CROYDON ADVERTISER, MAY 1967

With a programme of five works, all scored for full orchestra, by contemporary British composers - this sort of programme can never have been given at Fairfield before! -Wednesday evening's exceedingly impressive concert by the Leicestershire Schools Symphony Orchestra certainly lacked nothing in ambition. Indeed, despite the advance publicity that described the orchestra's achievements and their tours abroad, even the most optimistic, non-partisan Croydon concert-goer might justifiably have queried in anticipation: "Well, just how good are they?" His answer came in definite terms right from when the 100 or so players between the ages of about 14 and 18 launched into their virile realisation of the National Anthem. Of the five works, only two, Rawsthorne's second piano concerto and the ballet suite "Checkmate" by Sir Arthur Bliss, were likely to be known to the audience. Except for the Rawsthorne which - to judge by the orchestra's own superlative standards - found a few detailed deficiencies in the playing, the items threw out just that right kind of challenge to fire the enthusiasm of the young musicians. Starting the programme, Robin Orr's Symphony in One Movement made a most acceptable impression on a first hearing: this in itself speaks well of the performance. It is full of verve, with interesting and very imaginative use of the thematic material and cleverly-worked counterpoint and juxtaposition of motifs. Herein did the expertise of the brass and percussion - an excellent timpanist in particular - show itself immediately. In many ways, the orchestra were heard to their best advantage in the " Suite for the birthday of Prince Charles " (Suite in D) by Sir Michael Tippett. Since 1965 Sir Michael has taken an active interest in Leicestershire schools' music, and on Wednesday he was present to conduct his own work. Where the strings had previously been slightly overshadowed by the rest of the orchestra, they really shone in this suite, especially in those full-bow unison passages. This is a delectable set of pieces, which involves a not too subtle use of traditional tunes. The oboe solo in the " Berceuse " was handsomely wrought and elsewhere arose some deft and artistic playing from the first horn. Bryan Kelly's three-movement Sinfonia Concertante, one of the six new works commissioned for this year's Leicestershire Schools Festival of Music, appeared to rely very much upon rhythmic impetus rather than thematic growth for its impact. Thus did the firm tone and zestful attack of the orchestra suit the highly-strung and tightly-knit character of the score. In the Rawsthorne piano concerto, Norma Fisher provided a very assured account of the solo part. She interpreted the "piacevole" indication for the first movement with nicely flexed rhythm.

The martellato octave sections throughout the concerto resounded unequivocally, even if the forte finger passages were not comparably steely. The intermezzo built up quite an effective atmosphere, the poco allegro portion moving with happy lightness. In the "Checkmate" suite, the instrumental balance sounded convincing even in the "Dance of the Four Knights". The whole effect was most evocative and the high pressure thrust of the music was exciting and vivid. Primary honours for this stimulating concert must go, of course, to the members of the Leicestershire Schools Symphony Orchestra. But, presumably, they could not have achieved their triumph without sterling training from their conductor Norman del Mar who, though he has been closely associated with the borough in the past (as one-time conductor of the Croydon Symphony Orchestra), was making his first appearance in Fairfield Hall. His ardent, clear-cut style brought out the maximum potential of the orchestra. Credit is unreservedly due, also, to the enlightened administration in Leicestershire.

DAILY MAIL, MAY 1967

By Eric Mason

Leicestershire Schools' Festival: De Montfort Hall, Leicester

The second Leicestershire Schools' Festival of Music opened last night with a concert consisting entirely of first performances. Four of the five works had been specially commissioned and each was conducted by its composer. For the county's 100-strong Schools' Symphony Orchestra Bryan Kelly supplied a restless Waltonian Sinfonia Concertante and William Mathias an adroit, extrovert Sinfonietta. This, in particular, received a remarkably assured performance. Junior singers, recorder players and percussionists got their chance in Robin Stephenson’s The Listeners, and Brian Bonsor's The Pied Piper, which twice had them swinging into mambo rhythm.

Finally and most ambitiously a legion of youngsters took part in Funeral Games for a Greek Warrior, a dance-spectacle imaginatively choreographed by James J. J. Clarke, with strong, colourful music by Alan Ridout which the symphony orchestra played with near professional aplomb.

LEICESTER MERCURY. APRIL 1967

The second Leicestershire Schools Festival of Music begins at the end of the month and will be more ambitious, even, than the highly successful first venture two years ago. As then the week's music activities - beginning with an inaugural service in Leicester Cathedral on April 30 - will be under the active patronage of Sir Michael Tippett whose stature as a composer and whose personal interest played so large a part in making the first festival nationally known.

