Overture `Candide' - Bernstein

Symphonic Dances - Rachmaninov

Symphony No 3 - Copland

The very day after the Ulster Orchestra's all-Copland evening we had more Copland from the Ulster Youth Orchestra - an unfortunate coincidence. The Platitudinous Third Symphony from 1946 rehashes his famous Fanfare for the Common Man written a few years previously. Only an American could have written music of such brighteyed naivete in the immediate aftermath of the second World War.

When a youth orchestra devotes two weeks of intensive sectional training and professional coaching by members of London orchestras and music colleges to one programme, one has to ask if this is the best use of their talents. This goes double for the Bernstein overture, the third piece by this composer that this orchestra has played in its short existence.

Luckily there was some real music in the form of the Rachmaninov Symphonic Dances, a late masterpiece written only a few years before the Copland. The playing, which became frayed round the edges in the symphony, was excellent here. Balance was occasionally strained but mostly adequate, and there was a good string articulation and fine phrasing. Above all, one felt the players understood this difficult, moody music.

Next year another, and doubtless equally talented, group of young players will be convened for another training course and series of concerts. Let's hope they are given music worthy of them.