Autumn / Winter 2025 Music

It was good @herbaceous - sorry to miss you! Hope you all got back OK. DD2 safely back at school - but think it was a long trip for her after a concert.

@achangeofnameisasgoodasarest - We’re in the foyer, propping up the bar. I bet you’re here somewhere!

We’re braving the train chaos from the north to see the ESO concert, and see DS safely home. We ish me luck…

@MyBlueSloth mine has to wait until the one at the end of the month! Hope it goes well.

Good luck to anyone doing the NYOS audition tomorrow

Hope everyone doing holiday courses has enjoyed them, well soon be entering the headlong rush towards Christmas. 9 concerts between two of us so far lined up! Don't know about middle one yet so maybe more. I love it! Can still remember COVID times when there was nothing so never moan about it now. I'm sure if you're a chorister family it's hard though!

Saw the ceilidh videos, they need to team up with National youth orchestra of Scotland! Scottish teens famously do ceilidh dancing for PE throughout December in the run up to Christmas dances so are all adept. They moan incessantly about it but it comes in handy at uni/ weddings etc ( not that they will ever admit it!)

I saw @herbaceous ! We’re actually busting dd2
out this evening for dinner with friends- she can get to cadogan perfectly well from here in the morning - looking
forward to all the goss

This is a world I'm very glad to be unaware of!

As for ESO, @achangeofnameisasgoodasarest, FB had some highly amusing videos of a celidh last night. Very wholesome.

:) I didn't even want to touch the matter of choice of teachers, the rivalry and the politics of different places 😁🤦‍♀️ It's not for the fainthearted 😂

London offers more choice obviously, and IIRC NYO first violins last year were predominantly from London or suburbs - just a coincidence of course.

Then again, getting back to the question of teachers, when Bron moved to Germany his pupils had to follow even though there was absolutely no shortage of excellent violin teachers in Russia back then.

Ah Rachel Podger the "Queen of the gut stringed violin" according to the Times! I agree.

Amusingly DD and her prep school rival pianist went different ways at Yr 7 - DD to JD and the rival to specialist - DD was offered the same teacher when she rocked up at JG as the other girl had at specialist. Also, unlike the rival, DD had a choice - and went with someone else.......

JD teachers often teach at top private or specialist schools, RCM prof was HoD at StPauls as far as I remember, the brass band DD played in at boys school was led by a JD teacher, but I agree he's had lots of input from everywhere and I suppose an excellent first teacher in his home country too.

It may be tricky though for younger ones to have multiple teachers while they're still working on their technique, different approaches can be confusing or I guess even just different styles. Hahn and Podger are both baroque specialists but they are worlds apart in their style.

BBC YM finalist went to a top private school but as far as I know he was on the weekly plane to Paris to have lessons with his previous conservatoire teacher (I may be wrong but that's what I heard)

This is correct but he also had lessons at Eton with the teacher that DD had at JG. So a double "whammy" of lessons over and above the normal JD or specialist school - he effectively had a specialist teacher at school and an advanced conservatoire at the weekend.

Think they'd done it in sectionals for DD2 @ herbaceous - she didn't know until after she got there - and I think the others aren't new to the course. So maybe that makes it easier to plan

I don't know how they place them in sections without having heard them play.

Yes - in my bassooning years, playing second was almost harder. Lower register and fingering takes a different technique!

Ah, I see @Compsearch . DD does currently have a (small) bassoon group, and the Schubert octet, and a double reed group, and a wind dectet (just did some divertissement by someone called Bernard or something?) and a separate quintet.

Same sort of stuff, maybe? Or maybe there's even more! I think she finds it quite enough given she's also in a flute ensemble, three 'orchestras' or bands, and two choirs.

@herbaceous DD says she's second in the Mahler, first in the Hansel and Gretel thingy. Nice they swap them about. She says playing second is a skill all of its own.

@achangeofnameisasgoodasarest also eg I think the JDs will do things like “bassoon choir” or “horn group” playing through arrangements for say 8-12 of whatever instrument it is, not as a regular fixture but for random concerts/showcases. (NYO also does a lot of that in the sectionals too).

Also things like bigger classical chamber works (eg Strauss, Dvorak, Mozart serenades for winds) need a lot of good wind players, so must be very school/JD dependent as to whether they’ve got enough of the right level and in the right combinations. Obviously not a big deal not to play any of this stuff however!

I have no idea what the other horns are like, but know DS has been put on first for one of the pieces, much to his surprise. But then horn part placement (not a euphamism) seems unlike other instruments. Third can be more difficult and important than first, for example.

@Ubertomusic ah, I see, hadn't thought of brass bands - seems a culture all its own!

@herbaceous, you see I can work out who your DS is because I watched the chorister thing all those years ago. You'll find DD in the middle - exactly where she likes to be. She says the top bassoon is 'amazing' (and that's praise she doesn't lavish lightly).

Oddly, given our discussion here, despite one being JD and one specialist school, they share a teacher.

@achangeofnameisasgoodasarest - I'm relying on the FB photos for my fix. The only pic I've had from DS is of a cup of tea!

Have tried to work out which one your DD is from the sectionals photos!

DD doesn't play a rare instrument but the school doesn't have a big brass band for example - maybe in older years though I haven't seen it yet. I assumed, perhaps incorrectly, that @lovinglife2025 's DS is at a non/specialist school, and I have never seen a decent brass band even in top private schools, they simply don't have enough players or not very advanced. DD played in a brass band at one of the top boys schools supposedly good for music - it wasn't advanced tbh. It's all instrument dependent though, string ensembles can be found almost anywhere.

There is also a matter of teachers, the no1 priority for soloists. BBC YM finalist went to a top private school but as far as I know he was on the weekly plane to Paris to have lessons with his previous conservatoire teacher (I may be wrong but that's what I heard). PP's DS is not at JD yet so it's not a problem, but for us it was a very difficult decision even though DD is not a soloist. You have to really click with your violin teacher to be able to sustain it long term.

No lack of chamber groups of course which is great for versatility (one of the biggest advantages in my view) and not necessarily available at JDs, ditto baroque instruments, very niche and not every JD has options for younger players whereas specialist schools are more encouraging. Some unusually excellent niche ensembles like horns etc. Lots of other nuances too, music is such an individual journey I think it has to be tailor made in any case.

@Ubertomusic I’m intrigued by the ‘interesting groups’- what makes them more interesting for endangered instruments? Dd2 has an overload of chamber groups at specialist school- you’d never fit them all in one day!

@herbaceous - all I hear from dd2 is how good the food is and how very very fancy the school is.. had some pictures of breakfast.

JDs may have better specialist ensembles than even specialist music schools as they attract more children at advanced level even on "endangered" instruments so can actually form interesting groups. DD's JD definitely has a couple of groups not available at her school but I think sport is equally important.

A lot depends on particular schools and JD anyway.

@lovinglife2025 mine had Saturday school so we didn't consider a JD. He transferred to a specialist boarding school for 6th form so no real need for JD at that point. He's now 4th year of a music performance degree regardless of no JD.