Classical: Best of youthful talent

If the National Youth Orchestra of Great Britain is the guardian of future performances of symphonic music in this country, then it could not be in safer or more brilliant hands and the run-up to their 70th anniversary celebrations includes the annual visit to Leeds Town Hall with a concert next Saturday.

Aged between 13 and 19, the orchestra numbers 164 players from every part of the UK, and with different backgrounds, all brought together with a passion and love of classical music. That includes a number from this region with violins from Beverley and York, a flute from Doncaster, and brass players from Thirsk and Sheffield.

In a change to the published programme, the remarkable young 17-year-old Nottingham schoolboy, Sheku Kenneh-Mason, revisits his performance of Shostakovich’s First Cello Concerto that brought him the first prize in the 2016 BBC  Young Musician of the Year competition.

The concert is conducted by one of Mexico’s most distinguished conductors, Carlos Miguel Prieto, who brings music from Latin America with Silvestre Revueltas’s best known score, Night of the Mayas.

The concert ends with Shostakovich’s most popular symphony, the Fifth, the work passing down into history as his peace-offering to communist authorities for his past musical transgressions.

National Youth Orchestra, Leeds Town Hall, April 8. 7.30pm. Tickets from 0113 3760318 or www.leedsconcertseason.com