Five new works, all specially commissioned for the 1967 festival, will be directed by the composers themselves. This fact alone makes the line-up of conductors an impressive one. Norman del Mar will be the Principal conductor, Sir Michael Tippett guest conductor, and guiding their own works through first performances will be Anthony Milner, Brian Bonsor, Bryan Kelly, William Mathias and Alan Ridout. In addition, Eric Pinkett (County music adviser) will share some of the direction. The main burden of performance will be carried by the senior orchestra of Leicestershire County School of Music, who have recently returned from a ten day period of intensive rehearsal in the Isle of Man and who will be meeting twice weekly from now until the festival to put the final touches to their programme. Many of these final rehearsal sessions will be under the baton of Mr. Del Mar, who has a high opinion of the orchestra's prowess. The crowning achievement of their efforts, however, will be realised on the Wednesday following Festival Week when, at Croydon's Fairfield Hall, they will give the most important concert in their history. A new and particularly interesting festival feature this year will be the three informal tea time talks which will be given to invited audiences at the County Rooms on Tuesday, Wednesday and Thursday of festival week by Sir Michael Tippett and Norman Del Mar. The chairman on the three successive days will be, respectively, Frederic Cox, principal of the Royal Manchester College, Jonson Dyer from the firm of Chappells and John Manduell, chief assistant of the B.B.C. music programme. The aim of these meetings will be to promote a free-and-easy exchange of ideas between platform and audience (comprising mostly teachers on the staff of the County School of Music and senior pupils) and covering a broad field of musical interest from the specialised business of composition and conducting to the place of music in education and society. The Festival's principal concerts will be held in the De Montfort Hall on Monday, May 1 and on the following Friday, when the soloist in Alan Rawsthorne's second piano concerto will be Norma Fisher who will also play the work with the senior orchestra at Fairfield Hall, Croydon. On Tuesday, Wednesday and Thursday of Festival Week the county districts will be liberally served with music by groups of instrumentalists including Carl Dolmetsh and Joseph Saxby, The Da Vinci Trio (Janet Craxton oboe, Alan Richardson piano, Douglas Whittaker flute) and musicians from the Royal College of Music and from the Royal Manchester College of Music. Anthony Milner's setting of the "Te Deum" commissioned by the Bishop of Leicester will be heard at the inaugural service at Leicester Cathedral with the composer conducting the choir of Loughborough College School. The four other new works, commissioned by the Countv School of Music and sponsored by local businesses comprise the main bulk of the first De Monfort Hall concert. Bryan Kelly’s Sinfonia Concertante is an orchestral work in three movements, William Mathias's Sinfonietta consists of three dance movements for orchestra, and Brian Bonsor's The Pied Piper of Hamelin is for performance by a junior schools choir with recorders and a various assemblage of "Orff" and percussion instruments. The second half of the opening concert will comprise a performance of "Funeral Games for a Greek Warrior" which is described as a dance-cycle and in which some 150 children from junior and high schools will be supported by full orchestra. Its title by no means pre-supposes 45 minutes of funeral drabness either musically or visually. The Greeks had different ideas about mourning. In ballet- mime, this originally-conceived work will contain expressions of sorrow but there will, too, be bright and vital spectacles with runners, wrestlers, acrobats and jugglers whose vigorous animation will be heightened by the exciting sound of brass and percussion.

The music for Funeral Games has been written by Alan Ridout, well-known broadcaster whose second symphony was written for the County School of Music senior orchestra. The scenario and choreography is by James J. J. Clarke, teacher of English and drama at Ferneley High School, Melton Mowbray.

The final festival concert at the De Montfort Hall will have a more orthodox orchestral programme and will include Robin Orr's one-movement symphony, Brahms's St. Anthony variations, Bliss's "Checkmate" suite and Tippett's suite in D (Prince Charles) in addition to the Rawsthorne piano concerto.

LEICESTER MERCURY, DECEMBER 1967

B.B.C. television cameras will be at Longslade Grammar School, Birstall next Tuesday to do a feature about the Leicestershire Schools Symphony Orchestra, whose four day Christmas rehearsal course began yesterday.

