MUSIC

USHER HALL, EDINBURGH

SHOSTAKOVICH’S Festive Overture provided a suitably vibrant opening to the Edinburgh Youth Orchestra’s spring concert, showing off the magnificent sound these talented young musicians can produce. There was everything from glitzy brass fanfares to swaggering strings in this jubilant piece, which commemorates Russia’s 1917 October Revolution.

With standards in the EYO getting better all the time, it’s not surprising that over the years many players have gone on to successful careers in the industry. EYO conductor and artistic director Garry Walker and violinist Daniel Bell themselves are both former players and they teamed up again for Beethoven’s Violin Concerto in D, with the honeyed tones of Bell’s violin singing out against a carefully calibrated orchestral backdrop.

The tales of heroic deeds in 1001 Arabian Nights are beautifully captured in Rimsky-Korsakov’s ravishing Scheherazade. Again, this was an ideal piece for the EYO with opportunities for solo instruments to shine and the orchestra to revel in a sumptuous and exotic soundworld.

The EYO performs at Perth Concert Hall tonight at 7:30pm