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Spring Concert 2012

The annual Spring Concert on Friday evening was a thoroughly memorable occasion.

Drinks were served to the cultured accompaniment of different Chamber Groups, before the concert began in earnest with the first movement of Elgar’s Cello Concerto, Marina Pease playing the solo part with immense skill and musicianship  The audience was then taken aback by the full force of Danse Macabre by Saint-Saëns and the string players excelled in Grieg’s Holberg Suite. The Senior String Quartet, fresh from engagements at Gray’s Inn and Imperial College to name but two, performed Allegro con spirit from Haydn’s Op.76 ‘Sunrise’ Quartet. Demonstrating great promise for the future, the newly formed Sinfonietta performed a Caribbean Medley with great gusto.

It wouldn’t be a St Mary’s concert without a range of outstanding vocal performances. The LVI Vocal Ensemble gave a haunting account of Fields of Gold and the Opera Group combined impeccable singing with wit and contemporary dance moves in three excerpts from The Mikado. The Junior Choir had toes tapping in Every time I feel the spirit and the Chamber Choir performed Devon-Jane Airey’s six-part unaccompanied arrangement of Wonderwall by Noel Gallagher.

The Jazz Band moved from a moving and mellow rendition of Marianne to a rousing, Samba version of Coldplay’s Clocks before the evening concluded with a symphonic arrangement of the band’s recent chart hit involving some 120 musicians.