8 November 2019
Wednesday’s solo concert platform presented some 16 excellent solo performances from a range of talented senior musicians representing all five areas of instrumental teaching in the school – woodwind, brass, strings, singing and piano.
The first half of the concert provided some wonderful variety, starting with sixth form pupil, Jeroan Yip, singing baritone arias from Mozart’s The Marriage of Figaro and Beethoven’s Fidelio. Jeroan has an unusually powerful voice for his age and he sang from memory with great passion and dramatic power.
We heard two woodwind players – Frederick Stacey (oboe) and Josef O’Connor (bassoon), together with three pianists, David You (Beethoven), Laurence Peverall (Debussy) and Nicholas Raptakis (Rachmaninov). The final item before the interval was a remarkably mature and skilful performance on drum kit with a Paul Simon backing track from first year pupil, Oscar Scannell, ably assisted by his “roadie” dad, Rick Scannell, who had delivered the drum kit, the amplifier and the speakers before the concert.
The second half also provided great variety with pianists, Tristan Mann Powter (a Chopin Nocturne) and James Healey (a Haydn Sonata movement). Woodwind was represented by Tom McGonnell (oboe) and brass by Laurence Peverall (trumpet), who demonstrated his clean articulation, great control and beautiful sound in Hummel’s The Noble Savage and The Hunting Party.
Our string performances included violinists, Oscar Bennett (Telemann), Ashwin Tennant (Hindemith sonata), cellist, Aidan Chan (Fauré’s passionately expressive Elégie) and finally, Alex Glover, in the slow movement of Bruch’s Violin Concerto in G minor, a work that he is due to play with the orchestra in the forthcoming Christmas Concerts (4 and 6 December).
This was another wonderful evening of music making and our thanks to all our performers this evening and also to their accompanists, Mariette Pringle and Lynette Stulting. It was a great evening!
