Michaelmas Concert 2009

Date: Thursday 19 November 2009

A hugely busy week in the life of St Edmund's School - staff and pupils alike - reached a climax yesterday evening with two and a half hours of the most sumptuous musical entertainment, as a full School Concert Hall was thoroughly entertained by a concert which showcased all that is good about St Edmund's music under the new direction of Mr Will Bersey.

Obviously Chris McDade's promotion to higher things demanded the appointment of a replacement Director of Music, and this concert proved to all in attendance that the Bersey appointment was just right, and that he has already set immensely high standards of poised, polished professionalism, honing, in conjunction with his departmental colleagues, the burgeoning talents of a gifted generation of young musicians.

The concert was immediately notable for its novelties - the 12-strong jazz choir - the 'Scat Cats'?, an orchestra enhanced by invitation to local schoolchildren to join, bringing basson, oboe, and French horn expertise, by increased input from the Chapel Choir, by the inclusion of a String Quartet, and by the Vocal Ensemble, who performed so brilliantly a three-part setting of Vaughan Williams' 'Silent Noon'.

Alongside the new were the revitalised 'old' in the shape of the Symphony Orchestra, Brass Ensemble, Senior Strings, and Big Band, all of whom added skill, variety, and vitality to the overall whole.

It would be impossible to comment on every item, but I was particularly taken by the Symphony Orchestra who offered the well-known, in the shape of Grieg, and John Bungay's wonderful solo violin in the Svendsen 'Romance', and concluded the programme with Malcolm Arnold's 'Cornish Dances' - a home from home for the conductor, Will Bersey himself.

The Brass Ensemble converted Handel from traditional 'Water Music' to Brass Hornpipe, and in the second half, the Big Band gave Tom Vafidis, Callum Magill and Peter Edlin a very real opportunity to show their improvisational ability on saxophone, keyboards, and guitar.

Richard Braddy's String Ensemble paid its tribute to Henry Purcell and the 350th anniversary of his birth with a clean and controlled rendition his Chaconne in G minor; the string quartet - Edlin, Hodnett, Abley, and White - played the first piece of classical music I ever bought, competing with the Beatles, Beach Boys and Dion, the first movement of Mozart's 'Eine Kleine Nachtmusik', and and playing it far better than the 1964 recording!

The highlights overall were, for me, the vocal elements of the concert. The Chapel Choir had strutted their stuff in the Cathedral on Tuesday alongside the Ware contingent, but the reprise of Bruckner and Howells was magnificent, as was the Faure 'Cantique de Jean Racine', even allowing for French accents! But the Jazz Choir - whatever they may be called from now on - was something else, way out of the ordinary, and somewhere in the stratosphere of school music. 'Autumn Leaves' and 'And So It Goes' were given their first airing; I cannot wait to hear the twelve again, perhaps in a Chapel performance before the end of the term?

So, markers have been laid for future Bersey productions, and I am sure that the opportunities of next term - the chance to sing in the St Edmund's School Choral Society in Vierne's 'Messe Solonnelle' in the Cathedral in March - will attract new members and regain former society alumni. 'En Avant La Musique' is already whetting my appetite! As are the other initiatives, most notably the creation of an East Kent Children's Orchestra, commencing in the new year of 2010, opening our doors to local youngsters, and giving them the chance to perform in public.