Working with members of the National Youth Orchestra of Great Britain and conductor Krsitjan Jarvi allowed me to re-experience the appreciation I have always felt for young musicians and their dedication to classical works.

The NYO performances “made to sound complex and unsettling, but never difficult. Janácek's Sinfonietta, the composer's affectionate musical postcard of his home town of Brno, had the NYO playing like a super-charged town band... There is little doubt that when these players band together, they have a blast.”

My own performance experience was captured imaginatively: “Soloist Stewart Goodyear's approach to the piano was often akin to a test pilot with a fighter jet, intent on pushing it to its limit as much as making music.”

Alfred Hickling guardian.co.uk Thursday 6 January 2011