Triumphant Choral and Orchestral Evening at Blackheath Halls
On Saturday, the Music Department put on what is fast becoming its most eagerly awaited concert of the year – the Choral & Orchestral Concert at Blackheath Halls. Following the success of last year’s concert, which featured Beethoven’s 5th Symphony as one piece of six, expectations were high, and this year’s concert did not disappoint, setting a new bar for the orchestral and choral programme here at Eltham.
The first half opened with the 1st movement of Grieg’s famous Piano Concerto in A minor, with Aaron (Year 9) the soloist, before Phoenix (Year 12) followed with the 1st movement of Saint-Saëns’ Piano Concert in G minor. Both pupils played astonishingly well, with incredible musical maturity, and the Symphony Orchestra accompanied them with real skill. The combined forces of the Choral Society and College Choir then joined for the third piece of the evening; Mendelssohn’s Hear My Prayer, but in the original German and in its full orchestral version. Our soprano soloist, Michelle (Year 11) was extraordinary, filling the concert hall with a voice well beyond her years. The final piece of the first half was a premiere of a new arrangement, by Director of Music Mr Johns, of Bruckner’s Ecce Sacerdos Magnus, involving all 190 performers and nearly taking the roof of the hall off to lead into the interval.
The second half saw the Symphony Orchestra present the entirety of Antonín Dvořák’s 8th Symphony. To have just one movement of this as a school orchestra’s termly project wouldn’t be unexpected, and so for our orchestra to present all 40 minutes of this full symphonic repertoire as just one part of a 100-minute programme was remarkable. The playing was exceptional, both in terms of accuracy and sound, and the applause after the 4th movement said it all. The concert finished with three movements of Vaughan Williams’ Five Mystical Songs, again featuring the combined forces of Choral Society & College Choir, full orchestra, and this time the baritone soloist of our Head of Singing, Mr Tom Bullard. It was wonderful to finish such an excellent concert with this famous and rousing piece, and it rounded off what was a truly, truly remarkable school concert.
Director of Music, Mr Johns, says: “The level of performance from our pupils was, in short, absolutely ridiculous. They have been getting better and better in recent years, but to perform the music they did, and at the standard they did, is mind-blowing; I really do think that we have amongst the very best school orchestras in the country here at Eltham…”
