Young Performers' Recital - Deal Town Hall

Date: Friday 21 August 2009

Many thanks to former member of staff, Duncan Parry, for this review from a Speech Day concert.

Young Performers’ Recital, Deal Old Town Hall

Saturday 4th July 2009

Having produced an excellent performance of their duet at Speech Day, Sophie Belinfante and Ana Vandepeer were whisked over to Deal where they had been invited to perform in the opening concert of this year’s Deal Festival as part of the talented young performers’ platform. The concert was represented by some of the most talented pupils from a wide variety of schools in Kent and Ana and Sophie were to end the recital with their performance of all three movements of Vivaldi’s Double Violin Concerto in A minor.

Although standards were very high, it was immediately apparent from the opening of the Allegro movement that this duet was to be the highlight of the concert and indeed they performed in a class of their own. In particular, the musicality, intelligent understanding and feeling with which they performed each section was exceptional. The spirited, mimicking first movement was full of playfulness and vitality but never sacrificing tuning or accuracy; the second movement, Largo e spiritoso, was an absolute pleasure to listen to. With stunning control, Ana would play a held note which emerged out of nowhere and infinitesimally crescendoed to a climax and then this would then be copied by Sophie. Excruciatingly gorgeous, producing heart melting suspensions. The audience was entranced without a doubt. The liveliness and virtuosic passages of the final Allegro movement woke everyone from this spell. Again, it was splendidly executed and showed off high levels of technique and musicality, and after a delicately played echo section leading to the end, the audience were more fulsome in their praise than to any other performance. Under the careful guidance of Mr Spencer Payne and with his sensitive accompaniment they produced a performance that will be remembered for a long time to come and will have put St. Edmund’s very firmly on the map.

DGCP