GCSE Music Concert

On Wednesday, our GCSE music students enjoyed a really perfect day out to the Southbank centre to hear the London Philharmonic Orchestra in a GCSE Specialist concert called Bright Sparks. It was a beautiful sunny day and they walked across the Hungerford Bridge, with the iconic London Eye behind them.

The Royal Festival Hall was filled with GCSE students from across London and it was exciting for our students to feel part of a bigger musical “community.” The concert was led by Rachel Leach, who explained and analysed all the different items of music and created an excellent context and language for learning for the students. It opened with a 20th century Minimalist piece by John Adams called “The Chairman Dances.”

There was even an audience and student interaction performance with the orchestra which was both fun and musically interesting.

The favourite piece, according to our students, was Vivaldi’s 4 seasons depicting the cold atmosphere of winter. We then heard Haydn’s Trumpet concerto and a movement from Beethoven’s 7th Symphony. A rather interesting contemporary piece followed called “Forty Heartbeats” by Kaija Saariaho, where the players explored a range of unusual sounds from their instruments.

The concert ended with the music from JAWS by John Williams in which that famous 2 note motif dominated the entire piece and set the pervasive, ominous mood.

The students behaved impeccably and it was a pleasure to be with them!

Thanks to Miss Connery for accompanying Mrs Algranati with the Girls and to Mr Shebson and Mr Sharpe for keeping the boys in tow!