30 January 2019

Our concert tonight gave us the opportunity to hear some excellent performances from our senior musicians across a range of solo instruments. The concert also gave some opportunities for Fifth Year GCSE musicians to air their solo pieces in front of parents and peers and to give them a first recording which they can use to help polish their performances before final recordings and assessments.

We heard some lovely piano playing from Bentley Cook (Mozart’s Sonata Facile in C K 545), Andreas Lo (Scriabin’s Prelude Op 11 No 3), Nicholas Raptakis (Clementi’s Sonata in F minor Op 13 No 6 – Presto), Timmy Chiu (Glière’s Prelude from Eight Easy Pieces Op 43) and a piano duet of Andreas Lo and Timmy Chiu in Schubert’s Marche Militaire.

Our only wind player was, Laurence Peverall (trumpet), with a beautifully controlled performance of Elgar’s Idylle – a piece with a similar romantically nostalgic flavour as his more famous Salut d’Amour for violin.

We heard several outstanding string performances this evening. The first was from Timmy Chiu with Rodé’s technically demanding Air Varié. Ashwin Tennant played Grieg’s C minor Violin Sonata, 1st movement with his customary artistry and technical aplomb and Oliver Breach gave a most impressive performance of Haydn’s G major Violin Concerto, 1st movement.

The final performance of the evening was given by another, Oliver Simpson, of the last movement of Elgar’s Cello Concerto. Oliver is preparing this work for a concerto competition at Junior Music College and he played it with a level of virtuosity, musicality and a maturity well beyond his years. His outstanding performance brought this evening’s concert to a very happy conclusion.

Our thanks must go to all tonight’s performers, together with their teachers and tonight’s superb accompanists, Mariette Pringle and Lynette Stulting.

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