24 January 2018

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 Reuben Havelock (Beethoven’s Sonata Op 2 no 1), Andy Zhang (Lizst’s Liebestraum No 3), Oliver Breach (Haydn’s Sonata in F), and Timmy Chiu (Chopin’s Mazurka Op 78 No 2).

The three wind players included James Ashby (bassoon), with the theme from Jim Parker’s Ground Force, Oliver Glover (oboe) with Malcolm Arnold’s quirky Sonatina and Mohsen Ansari (trumpet) with a jazzy unaccompanied piece – Vizzuti’s Funk.

We heard five outstanding string performances this evening. The first was from seasoned performer, Joe Bradley (cello) in Bloch’s haunting Jewish Song. Ben Shaw (violin) played a most evocative performance of a tender John Ireland piece, The Holy Boy. A significant change of mood came with Andreas Lo’s performance after the interval of Vivaldi’s Prelude and Courante from his E minor sonata.

Finally, we heard that rare but precious thing, a viola performance. Fergal Marsh – Tchaikovsky’s Passionate Confession, which was rich in sound and beautifully projected. Ashwin Tennant brought the concert to a wonderful conclusion with Bach Giga from the Solo Violin Partita no 2 in D minor.

Our thanks must go to all tonight’s performers, together with their teachers and accompanists, Christopher Fletcher-Campbell and Lynette Stulting.

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