The Netherlands Youth String Orchestra’s aim is to train young budding professional musicians and provide concerts at the highest level. On this CD the ensemble performs three pieces, Tchaikovsky’s ever-popular Serenade for strings, and two 20th century works - Nostalghia for violin and string orchestra by Toru Takemitsu and Miroir de Peine by Dutch composer Henrik Andriessen.

The Netherlands Youth String Orchestra works on three programmes each year, and every session ends with a series of concerts at important venues in the Netherlands and abroad. The group’s live programmes always consist of a special mix of standard and less familiar repertoire. “Everyone is convinced by the enormous energy, infectious enthusiasm and extremely high musical and technical standards of this young orchestra”, says conductor Bas Wiegers.

The Dutch composer Hendrik Andriessen (1892-1981) wrote his song-cycle Miroir de Peine in 1923 as a setting of texts by the French poet Henri Ghéon, sung here by mezzo-soprano Cora Burggraaf. The sonnets deal with the suffering of Christ, but viewed from the perspective of his mother Mary.

Nostalghia, by the Japanese composer Toru Takemitsu, in which the soloist is violinist Liza Ferschtman, was inspired by the 1983 film of the same name by Andrei Tarkovsky. The film exudes an air of dreamy abstraction and Takemitsu's music is equally visionary.