrs Andrew MitchellDr David Murray Mrs Jennifer NicholHenry and Renee Neil T Neil Mr & Mrs A M Neilson Mr & Mrs G NorrisMr & Mrs I Ogilvy Caroline OldhamDavid & Sarah OxnardDr R PattisonMr & Mrs B G Payne Susan Payne & Michael Taylor

PERTH YOUTH ORCHESTRA PATRONS 2010

Mr Thomas Pringle Mr & Mrs John Robb Mr & Mrs E & M Sadler Mr and Mrs I SadlerMr & Mrs D ScottJohn & Lorna ScottSandy & Pat ScrimgeourMr & Mrs F Seith Mr William T Small Mrs Christian C Smith Moyra & David Smythe Mrs Margaret SteeleMr Alan R StewartMr Robert D Stewart Andrew & Frances Turnbull Mr & Mrs Mark Webster Mr Charles A Wiggetts Mrs Laura YoungEileen Waterston & Michael Jamieson

Su-a Lee

Su-a Lee arrived in England from her native Korea when she was one. She and her two sisters all went to Chetham’s Music School in Manchester. On leaving school Su-a was awarded a scholarship to study with Harvey Shapiro at the Juillard School of Music in New York. On graduating, destiny led her quickly to the Scottish Chamber Orchestra, which she has used as her base to dive off in many musical directions – jazz, folk, contem-porary, electronics, tango and…Mr McFall’s Chamber of course. As the new millennium approached she felt the need to take up a second instrument and chose the musical saw, at which she almost immediately became a virtuoso. Su-a has achieved near-celebrity status in Scotland both through her music-making and through her personal vivacity, beauty and social staying power.

Sir Peter Maxwell Davies

One of the foremost composers of our time, Sir Peter Maxwell Davies has made a significant contribution to musical his-tory through his wide-ranging and prolific output. He lives in the Orkney Islands off the north coast of Scotland, where he writes most of his music. In a worklist that spans more than five decades, he has written across a broad range of styles, yet his music always communicates directly and powerfully, whether in his profoundly argued symphonic works, his music-theatre or witty light orchestral works.

CHIEFPATRONS

PERTH YOUTH ORCHESTRA 2010Conducted by Mr Allan Young

VIOLIN 1Darryl Dick (leader)Rachel SmartEmily HarrisonNick LauenerTom EsparonCharley MorrisFiona ScottLaurence HeyesCatriona McQueenKatrina GuthrieEmma CareySarah PatonCharlotte DearChristina Knight

f

VIOLIN 2Douglas WeirEilidh McGuireMegan DaillyEuan HolmesKirsty Paterson-HunterLucy McDonaldMelissa McDonaldClaire BrownEmily ButlerEllis McKenzieCatherine HollandFiona BallantineMhairi Gilchrist

f

VIOLAMark JacksonSophie Charleson Eilidh Marnoch Katy WilliamsAmy ForbesAbigail CorsieKirsty IrvineCarol Ryan

CELLORachel SteeleRachel WilsonHannah HolmesLibby SouthgateSuzanne HackettAmy SmartRachel ClarkeEmma KelmanJamie McHaleWilliam HollandHannah LoganRachel HutchisonMerran KeayAlice McKay

DOUBLE BASSNathanial HaasCharlotte McGeoghieIona CrosbyJill Smyth

f

FLUTEJill Sweeney Lindsay MacdonaldMhairi WilsonRuth ThompsonJenny Scott

OBOEAnna SeatonSandra Scott

COR ANGLAIS Sandra Scott

CLARINETJoe NorrisHeather SadlerKirsty Butt Hazel Sweeney

BASS CLARINETHeather Sadler

BASSOONEileen WaterstonChris McShane

f

HORNSJoanne LambRebecca MilneSarat RoyGregor Hunter

TRUMPETAndrew WilcoxKate WalkerRobbie StrongRachel HalkerstonKatherine AuldMagnus Pickering

TROMBONEDaniel PickeringEwan TaylorAlan ThomAndrew Forbes

TUBAGordon Seith

PERCUSSIONFindlay TurnbullHannah StottRebecca GrahamPeter MurchAmy Sherry

CELESTAMaureen Rutherford

HARPHelen Thomson

Our patrons’ subscription is re-viewed each year at the Annual

General Meeting. For more than ten years now, there has been no change to the recommended minimum level of £10 per person and, therefore, despite the loyal support of a small group of patrons, the real income from sub-scriptions has fallen in recent years.

From 2010, we are inviting all our existing patrons, and those who wish to join us, to consider the amount they contribute each year and we would like to offer opportunities to those who may wish to contribute in a more tangible way.

