SUMMER CONCERT

SUMMER CONCERT

King Edward VI School, Chelmsford

27.06.13

Plenty of pleasant surprises in the summer concert this year – and not just the green fiddle amongst the second violins.

Iain Buchanan played his A-level practical work – Electric Counterpoint, a 1987 piece by the father of minimalism, Steve Reich. Very impressively executed, it involves a multi-tracked backing [all twelve tracks laid down by Iain] and live electric guitar. No less impressive was the other solo, a Brahms clarinet sonata from David Wringe with William Foster playing the demanding piano accompaniment – a very polished performance with eloquent pianissimo passages.

David brought his bass clarinet to the ever-popular Wind Band, which this time out played an energetic Slumdog Millionaire and a smooth Come Fly With Me, with fine work from the two trombonists amongst others. They ended with a tribute to Whitney Houston in an arrangement by Michael Brown.

Tuneful light music from the Junior String Ensemble, [eleven players plus piano] including a lovely Pennies From Heaven with an authentically Thirties piano intro.

The Junior Orchestra, led by Jonathan Belay, brought us Haydn's Surprise and Mozart's French nursery rhyme, featuring col legno and pizzicato among the variations.

Vocally, the trebles sang a very pleasing arrangement of Sting's Fields of Gold, as well as Pure Imagination, written for the 1971 Chocolate Factory film, and revived in the new West End musical which opened this week.

The Year 7 Singers, a sizeable proportion of the year group, filled the stage for a confident performance, with a splendidly open continental sound, of Vois Sur Ton Chemin, from the 1984 film Les Choristes.

The vocal ensembles, and the Junior Strings, were directed by Rebecca Chant; the Orchestra and the Wind Band by Director of Music Tim Worrall.

Richard Broadway

SUMMER CONCERT

SUMMER CONCERT

Waltham Singers in the Parish Church

Celebrating the Diamond Jubilee and the joys of summer – despite a damp sky and cool breeze – the Waltham Singers brought us some very polished singing, and some fine pianism as well.
The summery pieces included a controlled but expressive Brahms' Zigeunerlieder, in the original German, and Bob Chilcott's hugely enjoyable Fables from Aesop. The words crucial here too, and I was very impressed with the articulation, especially in the titles and the morals – Slow But Steady, Much Ado, Sour Grapes and so on – which were models of choral speaking.

Alan Bullard's Summer Garland was commissioned by the choir ten years ago for the Golden Jubilee. "Pleasantly pastoral" I called it then, and it was good to hear it again, given two performances astride the interval. The busy bee, with buzzing and description tossed around amongst the voices, the idyllic acrostic epilogue from Alice, and the lively dance of the holiday Summer Queen were all imaginatively set and beautifully performed. Britten's Choral Dances – opening with a joyous peal of bells – also harked back to the Coronation.

The accompanist was Tim Carey, who gave us bonuses by Beethoven, Rachmaninoff, and, delightfully appropriate, Grainger's jolly Country Gardens, in duet with Kate Hanson.

KEGS SUMMMER CONCERT

King Edward VI School Chelmsford

01.07.10

Impressive music-making from KEGS music department under Tim Worrall and Maggie Diffley; especially as so many of those performing were younger musicians.

So the choir sang Karl Jenkin's ubiquitous Adiemus, followed by that 80s power ballad Don't Stop Believin', recently boosted by Glee.

More familiar music from the exuberant wind band – Slumdog, Family Guy, Spanish Flea and a raunchy selection from Chicago.

The Junior String Ensemble gave us the attractively descriptive Carnival Time, with its clumsy, growly Bear on a Chain and its Town Band fading into the distance.

Night music too, with Elgar and Mancini from a very promising String Quartet, whose first violin, Chris Little, also led the Junior Orchestra in some distilled classics. And a sensitive Chopin Nocturne from one of KEGS' star players, Sasha Millwood, making his last appearance at the end of his school career.

There were unmusical distractions, too, on this glorious summer evening – some parents divided their attention between their sons and Wimbledon on the iPhone, and one footballing brass player missed his entrance – as Michael Flanders might have commented : “there was the case, but the Horn itself was missing” …