9 November 2017
The second Wednesday evening after half term provided us with an opportunity to hear some 13 excellent solo performances from a range of talented senior musicians representing three areas of instrumental teaching in the school – woodwind, strings and piano.
The first half of the concert was dominated by some superb string playing – first from Ashwin Tennant with the Allemande from Bach’s solo violin Partita no 2. This was a highly musical and technically accomplished interpretation. Next, Nick Raptakis played two movements from Telemann’s G major viola concerto with great aplomb, followed by Alvin Tam in Delius’ Légende, a complex piece set in the ABRSM diploma syllabus, which Alvin is about to sit.
The remaining three items in the first half included three more string performances; Jonathan Pannett-Smith with two lively movements from a Telemann Sonata, Dashiell Hathaway with Ladies in Lavendar and Joe Bradley on cello with Brahms’ compellingly heroic Sonatensatz, which he played with huge commitment.
After the interval we had an opportunity to hear the progress of two recent award holders on bassoon. First Year pupil, Can Tugcetin, played us the slow movement of Mozart’s Bassoon Concerto with both musicality and technical assurance and Luc Tucker, a most effective solo piece by Michael Rose, Scena. These young men have huge potential at such a young age and it will be really exciting to see their musical development.
We also heard no less than five performances of Chopin, including two of his posthumous Nocturne in C sharp minor from Tristan Mann Powter and, again, from Nick Raptakis. Alex Lawrence played the B minor Prelude, Luc Tucker the G major Polonaise and, to round off the concert, Ollie Breach played the wonderful nocturne in F minor.
Our thanks must go to all our performers this evening and their accompanists, Mariette Pringle and Lynette Stulting. It was a great evening!
