Perse musicians paint pictures in symphonic showcase
Musical Pictures were painted by talented Perse musicians in the school’s annual Symphonic Showcase at Saffron Hall.
The concert included virtuosic recitals by the Perse Symphony Orchestra, Chamber Orchestra and Wind Band 1 with a programme exploring the power of music to evoke images to life.
Mussorgsky’s Pictures at an Exhibition, written by the composer in response to paintings he viewed in a St Petersburg gallery, was brilliantly performed by the Symphony Orchestra.
Meanwhile, the Chamber Orchestra and Wind Band 1 produced excellent performances of Lully’s Le Bourgeois Gentilhomme and Alfred Reed’s El Camino Real: A Latin Fantasy to an enraptured audience.
Perse Director of Music Ben Wingfield said: “These were purely abstract pieces, but we wanted audience members to draw their own conclusions and create their own images of what’s going on in these pieces.
“The concert was our second trip to Saffron Hall recently and it was nice going back after the success of Carmina Burana (the community concert featuring choirs from the Perse Upper and Prep, The Bellbird Primary School and St Alban’s Catholic Primary School).”
Among them were violinist Emma Harris and cellist William Dickens, who were backed by the Symphony Orchestra as they performed concertos by Saint Saens, while harpist Eos Liao was joined by the Chamber Orchestra for a movement by Boieldieu.
The gifted musicians were chosen to perform following their success in an in-school Upper Sixth concerto competition last October.
Mr Wingfield added: “It was important that all our Upper Sixth musicians had a chance to shine. In their own various ways, they have given so much to music here and have grown so much as musicians and people, so the concert was a fitting send-off for them.”
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