Young players with clearly brilliant futures

National Youth Orchestra / Alexandre Bloch

Barbican, London EC2 ★★★★★

It wasn’t just the waltzing encore, The Blue Danube, that made this feel like a new year concert: everything about this Barbican appearance by the National Youth Orchestra at the start of its four-city tour was a celebration. Not that the festive season meant much time off for these phenomenally talented teenagers, since presenting the NYO’s most serious programme in years will have involved an intense, hard-working holiday.

Three substantial scores were featured under the banner of “Odyssey”, and the concert opened with Britten’s moody Four Sea Interludes from Peter Grimes. The brass registered potently in the sombre “Dawn”, one advantage of the NYO packing in as many players as possible, and a bigger brass section than an opera house pit could accommodate. If this was not the most precise NYO playing ever, the musicians certainly responded to the conductor Alexandre Bloch, making a welcome return to the hall where just over a decade ago he won the Donatella Flick LSO Conducting Competition. The final “Storm” interlude brought out the best in everyone.

Anna Clyne’s Rift, a symphonic ballet written in 2016, is partly a meditation on the state of our planet. Its three movements are titled “Dust”, “Water” and “Space”, and if its subject matter implies something melancholy it also represents a bittersweet journey towards hope. Clyne always has a knack for exciting textures and haunting yet never obvious tunes.

The opening is striking, with the violas tracing a lament over the oscillating hum of Tibetan bowls. Other strings soon pick up the theme and the music becomes more complex without losing its emotional directness. The experience of the score’s pulsing, virtuosic close will surely remain with these musicians for a long time. New music is an important part of the NYO’s mission and, fittingly, room was found – by way of a curtain-raiser to the second half – for a brief presentation by the 11-strong group of NYO Associates of their own music.

Before we reached the Johann Strauss encore there was Richard Strauss’s mighty tone poem Also sprach Zarathustra, its tremendous opening moving from suspenseful to brilliantly blazing. Bloch proved himself a magician here, unlocking the secrets of the work and shaping a taut performance full of lively detail. Isabell Karlsson’s violin solos were nimble, but everyone contributed to a highly accomplished performance of a work full of idealistic striving – and what could be better for a youth orchestra?

Further dates, see tour: nyo.org.uk

Accomplished: the National Youth Orchestra presented its most serious programme in years