Sir Michael Tippett will be taking rehearsals on Monday and Tuesday and the B.B.C. television filming team will be there to gather material for a forthcoming programme entitled Music International. The 100 members of the orchestra have become quite used to cameras and microphones by now, so Tuesday's recording is unlikely to create much excitement. It will be the third time that British television has been interested in them and within recent years all their overseas tours have included recordings for subsequent broadcasts.

The orchestra's disappointment in the cancellation (for reasons of economy) of a projected American visit has been alleviated if not wholly eclipsed by the prospect of a trip to Vienna to give important concerts in this the most famous and certainly most glamorous European music centre. The approach to the Leicestershire School of Music for the orchestra's services was made while the American trip was still on and the answer then, of course, had to be "Sorry". Prophetically the reply was: "If America falls through, then come to Vienna." The trip is likely to take place in the late summer. In July the orchestra will play in The Guildhall under the auspices of the organisation Youth and Music of which Sir Robert Mayor is the head. Their conductor will be Sir Michael Tippett. Their biannual concert in Leicester's De Montfort Hall will take place on April 3 and, more immediately, they will their give their first concert in Corby Festival Hall next Friday.

LEICESTER MERCURY, JULY 1967

A surprise visitor at yesterday's recording session at Leicester De Montfort Hall, where the Leicestershire Schools Symphony Orchestra made a twelve-inch

commercial disc was the distinguished Norwegian conductor, Oivin Fjeldstad.

The story of his presence there is quite romantic. The County School of Music had been trying for some time to get in touch with Mr. Fjeldstad, who is music director and chief conductor of the Oslo Philharmonic Orchestra. Their purpose was to coax him to agree to conduct the schools orchestra during their two weeks visit to Denmark next September. Eventually, a telegram was received from Mr. Fjeldstad in which he displayed interest. It was addressed from Uppingham.

Just over a year ago his actress daughter, Lisa, married Mr. Gordon Braddy, housemaster at Uppingham School. He was visiting them for the first time.

"And so," he said, yesterday, "in order to listen to the Leicestershire orchestra

I had to travel only 18 miles." He was given the opportunity also to direct them in a short work by the Danish composer Nielsen - "Masquerade".

Apart from the fine quality of their playing, he was impressed by the fact that it had been possible to produce sufficient young musicians of so high a musical standard from so relatively small area to form a full size symphony orchestra of such excellence. He extended his hands in an encompassing gesture. "What if this were done throughout the country?" he asked. His initial reservations about conducting a schools orchestra had been dispelled, he said, and he was in the process of amending his plans in order to be able to conduct them at least once or twice during their visit to Denmark.

Yesterday's recording session began at two o'clock after a morning of rehearsal and sound balancing. Television equipment added to the technical array confronting the young members of the orchestra and amid the flowers in the gardens facing the De Montfort Hall entrance, were lights, cameras and microphones where interviews were filmed and recorded for insertion into a half-hour documentary programme about the making of a disc. The feature will be for eventual network broadcast by Associated Rediffusion who, because of their enthusiasm for the occasion, decided to treble the viewing time they had originally planned for it. Three composers were present to conduct their own works, including Sir Michael Tippett whose suggestion it was that the orchestra's standard justified the making of a commercial record. The record will comprise Sir Michael's "Prince Charles" suite, William Mathias's Sinfonietta, Alan Ridout's Concertante Music and Divertimento by Malcolm Arnold which will be conducted by Eric Pinkett, music adviser for Leicestershire. The Ridout work was the result of a telephone call four weeks ago from Mr. Pinkett to the composer with a request for an orchestral piece to fill up ten minutes of recording time. "I had an idea before I put the phone down", said Mr. Ridout yesterday. "The work was composed within 24 hours - that included sleep - and there remained the job of preparing a full score. That's navvies' work and it took four days." The result of his labours and of the tough and exacting schedule undergone with cheerfulness and professional calm by the hard working young musicians of the orchestra will soon be available for all to hear.

