On Tuesday 9th November, members of staff and parents were delighted to listen to the Year 11s perform their chosen pieces, which counts to 30% of their Music GCSE. Despite this, the girls did absolutely brilliantly and remained resilient throughout.
The recital began with Georgie Wood singing the heart-wrenching ‘She Used To Be Mine’ by Sara Bareilles. The performance was a beautifully moving start to the concert, with more than a few emotional faces seen in the audience.
The concert continued with the theme of musical theatre with Sparkle Seifert singing ‘If I loved You’ from Carousel by Rodgers and Hammerstein. Sparkle’s performance was all the more impressive in the knowledge that she was very ill with a cold and came to perform nonetheless!
Cosima Reed’s aristocratic ‘Allegro Spiritoso’ by Senaille was breath of fresh air as we travelled back 300 years back to the Baroque period. Cosima’s light and elegant playing captured the piece’s Baroque aesthetic and cleansed our musical palettes after the emotional hyperbole of musical theatre.
Following this, Angelina Poggio-Magnus graced us with the melancholy ‘Prelude in B minor’ by Chopin; a stark, yet beautiful contrast to the Senaille. Angelina’s performance on the piano presented a sombre atmosphere as she beautifully executed the prelude with lovely musical shaping and dynamics.
Vicky Hamlyn helped shift us to a lighter mood with her soothing performance of ‘Meditation’ by Massenet on the violin. Though the melody sounds simple, it is a technically difficult piece and even harder to get it in tune, yet Vicky expertly pulled it off with lovely tonal contrast between the achingly beautiful opening melody and the dark tonality of the middle section.
To finish off the recital, Sofia Gironi finished with a bang by singing the famous ‘I Could Have Danced All Night’ from My Fair Lady by Frederick Loewe. Sofia’s energetic voice captured the piece’s excitement and brilliantly sustained the top G belt in the piece’s thrilling finale.
Huge congratulations to all the girls who performed. The music department, and indeed, the school, could not be any prouder!
Maki Gajic Murata, Composer in Residence
