NYO performs new work by PHF composers’ award recipient
The National Youth Orchestra of Great Britain performed a specially commissioned piece by Larry Goves, a recipient of the PHF Award for Composers, at Leeds Town Hall on 4 January.
The new work, called ‘The Rules’, is a homage to Benjamin Britten’s ‘Young Person’s Guide to the Orchestra’, written in 1946, which has become a regularly performed concert piece for orchestras as well as a popular score in children’s music education.
Goves’s half-hour piece was positively reviewed by the Evening Standard, and received four stars from the Guardian. The Guardian reviewer wrote: “it proved to be as much about the creative possibilities of chaos as it was a pedantic call to order.”
Goves was a recipient of the PHF Award for Composers in November 2011, alongside John Butcher and Matt Rogers. The PHF Awards for Artists, now worth £50,000 over three years, have been awarded annually since 1994 to support artists by providing them with financial assistance at critical points in their careers.
The aim of the Awards is to give artists the freedom to develop their creative ideas and to contribute to their personal and professional growth. Since receiving the award, Goves has written for the Nash Ensemble, The LSO, the BBC Philharmonic, Psappha, Ixion, The Hallé, Sarah Nicolls, 175 East, The Continuum Ensemble and his music has been broadcast on BBC Radio 3 and New Zealand’s Concert FM. He also returned to PHF as a judge for the 2013 awards.
The NYO, for whom Larry Goves works as a composition tutor, has also benefited from the support of the PHF Arts programme. In 2010, it received £120,000 in core support to help implement a new business plan to move into less traditional areas. This included developing strands of activity around empowering young people, developing life skills through musical education, and increasing access for young audiences to classical music.
Saturday’s concert in Leeds culminated in a performance of Mahler’s fifth symphony. The programme was repeated at a concert at the Barbican in London the following day. A recording of the London performance will be broadcast on BBC Radio 3 on Monday 13 January.