LEICESTER MERCURY, JUNE 1967

The senior orchestra of Leicestershire County School of Music, on the advice of Sir Michael Tippett, is to make a commercial record. The recording session will take place at Leicester De Montfort Hall on July 5, when the conductors will be Sir Michael Tippett, William Mathias, Alan Ridaut and Eric Pinkett, Music Adviser for Leicestershire. The record will be a natural sequel to the high standard of performance which the orchestra has attained and which was enthusiastically acclaimed by London music critics at the recent Schools Music Festival. Two of the works played during the Festival will appear on the disc - Mathias's "Sinfonietta" (commissioned for the event) and Tippett's Suite for the Birthday of Prince Charles. The third work will be "Divertimento" by Malcolm Arnold who has conducted the orchestra both in this country and abroad. The fourth work has all the excitement of a Stop Press rush. Ten minutes of playing time remained to be filled and after discarding the idea of isolating a movement from a larger work or padding out with a "pot- boiler", it was decided to find a composer who possessed the speed and the flair for dashing off a piece capable of displaying the special qualities of the Leicestershire Schools Symphony Orchestra. The result is Alan Ridout's "Concertante Music" written in less than two weeks and which will have the remarkable distinction of proceeding from conception, writing, copying, rehearsing to recording in exactly four weeks. Ridout says it is one of the most exciting compositions he has produced. He was responsible for the music to the successful ballet-mime "Funeral Games for a Greek Warrior" which received its first performance at the festival. His newest work has been commissioned by Dr. H. L. Haslegrave, Vice-Chancellor of Loughborough University. Both the recording session and the previous all-day rehearsal in the De Montfort Hall will be watched by television film cameras.

Later, "The making of a disc" will be included in an Associated Rediffusion programme directed at young people.

LEICESTER MERCURY, MAY 1967

Last night's opening concert at the De Montfort Hall of the 1967 Leicestershire Schools' Festival of Music triumphantly proved that with courage, enterprise, tenacity and a little luck, it was possible to build upon and expand an exciting idea which found its first expression two years ago. In his introduction as patron,

Sir Michael Tippett said the 1965 festival had shown what an almost inexhaustible fund of musical talent lies hidden among young people at school, waiting to be developed. "The exciting thing is that Leicestershire has developed that talent," he added. The five specially commissioned new works which comprised last night's programme not only provided pleasing variety and balance (a little luck), but seemed each in its own way to contribute to the spirit of adventure which characterises the festival idea whose motivating force is the concerted achievement of the seemingly impossible. The concert had the distinction (and the authoritative touch) of having each work conducted by its composer. They were, in order of appearance: Bryan Kelly ("Sinfonia Concertante" for orchestra); William Mathias ("Sinfonietta" for orchestra); Robin Stephenson ("The Listeners" a setting for voices and percussion of Walter de la Mare's poem); Brian Bonsor ("The Pied Piper of Hamelin" for primary schools singers and instrumentalists); and Alan Ridout ("Funeral Games for a Greek Warrior" a ballet-mime with full orchestral accompaniment). The Ridout work was the largest in scale and occupied the whole of the second half of the concert. It comprises seven ritualistic sequences contained within opening and closing processionals of impressive dignity and solemnity. The scenario and choreography was by James J. J. Clarke, a teacher at Ferneley High School, Melton Mowbray, who showed himself to have an unquestionable talent for devising movement and action of a widely expressive range and whose freedom and vitality of line - even in the work's more uninhibited moments - never overstepped the dignified bounds of a self-imposed formal and classical discipline. Ridout's fine score was immediately successful in establishing atmosphere with its huge pillar-like opening chords and in the spaciousness of the music with which he accompanied the slow and stately filling of the stage with 150 costumed children, pupils of junior and high schools in the county. Among some really effective and evocative instrumental writing (like the volatile brass and percussion in the wrestling sequence) Ridout secured sincere beauty and gravity of utterance it the "second lament". The choreography was interpreted with unfailing confidence by each member of the large company. But the secret of their enthusiasm, of course, was the inspiration of a choreographer who was able to supply the type of thing that young people would both be able to do well and would want to do well. The Leicestershire Schools Symphony Orchestra who produced so polished a realisation of Ridout’s score gave further evidence of their excellence in the two orchestral works, where, with technical and musicianly assurance, they effectively presented the contrasting styles of Kelly and Mathias. The Kelly work employs the concertante style with considerable resource and as a piece of music of structural soundness and compactness and much to say. The first movement neatly prepares the ear for the veiled mood of the second and the percussive aggressiveness of the last movement with its ingeniously worked three-quaver motif, finds ultimate triumph in an explosive and youthfully optimistic finale. The composer himself draws attention to the strong dance element in Mathias's "Sinfonietta." This, too, has an exciting climax, the starting point being the trills and tremolandi that announce the last movement’s mighty summing up of ideas. Instrumental colouring is an individual characteristic of the work and particularly attractive was the slow movement's nebulous and diffuse colouring - stemming, it seemed from the peculiarly ambiguous tone-quality of the vibraphone which was part of a large percussive array. The supreme assurance of some 250 junior singers was reflected in their singing from memory the whole (with the exception of two short cuts) of Browning's "Pied Piper" in Brian Bonsor's delightful and witty setting accompanied by a piano, recorders and Orff Instruments (played by a group of young performers) and the symphony orchestra's percussion section.