From this year, you are invited to target your sponsorship at a particular orches-tral section – or desk; eg. for a minimum subscription of £100 you may sponsor theflutesectionorforaminimumof£75you may sponsor the leader of a section or a soloist.

This may also lead us to some form of more commercial sponsorship, but un-dertandably the orchestra would, in such cases, need to consider the appropriate nature of such links with a young per-sons’ organisation.

Sponsorship would bring the do-northebenefitsofourexistingpatrons’scheme and acknowledgments would be made in all our programmes and web-site publicity. For tax payers, those who make this high level of contribution to Perth Youth Orchestra funds will also be able to declare their contribution as Gift

Aid–sofurtherbenefitingtheorchestra.As in previous years, all families are

strongly encouraged to become patrons. The minimal contribution of £10 re-mains unchanged. All contributions are gratefully received and are essential in the support of our work with our young musicians.

New opportunities to support Perth Youth Orchestra

Help us to helpour youngmusicians

Contact the Perth Youth Orchestra Secretary:Sheona Glenville-Sutherland, 33 Queens Avenue, Blairgowrie, PH10 6PG

PROGRAMME

PERTH YOUTH ORCHESTRA

Scottish DancesMalcolm Arnold

i. Pesanteii. Vivaceiii. Allegrettoiv. Con Brio

In the Steppes of Central Asia Alexander Borodin

Rhapsody in Blue George Gershwin

Soloist: Andrew Forbes (piano)

INTERVAL

Concerto for Cello and OrchestraEdward Elgar

Soloist: Rachel Steele (cello)

Widow of Valencia Aram Khachaturian

i. Introductionii. Serenadeiii. Songiv. Humorous Songv. Intermezzovi. Dance

Andrew ForbesAndrewisinhisfirstyearatRSAMD

Juniors, studying for a performance diploma under Alexander Kanchaveli (piano), and with Alastair Sinclair (bass trombone)- for-merly tutored in Perth by Barbara Murray, Henry Neil and George Annan.

He has been the pianist in NYOS for the last two years, bass trombonist in PYO for 4 years, and will be bass trombonist for the forthcoming NYOS and PYO summer tours.

Andrew is a church organist in Perth, having studied with Eoin Bennet for 5 years, and has performed in masterclasses and recitals, including the lunchtime series at Kelvingrove Gallery in Glasgow.

Rachel SteeleRachel Steele, started learning the cello

with Angela Dagpunar who gave her great inspiration from an early age. To gain a wider experience she followed the family tradition and gained a place at the junior school of the Royal Scottish Academy of Music and Drama studying under Tim Paxton.

Although being offered a scholarship to study cello at the Birmingham Conserva-toire this year, Rachel has decided to defer this and take a year out and focus on what she eventually wants to do. Having left the RSAMDofficiallyinJune,shehasdecidedto return for a further year, studying cello only, under Betsy Taylor.

Rachel is currently principal cellist of the Perth Youth Orchestra and has just recently completed a tour with the Edinburgh Uni-versity String Orchestra as a guest cellist.

During her year out she plans to concen-trate in her singing more. She is hoping to re-audition for the National Youth Choir of Scotland as she was devastated when she

could not take up the place she previously gained due to other commitments.

She is a member of the local well known choir Chansons and is enjoying the experience of singing with a full SATB choir. Tonight Rachel is playing on a cello awarded to her by the Donald Dewar Trust and her bow was awarded by the BBC Fame Academy.

Tonight’s soloists

Our soloists receive the Eoin Bennet award and their names will be entered in the beautifully bound calligraphied roll of past soloists. They will also receive individual glass medallions

to keep as a permanent reminder of their performances with the orchestra.

Malcolm Arnold

Scottish Dancesi. Pesanteii. Vivaceiii. Allegrettoiv. Con Brio

This suite was written for the 1957 BBC Light Music Festival. The second dance had already seen the light of day in a 1949film“The Beautiful Country of Ayr.”

The opening dance, with ingeniously simulated bagpipe drone accompaniment, is a Strathspey featuring the characteristic “Scotch snap” rhythm.

A somewhat faster reel follows. Towards the end of this dance the bassoon introduces a character who is reeling in good earnest from too generous an intake of Scotch whisky.

The third movement is a romantic pentatonic melody, reminiscent of Hebridean folk-song.

The proceedings end in the most lively, not to say riotous, manner possible with a High-land Fling.

Alexander Borodin

In the Steppes of Central Asia

Symphonic poems are programmatic pieces composed in a single, continuous movement marked by mood changes that suggest an as-sociated story.

