REVIEW: Young musicians give Boris platform to deliver

THERE MUST have been many a note of envy felt among their families and friends the day the West Sussex Youth Orchestra were pitched into performance alongsideBoris Brovtsyn.

The young Russian violinist is already so beloved in the town of Worthing he has excited by his current sequence of tremendous concerto performances.

So when he came, accompanied by the unfamiliar first flakes of seasonal weather from his native Moscow, the school and college musicians were set for a real test. But one in which their own fans in the Assembly Hall would have loved to have shared on the platform.

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And the WSYO came through it, guided and steered by the skill and awareness of John Gibbons, and '“ in the words of leader from Horsham, Alex Mountain '“ "inspired" by the soloist.

They gave Brovtsyn what he needed. The chance of a dry-run first performance of a concerto by Henri Vieuxtemps of Belgium, a couple of weeks before he was to play them at Brussels and Liege, in the homeland of the 19th century composer.

After playing Brahms' uplifting Academic Festival Overture of student songs, they entered the kind of experience Gibbons had planned for both they and what proved the more than 450 people in the audience.

Not only had the musicians to learn an unfamiliar work but they had to accompany and support an outstanding artiste who is not much more than a decade ahead of them along his musical career.

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Gibbons told the audience that the WSYO would need to stay on red alert in readiness for anything the soloist did in performance about which - being supremely free and entitled to do so in the heat of the moment - he had no need to warn them about beforehand in rehearsal.

In other words, to stand by and take responsibility for a hands-on encounter with an emerging international class concerto violinist.

Brovtsyn, cheered onto the stage and off it, buoyed them along with more of the stunning playing the Worthing Symphony Orchestra lovers clamour to hear.

He is the son of concert pianist Dina Parakhina and the BBC Philharmonic Orchestra' leader, Yuri Torchinski. "Torch" seems actually appropriate because what we heard, yet again, was Brovtsyn lighting his own blue touchpaper.

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If Worthing is fortunate enough to greet him again next season, his fans cannot wait to hear what he will play next.

As with any youth team, the progression of the WSYO's older players into adulthood leaves gaps successors need time to fill.

More than normal have moved on, and with this in mind Gibbons turned to another Belgian work that would enable them to grow with confidence into experienced young orchestral musicians. The absorbing, singular but substantial Symphony of Cesar Franck.

Here the strongest impetus for the rest of the orchestra to feed on came from the brass section. When they put their trumpets, trombones and tuba to their lips and joined the horns, the WSYO, with Gibbons again responsible for the shape and delivery of the big moments, produced a massive sound that their supporters will remember for time to come.

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Alex Mountain said everyone was inspired by Brovtsyn, from whom in rehearsal they had some valuable constructive criticism. She is now going to London's Trinity College of Music to study orchestral playing. "I'd like, too, to be in the orchestra pit playing in musicals," she added, with a slight twinkle in her eye.

Moss Murray presented the Worthing Symphony Society's two 250 prizes to the WSYO Young Musicians of the Year. The orchestra's West Sussex County Council mentoring staff had chosen trombonist Alistair Gibson and harpist Francesca Barsby.

Gibson also leads a quintet called Bayleaf Brass, all WSYO members and formed, incidentally, to play Christmas Carols at the Weald and Downland Musem's own ancient festive building. They are joined by others from the WYSO in the Guildhall School Junior Ensemble. Barsby is a member of the 40-strong International Harp Ensemble.

And it is indicative of the breadth of musical education and modern taste that both intend to put their prize money towards new instruments of different worlds.

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Gibson has in mind a jazz trombone with which to play in big brass bands - it'll cost him, he says, around 800 - while Barsby wants an electric harp of the kind used by folk and rock players - which will be nearer 3,000 . . . but a lot smaller and easier to transport.

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