12 November 2021
The second Solo Concert Platform of the term demonstrated the exciting solo music making that continues to develop in the Music School. The 17 performances included eight piano works by diverse composers – Kuhlau (Ivan Tang), Burgmuller (Thomas Zhang), Mozart (James Deng), Chaminade (Robin Collins), Scriabin (Charlie Burland), Martha Mier (Elliot Liddle), Brahms (Sammy Jarvis) and Christopher Norton (Aidan Chan). The pianists ranged in age from Third Year to Upper Sixth.
The brass department was superbly represented by a couple of trumpeters – fourth year, Lachlan Keene, in the rondo from Haydn’s Trumpet Concerto and first year pupil, Felix Price in the slow movement of the same work.
For woodwind, we had just one performer – remarkable first year bassoonist, Louis de Chazal – in Bourdeau’s Premier Solo de Basson.
Strings had several exponents. Double bassists, Samuel Price, Can Tugcetin and Daniel Zhang in turn played Moskowski’s Spanish Dance, Purcell’s Rondo from Abdelazar and Dragonetti’s Concerto in C (1st movement). Our cellists included Oliver Glover in Saint-Saëns’s Allegro Appassionata and Yubo Gao in Vivaldi’s Sonatina in A minor (1st and 2nd movements).
Finally, we had the huge pleasure of hearing Oscar Bennett, now in his last year at school, singing Lloyd Webber’s Music of the Night from Phantom of the Opera, a fitting and appropriate way to spill into the evening darkness. Well done to all our performers, with thanks to them and to our accompanist, Miss Stulting, for a fabulous concert.
