Scotch College

Concerto Concert Draws Biggest Audience Yet

Concerto Concert Draws Biggest Audience Yet

The annual mid-year orchestral concert, known as the Concerto Concert was held again at Melba Hall, and a near capacity audience enjoyed movements from a number of concertos performed by students accompanied by the Scotch College Symphony Orchestra under its Director of Music John Ferguson. Edwin Chow gave an exceptionally musical account of Beethoven's Piano Concerto No. 1. He demonstrated considerable finesse and control, ably accompanied by the orchestra. The audience was then treated to Miki's Marimba Spiritual No 2 performed superbly by the year 12 percussion ensemble comprising Cameron Sim, Christopher Opie, David Cheung, Tom Iansek, and Vice Captain of Music, Stephen Dower. Thomas Gin and Henry Hedinger gave a fluent and spirited account of the Bach Double Violin Concerto which was followed by Matthew Stokes and Edward Tudor performing the ever popular Double Trumpet Concerto by Vivaldi. Vivaldi's wonderful antiphonal trumpet sounds echoed beautifully around the fine acoustics of Melba Hall. The Cello Concerto in Bb by Boccherini, surely the most popular cello concerto of Boccherini's was performed by Alexander Gin, who played the opening movement, followed by Myles Chen who performed the final movement. Alexander was very secure in both intonation and technique, and performed with great maturity, Myles Chen achieved a beautiful sense of movement and lilt with the famous rondo theme.

The second half of the concert was devoted entirely to a complete performance of the Symphony No. 5 by Tchaikovsky. The orchestra presented a very commendable and secure performance. What was particularly notable was the achievement of the orchestra to convey the many varied mood changes of the work, going beyond just tempo and dynamics to real variations in timbre. Mond Qu deserves a particular mention for a very fine performance of the notorious horn solo in the second movement. It was a memorable concert of demanding repertoire of which the students, their teachers and parents should be proud. It even drew a standing ovation from some sections of the audience - a very rare achievement from a Scotch audience.