17 March 2022
This year’s fourth Solo Concert Platform featured a wonderfully varied programme of music played at a very high standard. The evening comprised some fifteen solo performances from a wide range of instrumentalists including pianists, woodwind, strings and brass. This event celebrated the incredible solo musical talent that we enjoy at Abingdon School.
We heard several fine piano performances from Yubo Gao (Vallier: Toccatina), Justin Mi (Clementi: Sonatina), Laurence Peverall (Schumann-Liszt: Widmung), Walter Liu (Chopin: Valse in E minor, Op Post), Daniel Zhang (Beethoven: Rage over a Lost Penny), Jimmy Ip (Burgmüller: Les Sylphes) and Thomas Zhang (Debussy: Première Arabesque). All were delivered with impressive fluency and musicality. Laurence and Walter’s performances were each of an extraordinary level and both were delivered from memory. Congratulations to all of our pianists.
The evening’s two woodwind players played some advanced pieces. Howard Chung offered an impressively polished performance of the first movement of Mozart’s Bassoon Concerto, whilst Julien Rohart, on flute, played us Gabriel Fauré’s beautiful Fantaisie.
Brass was represented this evening most ably by Laurence Peverall (trumpet). He delighted the audience with Tchaikovsky’s Ballet Suite, incorporating many of the most memorable dances from composer’s well-known ballets, playing them with a beautiful sound, great control and technical mastery.
We were also treated to a number of string performances. Oliver Smith offered an elegant interpretation of the finale of Haydn’s G major Violin Concerto. Yubo Gao (cello) then played us Saint-Saëns’ Allegro Appassionato with great conviction. A particularly unusual but riveting and highly accomplished performance was given by Ryan Ng (3rd Year) and Walter Liu (Lower Sixth) in Mozart’s Duet in G for violin and viola. Ryan then also chose Sarasate’s technically challenging Malaguena, with its high harmonics and left hand pizzicato – incredibly impressive playing from a 13 year-old.
This was a quite amazing and thoroughly enjoyable concert – our thanks to all the boys and their teachers who together put on an evening of the most wonderful and inspiring music-making.
