CHAMBER CONCERT REVIEW
Tuesday 20th April saw the return of the Chamber Concert, and commenced with the beautiful Baroque piece by Lotti, “Cruxifixus”, sung in eight-part harmony. After a stunning and lively rendition of a Handel piano piece, via Molly Hardwick’s wonderful playing, the Flute Ensemble also played a bright and cheery few pieces. The mood was dampened somewhat by the appearance of W Factor winners, “The Decorators”, who did perform tolerably well, which is a great compliment coming from an arch-rival Harmoneve. The elegant mood was recaptured with Senior Flute Ensemble’s beautiful trio performance, and the first half was finished with extracts from ‘The Sprig Of Time”, a cycle of British folk song settings by John Rutter.
Sibelius’s stirring and powerful ‘Finlandia’ played by Brass Ensemble opened the second half, followed by the ever cheerful and not-at-all-morbid “Pavane pour une Infante Defunte” or “Death of an Infant” as it is otherwise known – “well, it is the Chamber Concert after all.” After a vocal solo by yours truly, the Clarinet Ensemble took us on a trip down “Moon River” and led us to the Barbershop rendition of the stirring show tune, “Bring Him Home” from Les Miserables. After an accomplished performance from String Ensemble, including that old classic “Pachabel’s Canon in D”, the audience was hypnotized by Michael Lolley’s meditative strumming of a beautiful classical Spanish guitar piece. The Spanish theme continued with a couple of Moszkowski’s Spanish Dances, and the evening came to a thunderous conclusion with a rousing excerpt from Tchaikovsky’s “1812 Overture”.
Jessica Hutchings
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