Charterhouse Summer Concert
The following review of the Charterhouse Summer Concert, held onSunday 21st June, was written by First Year Specialist, Alice Jones.
This year’s Summer Concert demonstrated an impressive range of performances, giving parents and other members of the audience a taste of the work that has gone on this academic year in the Music Department. Several Fifths and Second Year Specialists returned after their exams to perform.
The varied and entertaining programme started in Chapel where the trio of Candy Chan, Joshua Pacey and Timothy Parsons created a seemingly effortless opening to the concert with Beethoven’s op.87 Finale Presto. Chamber Choir followed, performing a couple of atmospheric choral pieces including a composition by Tim Parsons based on the words of a sonnet by Donne, which earlier in the term was the winning composition in Composition Prizes.
In the Llewellyn Room, the prize winning Quintet of Bryan Chu, Cheryl Chan, Justin Choi, Candy Chan and Adrian Chan delivered a beautiful and flawless performance of the second movement of Schumann’s Piano Quintet in E flat. This was followed by two rather more up-beat performances. The first by Justin Choi with the first movement of Beethoven’s Spring Sonata followed by Adrian Chan with the third movement of Saint-Saens’ Cello Concerto in A minor, with Bryan Chu accompanying both pieces on piano.
The pupil-organised, close harmony group made their first appearance, performing lively arrangements of In the Mood by Joe Garland and I want You Back originally by the Jackson Five, giving a fun and jazzy feel to the concert.
Finally, an arrangement for strings and tenor voice (Luke Barratt) of the Beatles’ Eleanor Rigby provided a show stopping ending to the evening’s entertainment. The audience was then welcomed onto the lawn for wine and canapés to the backdrop of popular numbers by the Saxophone Quartet.
Alice Jones (S)