19 March 2021

Our second concert platform of 2021 comprised some 21 solo performances recorded both in their homes and at school by a wide range of pupils from Lower School to the Upper Sixth. We were delighted to accept so many soloists and the concert witnessed some outstanding performances from talented musicians across a range of instruments.

Nearly one half of the concert included string performances – five violinists, five cellists and two double bassists. The violin performances this evening, came from Lachlan Keene (Handel), Clement Tsoi (the Latin–American Osvaldo Farrès’ Quizas, Quizas, Quizas), Nikhil Tennant in Veracini’s Sonata in E minor, Liam Engall in the Allemande from Bach’s Solo Partita No 2 and Andreas Lo (a Hebrew Prayer, Baal Shem, by Ernst Bloch).

Our cellists included Alex Woolmer (Boismortier), Aidan Chan and Jack So (unaccompanied Bach), Alden Lo (Saint-Saëns’ The Swan) and a trio of cellists, Sammy Jarvis, Reuben McLusky and Robert Smith, in Ticciati’s Divertimento. It is always good to hear double bassists playing solo – and we were delighted to hear Samuel Price showing immense promise in Jazz Waltz by Osbourne and Daniel Zhang in Derek Bourgeois’ Allegro commodo, an unaccompanied study set for National Youth Orchestra auditions. Daniel is a fine player and aspires to become a member of the prestigious NYOGB.

Two woodwind soloists flew the flag for this section of the orchestra – Rupert Mathieson (clarinet) in the challenging second movement of Poulenc’s Sonata for that instrument and Niklas Li in Michael’s Twisted Tango. Our brass department was rather thin on the ground this time, but we all enjoyed Alex Purvor on drums in Aldridge’s classic Full English Breckerfast by Aldridge. It was good to have a vocal performance from Oscar Bennett, in Mozart’s Sarastro’s Aria from The Magic Flute.

Our pianists excelled themselves in this concert with a range of repertoire, including Kabalevsky’s Sonatine (Timmy Wong), Pustilnik’s Circus Theme (Edward Winter), Beethoven’s Moonlight Sonata, 1st movement (Daniel Zhang), Christopher Norton’s Jingo (Aidan Chan) and, concluding the concert, Beethoven’s Pathétique Sonata, Finale, played by Nick Raptakis.

As always, we are immensely grateful to all the musicians who took the trouble to record themselves and share their performances with us – and we offer special thanks to accompanist, Lynette Stulting, to Mr Nick Lloyd from the Amey Theatre Tech Team and to all the visiting music teachers who continue to inspire our pupils.

The concert can be found here.

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