Abingdon News No. 60

www.abingdon.org.uk 15 Abingdon Music A ‘Tuba’rific purchase After a two year break, the annual chamber music evening returned in March. One of the highlights of the School’s musical calendar, it featured performers from all year groups collectively presenting 95 minutes of of their own work without staff direction or intervention. We are fortunate to have some phenomenally talented and dedicated musicians and the programme featured a wide variety of genres including strings, woodwind, piano trio and duo and a jazzy trio for double basses. From Bach and Handel to contemporary composer, Tony Osborne, and everything in between – Haydn, Schubert and Dvorak - the evening was a great success. Solo Concert Platform no. 3 The third Solo Concert Platform of the term featured some accomplished and polished performances, with performers ranging from 2nd Year through to Lower Sixth. The pianists were strongly represented with pieces including Debussy, Bach, Tchaikovsky, Chopin, Pachelbel and Faure. There were some superb string and woodwind performances including Bach’s Flute Sonata in A minor, Brahms’ Clarinet Sonata in F minor, and a stirring account of Saint-Saëns The Swan . The programme was rounded off with a number of highly accomplished performances from our Lower Sixth. Oliver Smith impressed with an accomplished performance of Rachmaninov’s Vocalise; Laurence Peverall deftly handled some fiendish passages in Mozart’s Piano Sonata in F major; and Josef O’Connor gave a lyrical account of the Grovlez Sicilienne et Allegro Giocoso . A huge well done to all our performers and thank you to our accompanist Lynette Stulting for a fabulous concert. A musical evening The fourth Solo Concert Platform this year featured a wonderfully varied programme of music played to a very high standard. Celebrating the incredible solo musical talent we enjoy at Abingdon, the evening comprised fifteen solo performances from a wide range of instrumentalists including pianists, woodwind, strings and brass. Delivered with impressive fluency and musicality, the piano performances included Yubo Gao (Vallier: Toccatina ), Justin Mi (Clementi: Sonatina ), Laurence Peverall (Schumann-Liszt: Widmung ), Walter Liu (Chopin: Valse in E minor, Op Post ), Daniel Zhang (Beethoven: Rage over a Lost Penny ), Jimmy Ip (Burgmüller: Les Sylphes ) and Thomas Zhang (Debussy: Première Arabesque ). Whilst our two woodwind players offered impressive performances of two advanced pieces. Howard Chung of the first movement of Mozart’s Bassoon Concerto ; and Julien Rohart, on the flute, played Gabriel Fauré’s beautiful Fantaisie . Brass was represented most ably by Laurence Peverall (trumpet) who delighted the audience with Tchaikovsky’s Ballet Suite , playing the most memorable dances from the composer’s well-known ballets with great control and technical mastery. On the strings, Oliver Smith offered an elegant interpretation of the finale of Haydn’s G major Violin Concerto ; Yubo Gao (cello) then played Saint- Saëns’ Allegro Appassionato with great conviction. A particularly riveting and highly accomplished performance was given by new Music Scholars, Ryan Ng (3rd Year) and Walter Liu (Lower Sixth) in Mozart’s Duet in G for violin and viola . Ryan then also chose Sarasate’s technically challenging Malaguena , with its high harmonics and left hand pizzicato which made incredibly impressive playing from a 13 year old. In January, the Music Society funded the purchase of a second hand Boosey and Hawkes “Imperial” model tuba. A fantastic addition to the music department, this quality instrument will be of great use to the young tuba players we currently have in the School; and will provide future opportunities for other Abingdon pupils in the years ahead! Solo Concert Platform no. 4