Kate Molleson 

I, Culture Orchestra/Karabits review – disciplined and expressive

The eastern European youth orchestra brought subtlety, restraint and unadorned eloquence to a brace of anti-war symphonies, writes Kate Molleson
  
  

Kirill Karabits
Gracious guide … the young players of the I, Culture Orchestra were in safe hands with Kirill Karabits at the helm. Photograph: Sasha Gusov Photograph: Sasha Gusov

I, Culture is the new youth orchestra of eastern Europe, four years old and politically charged. Its players come from the former Soviet states of the Eastern partnership – a pro-European initiative comprising Armenia, Azerbaijan, Belarus, Georgia, Moldova and Ukraine – and Poland, which funds and runs the orchestra. They rehearse in English, although Russian would be a common language for many. Some arrive with no orchestral experience; others are already professional musicians at home.

Comparisons with Europe's long-standing youth orchestras would be unfair. The Gustav Mahler Jugendorchester and European Union Youth Orchestra have had decades to hone their standards, and their players come from stable countries with developed music education provision. Yet I, Culture's remarkable Edinburgh debut showed this ensemble to be on the same playing field. Certainly it is worth listening to for reasons beyond political tokenism.

There were just two works on the programme, both stark anti-war statements. Andrzej Panufnik composed his Sinfonia Elegiaca in 1957, having witnessed the near-total destruction of Warsaw during the second world war. Shostakovich's Seventh Symphony was written during the siege of Leningrad in 1941, and became a paean of Russian defiance.

Both scores have the potential for maudlin overstatement, especially from a band of youngsters keen to strut their stuff. But what was so impressive about I, Culture's delivery was its subtlety, restraint and plain-speaking eloquence.

Panufnik's elegy was quietly, calmly mournful, with a fine burnish to the string sound and clean, lucid wind playing. In the Shostakovich, the orchestra found plenty of space for frank contemplation amid the bombast and brought a light touch to the dark humour, not too biting or sardonic. The Ukrainian conductor Kirill Karabits was a tremendously gracious guide: he kept the ensemble disciplined and encouraged expressive gestures, but often he let the players find their own way.

 

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