RJSO at the SJMF St. Gallen: Performance with flying colors
More than 4,200 young people and a total of 115 formations took part in the 18th Swiss Youth Music Festival in St. Gallen on September 16 and 17. The huge festival with jury performances, parade music, show concerts and other festival program was a blast, a happy event for everyone! Right in the middle of it all: The Regional Youth Symphony Orchestra Solothurn (RJSO) representing the EOV. The RJSO under the direction of Ruwen Kronenberg and soloist Rafael Giger mastered their performance of Dmitri Kabalewski's 3rd Piano Concerto in the Tonhalle St. Gallen with flying colors! The entire EOV Board attended the concert and was very proud of the RJSO's passionate performance. The 40-piece orchestra really gave their all! But let two young violinists from the RJSO tell us how they experienced their performance in front of the jury and audience on Saturday afternoon in the Tonhalle St. Gallen.
Agathe Krähenbühl (9) wrote after the concert:
"Excited - more excited - most excited!
We, the RJSO, were allowed to perform the piano concerto in the Tonhalle in St. Gallen. There were beautiful lamps shining from the ceiling above the stage. The audience's chairs were upholstered in green fabric. They looked really comfortable! Our chairs were also very comfortable, even though they were black. Opposite the stage was the jury. It consisted of three people. But I had to ignore them because the piece was about to start. The conductor raised his arms and the music started! The stage was quite big, so I wasn't squeezed in. But the sound was completely different for us musicians than in Solothurn. But we did our best to adapt as well as possible. The pianist's grand piano was so big that it obscured a large part of the orchestra from the audience's view. Fortunately, we, the musicians, could still see the conductor very well! After the first, second and third movements, our performance ended and our piece was played. Now we were finished, the last note sounded and after a short pause of a few seconds the applause rang out. The pianist stood up, took a bow and although the hall was rather empty, there was a lot of clapping. Many thanks to everyone! It was so impressive and wonderful to play with the orchestra! I'm already looking forward to the next concerts with the RJSO."
Agathe's colleague Julia Kaddah (11) summarized her impressions as follows:
"The RJSO finally takes to the stage. Excited faces look down at the stage, people pull out their cell phones, can hardly wait for the concert to start. Big and small, old and young, all here to listen to the RJSO. And then it began. Several astonished and delighted faces could be seen. And even more people recording everything on their cell phones. The music filled the whole hall. Even small children were watching with interest. At the end of the concert, everyone clapped loudly and enthusiastically. You could see happy people everywhere. The clapping wouldn't stop. But when it finally stopped, the RJSO left the stage."
