On Thursday 26th March, the Francis Holland Sloane Square community gathered in St Mary’s Church, Bourne Street, for our spectacular Spring Concert: a wonderful celebration and culmination of so much of the school’s music-making from the last term. This concert featured our most senior musical ensembles, performing a mature and grand musical offering.

We started the evening graciously with a particularly famous movement from Handel’s Water Music. Originally composed for the 1717 royal river procession along the Thames, the intimate balance of the piece is greatly suited for skilled chamber forces, such as this hard-working Piano Quintet from Year 10 and 11.
Earlier this term, the Fanny Davies Music Festival filled the school with vibrant performances. This annual two-day festival involves musicians from across the school showcasing a variety of styles and genres, to a willing and supportive audience of their peers. This is always such a joyous occasion in the FHS calendar and, from the over 100 performances, our external adjudicator highlights and celebrates some of the most musical and exciting performances.

We were delighted to hear Chloe, our Lower School ‘winner’ from the festival perform music by a contemporary jazz and classical composer and trumpeter, Shanti Jayasinha. From here, we drafted out into two different styles. From the Pop realm, our very own pop-singer extraordinaire, Stella, sung Nina Simone’s showstopper, Feeling Good – a well-known declaration of freedom, dignity and joy, demanding real presence and emotional outpouring. In the classical style, Helena showcased one of Chopin’s technical studies, full of relentless, hurtling rapid octaves but also with moments of pure poise and beauty, amid the electrifying beginning.

The Spring Concert is a great time to celebrate the musical efforts of our eldest musicians, the Upper Sixth. As has become tradition, the Upper and Lower Sixth join forces to perform a tender British folk song, The Parting Glass. Traditionally sung in Scotland, at the end of an evening of socialising, this is a tender celebration of one-another’s company.

Octavia and Mika performed their beautiful duet, Kathy’s Song by Paul Simon, a song about distance, doubt and most importantly, love.

Turning to Senior Strings, our premier chamber ensemble, they performed music from one of the great masterpieces of Baroque music, Bach’s Double Violin Concerto. Led by excellent soloists in Iona and Selma, this dialogue between the two main violins, as well as the rest of the ensemble is so inventive, requiring such a sense of cooperation and teamwork.

Our biggest instrumental ensemble, the FHS Orchestra, then returned with some beautiful Dvořák. Originally written for piano, the unhurried, rich melody of Silent Woods unfolds beautifully over a rocking orchestral accompaniment, without drama or pomp. Our senior ‘cellist, Amalia, also winner of the Fanny Davies Music Festival, performed this solo with such warmth and rare quietness.

Our healthy and vibrant FHS Chorus is a massed choir, consisting of our student choirs from the eldest to the youngest members of the school, singing alongside the FHS community of Staff, Parents and Alumni. We have been preparing Rachel Portman’s The Gathering Tree, premiered only last year at the Last Night of The Proms. Written for massed forces, this uplifting piece sung about two important values, love and sharing. The words reflecting on what we all have in common, this piece was purely rousing.

We ended the concert, as it deserves to end, with one of the most joyful and radiant choral works ever written. Bach’s Magnificat fizzed with energy and passion like only his music does – particularly for the thunderous five-part choruses bookending the piece, some beautiful intimate arias from our Upper Sixth students and music full of rich character and delight.

It has been a joy to work with one another on this great music – and we hope you enjoyed it as much as we did.

Written by FHS Musicians, Students and Staff