National Youth Orchestra

Programme:
Hanns - Eisler Auf den Strassen zu Singen
Britten - Sinfonia da Requiem
Shostakovich - Symphony No.11

Rise up! From protests to revolutions, the 20th Century saw momentous social change driven by passionate young people. So, come and join a movement; a mass action by a community of teenage musicians – the world’s greatest orchestra of teenagers – brought together by their passion for music. The soundtrack? Immense musical calls to arms that defined an era.

Decadent and radical, 1920’s Berlin was a haven for subversive, left-wing artists. Among them was Hans Eisler, who took his music out of the concert hall and onto the streets, dissolving the divide between performer and audience with his stirring songs for the people. Taking their cue from workers marching out on strike, for this piece our musicians will be downing the tools of their trade and raising their voices, united in song.

Long before John Lennon, Bob Dylan and U2 made anti-war protest songs cool, Benjamin Britten wrote Sinfonia da Requiem. Its huge orchestral forces, apocalyptic drumrolls and pervasive sense of foreboding are a heart-on-sleeve warning of the war-time horrors that lie ahead.

Brutal and deadly, Russia’s 1905 revolution set in motion a chain of events that would change the country forever. Like a modern-day music producer Shostakovich weaves samples of old revolutionary songs into huge cinematic soundscapes and mixes cacophonous brass with pounding percussion into a startling critique of political oppression.