May 13th 2019
Returning after their Easter break this concert featured performers who were recently awarded their Grade 8 in ABRSM and Trinity College, London examinations. First to perform was Jonathan Post (5a Exh. Mus.), playing Joseph Horovitz’s Trumpet Concerto. Not to be confused with the American musicologist Joseph Horowitz, Horovitz fled to England from his native Vienna in 1938 to escape Nazi persecution, eventually becoming a professor of composition at the Royal College of Music. The sense of deep sentimental melancholy and nostalgia for the pre-war pastoralism with dominated British music in the early 20th century was beautifully expressed through Jonathan’s controlled and mellifluous tone throughout the delicately arched phrases.
Cheap Street regular Hector Fiennes (U6a) then gave another piece of music from a composer who made England his home with three movements from Handel’s oratorio Jephtha. Telling the story of the titular character’s torment as he is required to sacrifice his daughter, Iphis, after being granted victory in battle. ‘Hide thou thy hated beams’, ‘A father, off’ring up his only child’, and ‘Waft her, angels’ come at the opening of Act 3, as a distraught Jephtha prepares himself to take his daughter’s life. Hector’s light but powerful tenor voice portraying particularly the vulnerability of the character at this agonising juncture in the drama.
Equally mournful, but stylistically contrasting, Hector’s fellow A level student Bently Creswell (U6a) sang the aria ‘Oh du, mein holder Abendstern’ from Wagner’s opera Tannhäuser. Rather than dealing explicitly with death, this aria is sung by the knight and poet Wolfram, who is so struck by the evening star appearing on the horizon that he breaks into song. However, the aria has a dark twist: it foreshadows the death of the Elisabeth, who will later sacrifice her own life to redeem her lover, Tannäuser. Bently’s dark and weighty tone added a gravitas to the character with fantastically performed legato.
A very different sort of vocal performance was then given by George Lewis (L6d Exh. Mus), but by a no less influential composer. Jerome Kern’s timeless ‘Ol’ Man River’ from the 1927 musical Show Boat. A rare example of a bass solo in a Broadway musical, the labourer Joe (a choric character for much of the musical) sings about his trials and dreams of a better life, deftly brought to life in George’s sympathetic and expressive portrayal of Kern and Hammerstein’s everyman.
Isaac Bingley (5e Sch. Mus) then gave the first solo piano performance of the term with a crisp and flashy performance of Mozart’s popular classic known as ‘Rondo alla turca’. A lightness of touch in the agile melodic passages which open the piece then gave way to much more forceful chordal passages as Mozart imitates the full force of the Turkish marching bands which became a curiosity in Vienna in his day. While modern pianos have not inherited the pedal device which would lend a percussive cymbal clash at each change of chord, Isaac nonetheless vividly conjured up the lively demeanour of the composer and the music which inspired him.
The Music School always being keen to show the breadth and depth of music making at Sherborne, Monty Westall (L6c Sch. Mus.) presented two movements of jazz inspired repertoire by Oliver Haydn Whigham III (better known by his much jazzier moniker Jiggs Whigham), veteran of the Glenn Miller Orchestra. The first, simply entitled ‘Steve’ was written as a tribute to the late Steve Gray, acclaimed pianist and arranger who counted Quincy Jones, Brian Eno, and Sammy Javis Jr among his collaborators. The elegiac tone of the piece was beautifully expressed through an impeccable legato and nuanced phrasing choices. In keeping with much of what makes the jazz idiom unique, Whigham combines both notated and improvised elements in the score, and this allowed Monty the opportunity to elaborate the second, much more lively movement drawing influence from the uptempo swing numbers of the 1930s. Any jazz musician worth their salt would bring the deceptively sparse scoring to life through the use of ‘smears, bending of pitches, [and the] conversational interpretation of rhythms’ as directed by Whigham in the preface, and, as a staple of the School’s acclaimed Swing Band, Monty relished the opportunity for this, kicking off another busy term of music making at Sherborne in style.
Elliott Park, Music Teacher