If Bonsor did not quite have the instrumental resources to eke out with complete satisfaction the lengthy story, he deserves credit for applying ingenuity so well. The exodus of the rats to Latin-American rhythm was a deft and swingy touch; so too the lugubrious Mayor-and-Corporation theme and the early exclamation from 250 voices- RATS! A much-needed piece, this, for the young folks' repertoire. Finally, I acknowledge the rare innocent beauty of "The Listeners" sung with clarity and charm by children from Coalville Broomleys Junior School. Robin Stephenson's setting, with its simple accompaniment combines in a remarkable way economy of means with moving effect. A short work, but the memory of it is lasting. R.A.P.

LEICESTER MERCURY, MAY 1967

1967 Leicestershire Schools Festival of Music ended on a spectacular note at the De Montfort Hall last night with Norman Del Mar conducting the County Senior Symphony Orchestra in a quite electrifying account of Bliss’s Checkmate ballet suite. This was fine playing by any standard but from 100 Young musicians all still at school - incredible. The strings had praiseworthy intonation and flexibility and alacrity of phrase, and from all other departments there was technical assurance and excellence of ensemble. The Bliss work was the final item in a well balanced programme, decidedly modern in bias (quite rightly) and which included a splendid account of Rawsthorne’s second piano concerto with Norma Fisher as soloist. Rawsthorne's orchestral palette is lavish and so subtle in its exploitation of instrumental timbres that a pianist without a comparable sense of colour would seem as flat as stale beer. But Miss Fisher was conspicuously successful in producing variety of touch and tone and contributed to a wonderfully integrated performance.

There are few conductors (as the Rawsthorne showed) with so sensitive a feel for rhythm and so keen an ear of orchestral sound as Mr. Del Mar. These qualities abounded in his moving interpretation of Robin Orr's Symphony in One Movement. It is a work of considerable stature and whose strong and succinct argument demands and holds the attention throughout. Its final peroration, beginning with a lyric solo for the oboe is placid and quite beautiful.

The orchestra seemed to share their conductor's affection for the work and their response was splendid. There was, indeed, no blemish that came between the listener and the music. Praise to the timpanist for his intelligent and musicianly handling of a key role in the symphony.

In Brahm's St. Anthony Variations, Mr. Del Mar brought to bear on a

traditional work some of the virtues which have gained him a reputation as an interpreter of moderns. His performance was always clear-textured, and his tempo in the fifth variation together with his delicate pointing of phrases did justice to Brahms's delightful interplay of cross rhythms.

Sir Michael Tippett, the Festival's patron, was loudly applauded for his conducting of his own popular "Suite for the birthday of Prince Charles" and no-one applauded him more vigorously than the members of the orchestra with whom he is a great favourite and something more besides.

Sir Michael and Mr. Del Mar made a joint platform appearance at the close of the concert and were simultaneously presented by the orchestra with (respectively) a silver baton and a pair of silver cufflinks - both the products of Loughborough College of Art. Thus was a tribute made to two famous musicians who have added their inspiration and skill to the sterling work of the County School of Music staff in producing a memorable festival.

LEICESTER MERCURY, MAY 1967

Alan Rawsthorne the composer was full of praise for the Leicestershire Schools Symphony Orchestra whose playing at the Fairfield Hall, Croydon last night was enthusiastically received by a large audience. The programme with one exception was a repeat of that with which the 1967 Leicestershire Schools Festival of Music concluded last Friday and the conductors, once again, were Norman Del Mar and Sir Michael Tippett with Norma Fisher the soloist in Rawsthorne's Second Piano Concerto. Rawsthorne joined soloist and conductor on the platform to share the generous ovation for an excellent performance of his concerto.

Later, he told me how impressed he had been with the standard of the orchestral playing. He had been both surprised and delighted with their realisation of his own work. "They showed remarkable subtlety in their playing", he said "particularly for such young musicians". Another composer to hear his music performed and to join Mr. Del Mar on the platform was Bryan Kelly, whose Sinfonia Concertante especially commissioned for the Schools Festival, was played in place of Brahms's "St. Anthony" variations and thus received its second performance. The Fairfield concert hall is part of Croydon's fine new cultural centre. Its acoustic is somewhat brittle and demands exacting performances. But the Leicestershire County Schools Symphony Orchestra were fully equal to the task and played throughout with sharpness and precision of attack and excellent balance. R.A.P.

