18 March 2021
Today’s Fifth Year Performance Evening presented some 19 excellent solo performances from a wide spread of talented musicians representing all five areas of instrumental teaching in the school – woodwind, brass, singing, strings and piano. The concert replaced the usual GCSE solo performance recording day that we would have experienced in more normal times – and it gave the pupils a much wider audience to demonstrate the very exciting talent that we have in this year group.
Our five woodwind soloists included saxophonists, Tom Harding (Massenet’s Meditation from Thaïs) and Sam Daly (Balogh’s Palotas), clarinettist, David Hrushovski (Grovlez’ Sarabande and Allegro), oboist, Oliver Glover (Cimarosa’s Concerto) and bassoonist, Josef O’Connor (Weber’s Concerto).
Oliver Hobbs (trumpet) entertained us with Bernstein’s Red White and Blues and Felix Kind (trombone) in Schumann’s highly demanding Fantasiestücke No 1. Eddie Williams (voice) sang Alex L’Estrange’s She Walks in Beauty.
We enjoyed another beautiful performance of Massenet’s Meditation from Thaïs, this time from Oliver Smith’s mellifluous violin, soon followed by Jonathan Pannett-Smith’s Gopak by Mussorgsky. Next, cellists Oliver Simpson and Oliver Glover, respectively, performed music by Locatelli and JS Bach.
We have some wonderful pianists in the Fifth Year and we enjoyed hearing seven of them this evening – Bartok’s An Evening in the Village (Bentley Cook), Nielsen’s Spinning Top (Jonathan Pannett-Smith), Schumann’s Fantasiestücke (Laurence Peverall), Satie’s Gymnopédie No 1 (Jake Morris), Sibelius’ Joueur de Harpe (Joshua Braich), Glière’s Prelude in Db (Oliver Zhang) and a Chopin’s Nocturne (Josef O’Connor).
Our thanks to all our able fifth year performers and to our excellent accompanists, Lynette Stulting and Mariette Pringle, for another wonderful concert which can be viewed here.
