Evening of Youth Music

Basingstoke Area Youth Ensembles 

The Anvil

THE music of the Beatles was supposed to be the lead story of this write-up – until we came to the second half of the concert.

We were all taken by surprise, especially John Fuller, when three young ladies from the orchestra sang a very amusing ditty in appreciation of his 20 years of service as director of the Hampshire Music Service in Basingstoke. The surprise item was beautifully stage-managed by his wife, Diane Fuller, and the musicians and audience roared their approval. 

The tribute was well-deserved and I decided to make our local hero John Fuller the lead story; after all, the Beatles have had their fair share of publicity!

Having said that, it was great listening to today’s youngsters singing and playing their way through classics such as All You Need Is Love, Here, There and Everywhere and Yellow Submarine. If you are a Beatles fan and you were not there, you missed a treat.

The massed choirs from Fairfields Primary, Oakley Junior, St Mary’s Church of England Junior, Alton Convent, Bishop Challoner and Guillemont Junior schools sang well with much enthusiasm and clear diction. There was no hesitation with the words, as the one advantage of a Beatles song is that good phrases are found and frequently repeated. It also has to be acknowledged that these boys from Liverpool could certainly write a good tune!                   

The standard achieved by all the instrumental and percussion ensembles feeding into the main orchestra has been very high for the last few years. The two small choirs – junior and youth – still have quite a bit of catching up to do, mainly because there are not enough of them, although there are some lovely voices in both choirs.

The Anvil is a large venue and the acoustics are amazing; I personally prefer the purity of children’s voices when they are not amplified. Maybe the two choirs should combine for maximum effect when singing in a professional concert hall?

I think what impressed me most about this particular concert was how discerning the audience was – yes, they cheered, applauded abd even whistled sometimes at the effort made by every child and teacher, but when the full orchestra tackled the Finale from Symphony No 5 by Dimitri Shostakovich, there was that special hush before the applause began.

This was again most noticeable when Paul Timms conducted the String Orchestra. His choice of music was faultless as far as I was concerned: two marches by Handel, Rhosymedre by Vaughan Williams and the beautiful Eleanor Rigby by Lennon and McCartney. 

Violins, cellos and double bass in perfect harmony. Exquisite!

Hannah Williams