homePrevious Courses
October 2004 - 10th Anniversary Concert
Barbican , London
Tenth birthdays normally come and go without too much in the way of extravagant celebration but the English Schools’ Orchestra and Choir duly celebrated their tenth anniversary with a fine concert in the London Barbican on Sunday October 31st 2004. The orchestra of 89 players from 46 schools represented one of the largest yet assembled (including two young violinists who travelled from Madrid and who had “discovered” our existence through the internet) and the choir of 180 singers from eight schools, not only promised exciting music making but more prosaically presented quite a challenge for those responsible for the organisation of the venture and particularly the seating on the stage. With the splendid help of the Barbican management and ESOC staff, all were eventually allocated their proper place and were able to concentrate on the job in hand without undue discomfort, though the final route to the podium by conductor Robert Pepper was necessarily a little more circuitous than usual.
The orchestra began proceedings with four of Malcolm Arnold’s English Dances and immediately showed that the week of rehearsals at the Haberdashers’ Aske’s Boys’ School, Elstree, where for the tenth year the splendid facilities of the Music School there were much enjoyed and appreciated, had been well focused and directed. There was a confident professionalism in the playing which was quite remarkable (though not unexpected) considering that this year there were several players no more than twelve years old and no one who had yet attained the landmark of eighteen.
Following the English Dances, Bernstein’s Chichester Psalms brought the choir into action and in fine voice. The first movement, a setting of Psalm 100 in a jaunty 7/4 time, (“Make a joyful noise unto the Lord”), was despatched with gusto and certainly interpreted the text in the most convincing of ways.
The more gentle second movement introduced the 12-year-old soloist Harry Sever (BBC Choirboy of the Year in 2003) who captured everyone’s heart with his pure tone and musical interpretation of Psalm 23. The Tenors and Basses managed to get their tongues around the notoriously tricky middle section (Psalm 2, Lamah rag’shu goyim) whilst at the same time maintaining respectably presentable Hebrew, and the concluding movement, the beautiful setting of Psalms 131 and 133, was sung with great warmth of tone by a choir, which throughout displayed fine technical control and considerable musicality.
The final work was Dvorak’s 8th Symphony, the so-called “English Symphony” and therefore very appropriate for the occasion. Here the orchestra again excelled and there was some energetic and exciting playing with all sections displaying confident mastery of the many technical and musical demands. The full audience, including some distinguished guests, were vociferous in their appreciation of everyone’s efforts and there was a cogent feeling that the tenth anniversary of the English Schools’ Orchestra and Choir had been well and truly celebrated. We look forward with considerable optimism to many more years of exciting concerts in this country and abroad.
Alan Taylor,
Course Director, English Scohols Orchestra and Choir