LEICESTER MERCURY, SEPTEMBER 1967

A 20-year old Birstall student has combined his old hobby of music with his

present interest in photography to produce a pictorial study of the Leicester County School of Music. Bearded Paul Stokes, 18 Sandgate Avenue, Birstall has been compiling a photographic record of the schools' orchestra since Easter.

Paul played clarinet with the orchestra for seven years but is now studying photography at Leicester College of Art. He says: "I knew many of the people in the orchestra and this made my project easier- they soon got used to me crawling around the stage taking photographs while they practiced."

Paul's book, which he plans to present to the orchestra on Monday, is divided into six topics - instruments, rehearsals, conductors, on the road, back stage and concerts. To gather material, he accompanied the orchestra to a concert at Fairfield Hall, Croydon. Here, some of his work was exhibited along with some paintings by local artists. Among the famous faces that appear in Paul's book are Norman Del Mar, Alan Ridout and Sir Michael Tippett. The latter is at present writing a foreword for the book. Paul, formerly of Loughborough College School, has a year to go at the College of Art. Recently he passed the finals of his City and Guild photographic exam. Eventually he hopes to make a career of photo-journalism, but at present Paul is working on an ice-cream van earning money for more equipment.

LEICESTER MERCURY, SEPTEMBER 1967

The Leicestershire Schools Senior Symphony Orchestra is establishing an excellent reputation in the Danish towns which it is currently visiting.

Concerts given by the orchestra have been of such a high standard that, according to newspaper reports, audiences were "astonished" that young people aged between 15 and 18 could give such professional performances.

One critic wrote: "At certain times the performances were exceedingly beautiful." Another said: "The English orchestra is a result of teaching music

in schools. We do not pursue this field of teaching to our full extent, but this Leicestershire orchestra should inspire us to do more."

With conductor Mr. Eric Pinkett, the orchestra, comprising 65 girls and 36 boys, arrived by the liner Sir Winston Churchill at the port of Esbjerg on Friday.

They spent the weekend in Danish homes and on Saturday an organised sightseeing tour, including a visit to the home of the world-famous fairy tale writer, Hans Andersen, was arranged. In the evening the orchestra gave its first performance in the town hall at Odense.

LEICESTER MERCURY, SEPTEMBER 1967

Members of the Leicestershire Schools Orchestra have every reason to be thoroughly pleased and proud of themselves today after the admirable way they acquitted themselves on television last night. In an early evening programme on ITV called Come Here Often viewers were given a fascinating glimpse of the county's young orchestra preparing to make a record in the De Montfort Hall, Leicester. The youngsters absolutely brimmed over with a contagious enthusiasm for their music, much of which has been specially written for them.

What a change it was to see and hear teenagers talking about the satisfaction and fulfilment they get from music, to hear how hard they are prepared to work and practice to make their orchestra one of the most highly regarded youth groups in the country. These young people needed no stimulants like drugs and psychedelic trappings to help them enjoy their music, which to some will quite obviously become their lives. There was such a refreshing modesty and eagerness about these musicians who spoke frankly of their aspirations to Cliff Morgan, that it was a great pity the feature didn't last a good deal longer and that we didn't hear a lot more of their playing. Alan Ridout summed up the orchestra when he said how happy it was and how gay the youngsters made everything. It was a tribute to them that he also thought they took more readily to playing complex irregular rhythms than adults. Sir Michael Tippett, the composer and conductor, who has written for the Leicestershire orchestra did not stint his praise of our young people, either. He said they were making the record because they wanted to show everybody what it is possible to do with young people in one musical society. The young people had a tremendous instinct for music. The record, a long player, which the orchestra recorded last July, is due out in November and on the basis of the orchestra's performance - short though it was last night, it ought to sell exceedingly well in the circles at which it is aimed. Only one thing was blatantly wrong with the programme - it was its timing. One would hardly have thought that those most interested in it - parents, friends, teachers, etc. - would have been in a position to watch it at 5.25 p.m. It seemed to me it was of sufficient interest to be televised at a more popular time. Even though it was a youth orchestra it certainly wasn't kids' stuff. M.R.W.