After waiting so long to have another proper concert after nearly two years of lockdown, on Monday 15th November, the school finally had the long-awaited Autumn Concert!
The evening began with an energetic performance of ‘Les Toréadors’ by the School Orchestra and conducted by Miss Vickery. It was heart-warming to see so many pupils across the entire senior school, staff members and VMTs (visiting music teachers) all come together to give such a bombast rendition of this well-known piece of music.
Following this, Sophie I sang ‘Flow my tears’ by Dowland and was accompanied by Alexa M on the harpsichord and three of the school’s guitarists (Kitty H, Clarissa C-C, and Mika B). While a sharp contrast to the School Orchestra, Sophie’s beautiful, yet melancholy performance created a solemn atmosphere as her pure voice rang out in the hall.
Caley C’s performance of ‘What Baking Can Do’ by Sara Bareilles demonstrated the contrasting styles and abilities of voice within the school. While previously we had Sophie’s mournful Baroque aria, Caley’s West-End song, highlights how the versatile the voice can truly be. Caley’s performance was heart-felt and she did the song great justice considering how difficult it is to convey the large variety of emotions often displayed in solos from West-End musicals.
The concert proceeded with some lovely chamber music: a string quartet by Mozart, nicknamed ‘The Hunt’, played by Caitlin M, Michael S, Inga d V and Teresa d O M d l E. The quartet played incredibly professionally and elegantly, demonstrating great musical communication between each other (if only Mozart could’ve heard them himself!)
Another extreme contrast in both musical style and age of girls occurred in the next piece: ‘Fly Me to the Moon’ by Bart Howard, which was sung by a select number of incredibly talented year 7s and 8s. With Mr Gee, Miss Murata and Chiara Tondo playing double bass, jazz piano and drum, respectively, the girls pleasantly surprised the audience with their jazz singing and impressive scat solos.
Alexa M and Eloise B both returned to the stage and performed an excitingly allegro piano duet: ‘Le Pas Espagnol’ by Fauré. With both girls having attained very high grades on the piano, this piece seemed effortlessly easy despite the furiously running semiquavers. The audience and Mrs Elphinstone were particularly amused by Miss Vickery’s superhuman page turning (or rather, page whipping) powers as she whipped away pages of music at the speed of light (a notable skill to obtain if any of you reading this wishes to be a music director one day)!
More stringed instruments graced the stage, namely Senior Strings, with Mrs Smith conducting three movements from the neo-Baroque ‘Capriol Suite’ by Peter Warlock. All three movements were played very impressively and illustrated hard techniques such as double and triple stopping (playing two or three string at the same time to create a chord), which all the girls played expertly. It was particularly impressive that Mrs Smith was both playing violin and conducting, despite having had a broken collar bone for the past few months!
Senior Chamber Choir provided a musical palette cleanser with their performance of the beautiful ‘Ave Maris Stella’ by Grieg. Though it may have sounded to the audience like a relatively simple piece, do not be deceived as the girls had to sing in four and even five-part harmony and navigate the shifting, but glorious harmonies written by Grieg.
Up until then, all the pieces performed by the girls were written by composers who were long gone. However, a piece of new, contemporary music was written by FHS’ own composer in resident, Miss Murata, and received its world premiere in the school’s senior hall. ‘Hope is the thing with feathers’ was performed by the school’s music scholars with the lyrics taken from Emily Dickinson’s eponymous poem. While demonstrating the school’s resilience shown throughout the pandemic, it highlighted all the music scholars’ musical talent as they valiantly navigated this difficult contemporary piece. Indeed, Miss Murata could not have been prouder to have conducted such talented girls for her new piece.
Following this, Teresa did a magnificent solo on her cello: ‘Spring Song’ by Frank Bridge. The performance was gorgeously played and with great musicality. There was a certain level of irony with the piece’s title and us being in the middle of winter, nevertheless, Teresa managed to transform the atmosphere into one of spring with her soaring melody line.
Finally, Mr Mercer directed the Lower Chamber Choir with them singing Miss Murata’s arrangement of ‘Homeward Bound’ by Marta Keen, a nostalgic and rousing song about returning home that nearly drew Mrs Elphinstone to tears. In true FHS style, the final song, ‘We Will Sing’ by Stewart Overington, brought the concert to an epic close with the whole choir and audience clapping along in the final chorus.
The FHS Music Department would like to thank everyone who helped make this concert come together, including Miss Vickery, Mr Mercer, Miss Houlder, Miss Murata, Mrs Floyd, Mr Benji Page for managing all things tech, the facilities team, and last but not least, the amazing catering team, who provided mouth-watering food and drink as always.