Borodin was fascinated with the far reaches of the Russian empire, where European Rus-sia merged with the mysterious world of Asia. When the score was published in 1882, an elaborate program for the work was printed along with it, explaining the composer’s in-tended storyline for the work. Every musical gesture of this charming miniature illuminates that story.

The work begins with stark, sustained high harmonics in the violins - as close as music can

come, says Borodin, to painting a picture of the ethereal “silence of the sandy steppes.” Over these harmonics the clarinet introduces what Borodin calls a “peaceful Russian song.” This is then followed by “the melancholy strains of Oriental melodies” played initially by the coranglais.Ponderouspizzicatofiguresinthelower strings represent the deliberate, unhur-ried, rather clumsy progress of a caravan mak-ing its way across “the measureless waste.” Eventually the two melodies intertwine in a sensuous counterpoint, Russian folk meeting and melding with Oriental mysteries, suggest-ing an idealistic musical view of the future of Czar Alexander’s empire. Borodin writes: “The songs of the Russians and those of the Asiatic natives mingle in common harmony—then die away in the distance.” Ifimitationisthesincerestflattery,popu-

larmusic isfilledwithcomplimentsfor thisRussian master. The Broadway musical Kismet drew heavily from this work and from Borodin’s opera Prince Igor, with the hit song “Strangers in Paradise” perhaps the best known quotation. A different generation will recognise the music as the theme from the La-dybird’s Childrens’ Classic, the Secret Garden.

Like many of Borodin’s other works, In the Steppes of Central Asia has a beguiling, exotic soundscape that has earned it a lasting reputation far exceeding its composer’s mod-est ambitions.

George Gershwin

Rhapsody in Blue Early in 1925 Paul Whiteman, the “King of

Jazz” announced a concert in the Aeolian Con-cert Hall, New York, with the grandiose title “An Experiment in Modern Music.” Gershwin was commissioned to write a work which would feature himself as soloist. The schedule was tight and the piece was written in three

PROGRAMME NOTES weeks of unremitting round-the-clock toil. Partly because of the looming deadline and

partly on account of Gershwin’s inexperience with instrumentation, the orchestration was entrusted to Whiteman’s chief arranger Ferde Grofé, a skilled and experience musician who was well acquainted with the capabilities of the various players in the band.

In truth the concert was a gigantic publicity stunt by and for Paul Whiteman. By assidu-ously talking the event up as a crucial moment in American culture and by generously handing out free tickets he ensured that the hall was as full as the Fire Department would allow, and that the audience included such luminaries as Kreisler, Rachmaninoff, Stokowski and Heifetz. But for the most part the programme was neither experimental nor modern; in an at-tempttopleaseeverybodyWhitemanhadfilledit with arrangements of well-known tunes.

People grew restive; some had even begun to leave when for the penultimate item (billed on the programme as “A Rhapsody in Blue”) Gershwin came to the piano. The audience wastransfixedbytheopeningclarinetsoloandremained spellbound by the originality of the music and the brilliance of Gershwin’s playing.

The close was the signal for a tumultuous and prolonged ovation and the reviews next day were ecstatic. Gershwin had indeed saved Whiteman’s bacon.

Edward ElgarConcerto in E minor for Cello and Orchestra1st Mvt - Adagio - Moderato

Thefirst themeof thispiecewaswritten,early in 1918, in a nursing home where the composer was recovering from a tonsil opera-tion. Elgar worked on the concerto through the last months of the Great War and the immediate post-war period, delivering the score to the publishers on August 8th 1919.

The soloist’s eloquent opening gesture

soon subsides into a melancholy lilting tune given out by the violas. This theme dominates thefirstmovement.Iforchestralopulenceisabsent Elgar’s matchless orchestral technique is present in spades. No composer, not even Dvorak, better solved the problem of making a solo cello audible against a full symphony orchestra.Amongthecellosectionatthework’sfirst

performance was the nineteen-year-old John Barbirolli. Half a century later he would be a member of the work’s most celebrated partnership.

Aram Khachaturian

Widow of Valencia i. Introductionii. Serenadeiii. Songiv. Humorous Songv. Intermezzovi. Dance

As a youth, Aram Khachaturian (1903-1978) absorbed the folk music of his native Armenia and the neighboring states of Georgia and Azerbai-jan, and these elements found their way into his rhythmically and melodically vivid compositions. Khachaturian composed incidental music to Lope de Vega’s comedic play La viuda de Valencia (The Widow of Valencia) for a 1940 Moscow production. It is one of his most colorful and delightful scores, and he later created this suite of six brief excerpts.

While rooted in Armenian folk lore and obvi-ously ensconced in Soviet grandiose composition, Khachaturian also includes the folk traditions of countries that border on his home.