Music at Lunchtime: Brass Solos and Chamber Music

Our Music at Lunchtime concert this week was given by a selection of brass students from Forms 2 to 7, performing music by Orlando Gibbons, Franz Strauss and Francis Poulenc.

Baker, in Form 2, began the concert with Suite for Trumpet and Piano, an arrangement of four keyboard pieces by Gibbons, accompanied by Anne Bolt. Baker’s performance was suitably spirited with fluent melodic lines and dance-like ornamentation, in keeping with the Renaissance style. Next in the programme was Franz Strauss’ Nocturno performed by Form 5 student, Charlie. Full of lyricism and expression, Charlie’s performance was a great example of the warmth and narrative qualities of Romantic music for the horn.

The final piece in the concert was a brass trio, made up of Upper School students Joshua and Archie on horn and trombone and Head of Brass Steve Foster on trumpet. The trio performed the first two movements of Poulenc’s striking Sonata for Horn, Trumpet and Trombone. They opened with the second movement, full of smooth, well-blended melodic lines and a great sense of ensemble timing. The first movement, concluding the programme, was lively and animated with constantly shifting textures and tempi. Congratulations to all the students involved for their performances of diverse and challenging music for brass!

Next week’s lunchtime concert is given by Form 7 music scholar Samantha, alongside Head of Piano Anne Bolt, performing Claude Debussy’s Six Épigraphes Antiques for piano duet.