Simón Bolívar Youth Orchestra, London 18/4/09

[Philidor]

We bought tickets for this a year ago and weren't once tempted to sell them on ebay where they changed hands for £hundreds. South American pieces in the first half, Stravinsky's Rite of Spring in the second, then four encores with Venezuelan hats and jackets thrown into the crowd.



The orchestra was vast - 44 violins, a mass of percussionists (one of whom looked like one of those fridge-freezer bodyguards who accompany drug barons to conferences with their competitors) twelve double basses, and both violas and cellos placed on the right so a wall of bass hit you from that half of the stage, balancing the massive violin sound on the other.

The hall was packed, with a higher proportion of younger people than usual. Some of these may have been from the British National Youth Orchestra who play on the South bank today. There'll be trouble over this - the dames in tiaras and the young fogies won't like sharing their snooty club with unwashed youth. I think we're starting to see a bitchy fight-back against Dudamel, the El Sistema project, and the popularisation of classical music generally.

José Antonio Abreu, the founder of El Sistema, was in the audience. He got a standing ovation. A Venezuelan family in front of us stood on their seats and yelled.

I don't know the Rite of Spring well, so can't compare how they played to other performances, except this sounded 'from the belly'. Spring's about vigour: youth fighting their elders for sex and power; the old fighting back by sacrificing youth. Nations traditionally go to war in the spring - the 'Spring Campaign'. It was wonderful to hear it played by the most vigorous youth orchestra in the world, just as London trees burst out and people strip off layers of winter clothes. The double-reed instruments - 4 oboes, cor anglais, 4 bassoons, contrabassoon - were positioned centre-stage and blasted a sort of raw, Dionysian insanity between the army of strings, striking you in the chest.

I realised that music which seeks to represent or mimic spring - tweeting birds etc - is a waste of time. There's no substitute for going for a walk in a wood and hearing an actual bird. What's important is the representation of human emotion and behaviour when confronted by spring - what happens to humans when (in this case) someone dreams of spring:

"I saw in my imagination a solemn pagan rite; sage elders, seated in a circle, watched a young girl dance herself to death. They were sacrificing her to propitiate the god of spring."

For an encore they played Nimrod from Elgar's Enigma Variations. I laughed out loud. It's the most English of music - about a shy, middle class man walking the Malvern hills with his pipe. Touching they should have played it - they were honouring their host - but funny to hear just after a pagan girl's been sacrificed to the god of spring in music which, when first performed, caused a riot.



I took this picture when walking out of the Festival Hall after the concert: three English girls in Venezuelan colours thrown to them by children from the barrios half a world away.

[Dame Hilda Tablet]

Thanks for posting this, I was wondering what the concert was like. I harbour not a scintilla of jealousy, of course.

[Philidor]

More pics here: http://www.brightcecilia.com/forum/a...hp?albumid=125

[micrologus]

Yeah! Beautiful pics!

[Philidor]

LOL The British right-wing press is upset about El Sistema:

I'm rather sceptical about the claims that the orchestra is largely made up of the children of the poorest of the poor. On first impression, most of them looked like the European middle classes, and it seems improbable that a poor family from the favela could spare a young adult to go round the world for a month playing the viola in an orchestra.

But there is one real factor which should give us a moment's pause before we start borrowing a social programme from Venezuela. Venezuela is one of the most violent societies on earth. Its capital, Caracas, has the highest murder rate in the world, with 130 killings per 100,000 inhabitants, according to its own government, in 2006. (Independent analysts have placed the figure closer to 160; the next most murderous city is Cape Town, with 62 per 100,000. London, with 7.5m inhabitants, had only 167 murders in total last year). The murder rate has climbed by 67 per cent in the past 10 years.

The claims that El Sistema has improved Venezuelan society in general through mass participation seem very unlikely indeed. If you enjoyed the noise this orchestra made in the last stages of the Danse Sacrale, as I did, you should definitely share your pleasure. But there isn't a panacea for social control here.

Source

I liked this comment:

Why didn't Mr. Hensher interview some of the young musicians? He could have easily found out more about their social backgrounds.

God forbid Mr Hensher actually talked to one of them. He might have been knifed, offered drugs, or forced to engage in a conversation about Chavez and Venezuelan socialism.

hehe

There's a right-wing fight-back occurring against Dudamel, El Sistema and the SBYO. It's motivated by politics, snobbery and envy. When the British El Sistema was abolished by the Conservatives in the 1980s - because that's what the old arrangement was: free music lessons, cheap instruments, a statutory responsibility on local authorities to provide a music education for all - it wasn't cost-cutting. It saved a minuscule sum of money. It was motivated by the idea that British working class children don't deserve good music; that they've no right to engage in high art; that the role of the state education system is to prepare them for a life as factory-fodder, or watching soaps on Sky TV while sitting on the dole. You only have to attend a few London concerts to see they're dominated by snobs and fogies - overwhelmingly white, middle class and Tory. But that's precisely what Conservative policy makers sought to achieve. Their initiative was wildly successful. They excluded working class children from classical music and created a snobby little club for the likes of Philip Hensher. He and his friends will fight to keep their privileges. Part of that fight will be to attack El Sistema and everything it stands for. Because El Sistema stands four-square against them.

There's a Newsnight discussion here (@ 22:30).

[Dame Hilda Tablet]

...Philip Hensher is not exactly ruling class though is he? State school boy with a taste for upsetting people maybe but to be honest, he's hardly a name on everyone's lips and he has a reputation for being waspish and unpopular.

[Philidor]

Originally Posted by Dame Hilda Tablet

...Philip Hensher is not exactly ruling class though is he? State school boy with a taste for upsetting people maybe but to be honest, he's hardly a name on everyone's lips and he has a reputation for being waspish and unpopular.

Yes, I had a 'Who the hell are you?' moment. Michael Portillo's interesting on the Newsnight clip. Everyone else is gushing about the SBYO, including Ian Hislop - not usually a gusher - while Portillo screws up his face and says (to paraphrase) El Sistema can't work in Britain because British working class people hate education, that they don't see it as a route out of poverty. A lady cellist, whose name escapes me, went for him, pointing out that it was his government which abolished free music lessons.

The word is that Portillo, having done his touchy-feely caring-Conservative routine with Diane Abbot on 'This Week' sofa, has his eye on a post in a Cameron government. So gears are audibly grinding as he realigns himself.

For non-UK friends: Michael Portillo was a right-wing member of Mrs Thatcher's government. He famously lost his seat in the 1997 election. Ian Hislop is editor of the satirical magazine 'Private Eye'.