ARTS: Europe finally learns cross-border harmony
By Peter Aspden
Financial Times; Aug 19, 2003

You might just get to know about it if you happened to be sharing an aircraft with the 120-odd members of the European Union Youth Orchestra. There is the idiosyncratically shaped luggage, of course. But another giveaway is when the cabin crew start their emergency demonstration before take-off. As they show passengers how to put on their oxygen masks, the young musicians suddenly remove a shoe each and mimic the hapless attendants' routine.

"They'll have to stop doing that on the scheduled flights," says tour manager Colin Window. "The stewards are getting too annoyed."

There are some other playful little habits too. Whenever a mobile phone goes off in the dining room of the Rome hotel in which they have been rehearsing this year's tour, they all "Shhhh" with exaggerated gusto, calculated to embarrass the call's receiver.

In the evening, the boys work out their excess energy with a game of six-a-side football, Scandinavians versus Italians and Spaniards, and a fair few of the girls come to watch and cheer.

So far, so normal, for a group of exuberant 14-to-24-year-old boys and girls brought together a long way from home. What is distinctly out of the ordinary is the sound they make when they sit in a semi-circle with their musical instruments to hand.

The best description comes from Vladimir Ashkenazy as he rehearses the first movement of Shostakovich's Tenth Symphony with them and, at one point, turns and smiles with a beatific look of serene satisfaction on his face. It is that look a conductor gives when he thinks he might as well go home, that the orchestra is managing perfectly well without him.

"They are fantastic, unbelievable," he tells me during a break in rehearsal. The public is no less enthusiastic: the orchestra's European tour, which draws to a close with a London Proms appearance next Tuesday is attracting capacity crowds who are unstinting in their approval.

This, it seems, is a notable example of a Europe that really has learned how to be harmonious.

The orchestra, which is celebrating its 25th anniversary with this tour, was the brainchild of Joy and Lionel Bryer, who ran the International Youth Foundation of Great Britain and were looking further afield to harness youthful enthusiasm to the cause of political unity.

They were supported by former prime minister Edward Heath in their quest "to find something human that came from Brussels, which was perceived, and still is, as bureaucratic," says Joy Bryer. An all-party vote of the European parliament brought the orchestra into being, and an inaugural tour was organised under its founding musical director Claudio Abbado.

It has since travelled all over the world as an informal ambassador for European culture, a task which has seemingly become more important as impromptu skirmishes such as the recent spat between Italy and Germany continue to attract sarcastic headlines.

I ask Ashkenazy, who is sharing conducting duties with Bernard Haitink on the tour, if this is not the best possible way of symbolising the European ideal. "Yes, but it is not only a matter of idealism - it is also being pragmatic," he replies.

"Europe is not only about business. You need people who have a vision. I am not sure an economy can evolve outside our development as spiritual beings. And besides, if you educate people you get a great return, if you don't, you don't." What is it like to conduct such a young and raw group of musicians, in comparison with professional orchestras?

"I am lucky because they are so well prepared by the tutors. I benefit from the fact that the so-called dirty work has all been done before I even arrive. They only need to learn what I intend to do musically."

And then? Surely there is a range of music which is simply too subtle, too profound to be given justice by such ingenuous players?

"Generally, the more exciting and energetic the music, the easier they find it. Maybe they need to go through their 20s, their 30s, their 40s in order to absorb some things, philosophical things, which I can't even explain, and helps with certain passages. But some of the very lyrical passages are gorgeous too." Next year the orchestra will be adding members from the 10 new member states of the EU - each country has at least one representative in the group. Joy Bryer says that for countries such as Latvia, Lithuania and Estonia, "where life revolves around music and dance", the interest in the orchestra has been palpable.

The orchestra's leader is Britain's Clare Duckworth, now in her fourth year with the group, who says that the bonds of friendship formed in such close quarters outweigh the disparate styles demanded by different countries' traditions, "although we had some trouble with vibrato in the brass section - the Austrians don't really do it, the British do, and it became a bit of a running joke.

"But generally we are very supportive of each other. It is easy to forget how scary and intimidating it can be when you first join, especially if you have not had much orchestral experience, and especially with the [calibre of the] conductors we work with."

For 23-year-old Vivian Urlings, the last dates on the tour promise to be especially nerve-wracking. She was chosen after an audition to play the solo trumpet part in Mahler's Sixth Symphony, under the baton of her compatriot Bernard Haitink, at the Concertgebouw in her home city of Amsterdam.

"That is as good as it gets," she says. "I wasn't expecting it at all, and now of course all my family and friends want to come and see me." And she won't even be able to take it easy on the day: "The concert is sold out but they always hold 50 tickets on the day so I will be queuing at seven in the morning to get some for my friends." It goes a long way, that youthful exuberance. The orchestra is on tour in Europe: Bolzano (August 20), Amsterdam (August 22), Edinburgh (August 23), Proms, London (August 26)

Back to top