NYOS Symphony Orchestra

Programme:
Judith Weir - Welcome Arrival of Rain
Jay Capperauld - Piano Concerto
Stravinsky - Rite of Spring

We are part of nature, and it is part of us.

In 2018 the National Youth Orchestras of Scotland explore 'The Power of Nature'. Many of us take nature for granted-even when it gives us so much. When the crash of a wave, the scent of a sea breeze, and the feeling of sand between our toes restores us. When to-do lists, and the urge to reach for the phone are suddenly forgotten and replaced by a sense of wonder upon a chance encounter with a deer. Nature has the power to focus our minds on the present and helps us feel more alive.

This spring in Perth, NYOS Symphony Orchestra present a programme full of natural wonder sure to delight audiences of all ages. First, we perform Judith Weir's exuberant piece The Welcome Arrival of Rain, inspired by the impending onset of the monsoon, 'when aridity is pierced by life-giving rain'.

The Orchestra will then be joined by the brilliant pianist, James Willshire. James will perform the World Premiere of a new commission written by the hugely talented Scottish composer and rising star, Jay Capperauld. At its creative core, this new Piano Concerto focuses on key environmental issues, expressed in part through the lamenting bird song of an endangered species calling out for a mate that may no longer exist.

For the final piece of the evening we return to one of the 20th Century's greatest and most influential works, Stravinsky's The Rite of Spring. This story of violence and nature-worship in pagan Russia is inspired in part by Stravinsky's boyhood memories of the thunderous break-up of the ice on the Neva River in St Petersburg each spring, developing in the composer's young mind to become a ballet in two parts, The Adoration of the Earth and The Sacrifice. Yet beyond all this, The Rite of Spring is founded on an incredible orchestral sense.