International Youth Philharmonic, Gala Concert, Albert Halls, Bolton. THE 120 or so musicians of the International Youth Philharmonic last night made a formidable, disciplined sound under three conductors.

The combination of musicians from Bolton Youth Orchestra, Orchester der Musikschule, Paderborn and Orchestre de l'Ecole de Musique, Le Mans, was justification, if needed, of the town-twinning principle.

This was impressive bonding. Hard preparation at Le Mans and the experience of playing in concert at other European venues had brought the orchestra to a peak. The were ready to "show off" and a difficult programme allowed them to do so.

The European Fanfare by Marc Antoine Charpentier, familiar as a Eurovision theme and often regarded as a "European anthem", set the mood of co-operation for the night and was used again to end the programme.

Bolton's conductor, Keith Sagar, and the orchestra coped well with the intricacies of Richard Wagner's Overture to the Mastersingers of Nuremberg. There were interesting harmonies in Saudades Do Brazil by French composer Darius Milhaud. This suite has an overture and 12 dances (the IYP played 10) each named after a district of Rio de Janeiro. French conductor, Jean-Michel Thaure, brought out the nuances of this work.

Sagar steered the orchestra through another demanding work, the Karelia Suit Op11 by Sibelius, but the audience was most moved by a remarkably professional performance of the Saint-Saens Symphony No 3 in C Minor - the Organ Symphony.

Bolton's Richard Johnson reaped the benefit of familiarity with the superb Albert Halls organ, and two members of the Paderborn orchestra, Ulrike and Thomas Seidensticker, proved good pianists in this rousing work conducted with great attention to detail by Jurgen Boelsen of of Paderborn.

An additional item on the programme, Thank You For The music, was a tribute to Frank To Wood, who is retiring after 15 years with Bolton Local Education Authority's Instrumental Teaching Service.

At first he was peripatetic woodwind teacher. A year later he was promoted to Head of Woodwind and became Head of Music Service in 1989.

Various presentations were made to him by Bolton's Director of Education, Margaret Blenkinsop, who paid tribute to his work. Mr Wood told the musicians he loved them all, and who could blame him?

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