Summer music youngsters give staggering performance (From The Westmorland Gazette)

Summer music youngsters give staggering performance

10:00am Monday 23rd August 2010 in

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Lake District Summer Music Candlelight Serenade, St Thomas Church, Kendal THE educational work of LDSM was again on show as the festival moved towards its close with a concert on the final weekend by young musicians from across the world attending its Summer Academy. There is a long-established tradition of presenting some of the best student work to the public in a candlelit venue – in previous years Ambleside Parish Church, this year St Thomas’s Kendal.

Five pieces for various chamber combinations formed the backbone of the programme. It would be invidious to single out any one individual soloist or group for special mention; there were occasional insecurities in intonation in some pieces but non detracted from the overall performance. The level of achievement of these young players (the youngest aged 17) was staggering; they all met the technical challenges of complex and difficult works and displayed high levels of musical understanding.

The concert concluded with 26 student string players joining forces with five professional sectional leaders to form a string orchestra in a performance of Josef Suk’s Serenade for Strings. As one would expect with an orchestra formed entirely of aspiring professionals, the sound was rich and expressive. The bright acoustics of St Thomas’s enabled the players to play without forcing the tone and there were many lovely moments.