Award Holders' Concert
15 September 2016
On Wednesday 14 September, this year’s new Music Award holders gave a recital in the Ugland Auditorium. Covering a wide variety of instruments, each performer demonstrated immense skill and musicianship. Anastasiia Nazarova (Lower Sixth, Lyttelton) opened the concert with a lyrical and thoughtful performance of ‘Erster Schmerz’ (First Sorrow) by Russian composer and pianist, Sergei Bortkiewicz. This was followed by one of Anastasiia’s own compositions, which was full of very interesting ideas and expressions. Alexander Gabison (Third Form, Temple) gave a lovely, stately performance of the first movement from Telemann’s ‘Concerto for Viola and Orchestra’. Rosia Li (Third Form, Lyttelton) then gave a beautiful performance of Glazunov’s ‘Elegie’ on the viola followed by an assured playing of Liszt’s ‘Valse oubliee no.1’. All of the musicians were very at home on the stage and they delivered their performances with real authority.
Charlotte Brennan (Lower Sixth, West) gave a heavenly performance of Pachelbel’s ‘Canon in D’ arranged for solo harp which was followed by Ellen Arnall’s (Lower Sixth, West) stylish and lyrical rendition of a Waltz by Chopin on the piano and the celestial ‘Metamorphoses after Ovid’ for solo oboe, by Benjamin Britten. To conclude the recital, Audrey Au (Third Form, Lyttelton) played the first movement of Rieding’s ‘Concerto no.1’ for violin and orchestra accompanied by her brother Jeffrey Au (Fourth Form, Walpole). It was evident that Jeffrey and Audrey were listening intently to each other as they played and the ensemble between them was delightful. Audrey then performed the fiendishly difficult ‘Caprice no.16’ for solo violin by the great Italian virtuoso, Paganini.
I would like to congratulate all of the musicians for their memorable performances and I look forward to hearing them all again in various concerts throughout the term.
Ben Andrew, Head of Keyboard