Sophie Belinfante - Rising Star!

Date: Thursday 1 July 2010

This was my last lunchtime recital, and for me it was the very best of the series which has been produced by Spencer Payne and the Music Department over many years and many lunchtimes. I was just one of an audience of twenty-one who had the immense pleasure of listening to Sophie Belinfante, playing selected movements from Violin Sonatas by Beethoven and Cesar Franck, with the said Spencer Payne as her accompanist - hugely proficient, but as always, never seeking the limelight.

Sophie will be off to the Guildhall School of Music in the new term, where she will be challenged, as Director of Music, Will Bersey, said, by the multi-talented musicians around her, but for the moment let her bask in the memory of a superb final recital as a member of St Edmund's School.

Most Upper Sixth formers, once their A-levels are over, 'chill out', or head for the beaches of Northern Cornwall, or for the nearest music festival, but not Sophie. After Tuesday's 'Summer Serenade' - and before, I'm sure - she was working to polish the very demanding Allegro con brio from Beethoven's Sonata in D major, Op.12, No.1, and two movements from Franck's Sonata in A major.

Sophie is technically excellent, and exudes musicality from every pore, as she engages with her audience, and delivers! I cannot wait for Saturday's Speech Day reprise of the final movement of the Franck; she will bring the house down, metaphorically speaking! The ovation she received this afternoon was Stalinesque; no-one wanted to be first to stop applauding in case he or she offended the soloist.

Good luck, Sophie next year, and thank you for sharing your Sixth Form years, and your many talents with us mere mortals at St Edmund's. Va bene!