Chamber Music Concert

Friday night’s final Chamber Music concert of the year was a fitting showcase for the range of chamber music played at the School. The demanding programme opened with the Wind Nonet’s first performance of extracts from Gounod’s Petite Symphonie, followed by the Vengerov Quartet’s second rendition of Haydn’s String Quartet, Op. 20 No. 1, after their exceptional debut performance at last week’s May Day concert. Head of Woodwind and Brass, Stephen Rhind, also brought together an ensemble of boys ranging from the Novi to the Upper Sixth to perform Saint-Saëns’ Carnival of the Animals in concert for the first time in his thirty-seven-year career at the School. Performed without a conductor, the humorous suite of fourteen movements vividly evoked The Swan, the Aquarium and The Elephant across a captivating twenty-five-minute performance.

After the interval, the Kreisler Quartet, the Six Reed Quintet, the Oistrakh Quartet and the Saxophone Quartet performed works by Beethoven, Handel, Gershwin and Newman. The concert concluded with the Senior Strings accompanying soloists Seb (MH5) and Toby (FH5) in an energetic performance of Bach’s Concerto for Two Violins and Orchestra in D minor, BWV 1043, prepared by our Head of Strings, Emma Blanco.

The boys’ commitment and clear enjoyment of the music was justly rewarded by standing ovations. Congratulations to all!