National Youth Orchestra/Adès review – assured young musicians end their season all guns blazing

Royal Albert Hall, London
Thunderous timpani, stereo harps, a supersized horn section and 160 teenagers combined for Berlioz’s Symphonie fantastique, Adès’s Dante and a Liszt waltz

Three big pieces on the programme. 160 teenage musicians almost all on stage throughout. No choreography, no body percussion and not a kazoo in sight. By National Youth Orchestra standards, this Proms appearance – the all-guns-blazing finale of the cohort’s year together – was positively straight-laced.

Yes, there were still whoops when friends and family members greeted individual musicians as they all poured on to the stage. And this remains the only orchestra on the annual Proms roster where 10 horns come as standard and piccolo-playing is a team sport.