THE MILLENIUM QUARTET at Glasgow University

The first in the lunchtime concert series for this Academic year was from The Millennium Quartet , accomplished alumni of the prestigious Simon Bolivar Youth Orchestra from Venezuela.Since 2000 the orchestra has received substantial state funding in a programme to raise a million children from poverty to having a high degree of educational vocations including international class mastery of music.The state provides about 80% funding and early results hold much promise.

In a show of solidarity , and to prove ideas to improve the lot of the less privileged is not a one way process the Quartet are in Scotland to take the Sistema idea and help establish and guide the Venezuelan model in Scotlands educational institutes.It is ironic whereas in Venezuela the programme is state funded , in Scotland it is an independent charitable effort.

As the Sistema Scotland website states the goals are:

We are on a mission to transform lives through music.

Sistema Scotland is a charity set up in the belief that children can gain huge social benefits by playing in a symphony orchestra. We use music making to foster confidence, teamwork, pride and aspiration in the children taking part - and across their wider community.

We take the Sistema name from the orchestra movement established in Venezuela in 1975 by Maestro José Antonio Abreu.

We are very proud to be official partners with the original organisation in Venezuela. We seek to benefit from the South Americans’ expertise, while adapting their methods to suit conditions in Scotland.

Sistema Scotland exists to develop orchestra centres on the ground in Scotland. These are known in the community as Big Noise. The first is in Raploch, Stirling. We have plans for further centres across Scotland.

The first quartet was Mozarts in D minor K421 , as pointed out by a professor many years ago German orchestras play Germanic pieces with a naturalness other orchestras rarely emulate , even after years of trying.It is as if music also has an inbuilt language intonation which can be passable mimicry by others but does not quite hit the mark , even the ones that do get close one will find that it is by hiring the services of a german trained composer.In this way the quartet hit all the right notes but the passion did not materialise.

The second quartet , however,by a splendidly South American fusion of an Argentine composer born of Italian Mother and Catalan Father is played so naturally and with such heartfelt evocative sympathy one could be mistaken for thinking the piece was especially written for them.The piece is Quartet No.1 Op.20 by Alberto Ginastera.

The Herald Scotland has a fairly accurate appraisal of the Ginastera piece in this review.

Here is a very delicate performance of Ginastera by the Simon Bolivar Youth Orchestra captured in London:



In the interview below the founder of the El Sistema project Jose Antonio Abreu gives an inspirational talk about the value of this type of project: