Raw Emotion and All the Big Tunes

BBC Young Musician Finalist plays Tchaikovsky

Sarah Tandy is building up her stamina for one of the most demanding roles a pianist can tackle: Tchaikovsky’s Piano Concerto No 1. She will be the soloist at the ealing youth orchestra’s next concert, at St Michael and All Angels Church in Bedford Park, Chiswick, on Saturday 27th March. The theme of the concert is Russian Romance, and Borodin’s Symphony No 2 completes the evening.

Local girl Sarah Tandy (she and her family live in Ealing) won the Keyboard Class in the BBC Young Musician of the Year Competition in 2002. Sarah has always wanted to play the Tchaikovsky: "It’s such a huge, romantic piece, with such sweeping tunes", says Sarah, "and when the conductor, Mark Forkgen, asked me to choose a piece, I thought, ‘the eyo will have fun doing this’. Though when I took it on I didn’t quite realise how big it is – how many notes there are in it! It’s very physical, there are lots of noisy chords, I have to build up to it, practise little chunks at a time, or I get exhausted. But the more I get to know it the better it gets".

"Tchaikovsky’s Piano Concerto No 1 is one of the best known" says Mark Forkgen, "it’s got the big tunes that the audience will know. The Borodin is less well-known, but it has a similar flavour to his Palovtsian Dances (the basis for Kismet). The eyo love playing these Russian pieces; and they come over much fresher than when they’re played by adult amateur players, because the young people have no inhibitions about embracing the raw emotion of the music. This music wears its heart on its sleeve, and the kids love that".

The ealing youth orchestra started over half a century ago, and many of the players live and go to school in and around Chiswick. It provides opportunities and experience for gifted young musicians, and many of them have gone on to careers in music and have graduated to play with leading national and European orchestras. The players are looking forward to their summer tour – this year they will perform in the Czech Republic.

Ealing Youth Orchestra is an independent youth orchestra, self-financed, run by and for its members who come from a wide area of West London. Its 65 players are drawn from some 13 different secondary schools. The target age range is 13–19 years, although exceptions are made at the discretion of the musical director. The orchestra exists to give young players the experience of rehearsing and performing music to a high standard.

March 15, 2004