Latest on Forbes: Eternal Youth -- Gustav Mahler Youth Orchestra At 30

Gustav Mahler Youth Orchestra in Vienna’s Golden Hall as part of its 30^th anniversary European tour with Christian Gerhaher and Daniel Harding in Hector Berlioz’ Les Nuits d'été and Bruckner’s Fifth Symphony.

The best youth orchestras – and this may well not be a secret anymore – are among the most enjoyable orchestras you can listen to: Technically at the top of the game and motivated from ponytail to pinky; ability and willingness in ready harmony at a level and consistency that cannot be expected from all but a handful of top-notch orchestras. The only thing that can possibly derail them is music that works primarily off a arcane emotional response to life – and a conductor who lacks profundity and the natural authority that comes from musical and personal authenticity. In those cases youth orchestras are prone to have a more difficult time. Incidentally Bruckner – to move from the general to the particular – is one of those composers. And the conductor on this occasion, namely the Vienna stop of the Gustav Mahler Youth Orchestra’s 30th Anniversary Easter Tour, was Daniel Harding…

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