How typical that having been dry all day it should start to rain just as we were loading the mini-buses for our journey to Metton Church, where the Chapel Choir and instrumentalists were to perform on Friday 9th October. I’m always amazed at just how much will fit in these vehicles which seem to assume Tardis-like capacity at times. This was no exception as instruments, music stands, boxes of music, chairs and stools were squeezed in along with 28 children for good measure!

As we entered the church, the audience was already seated and eagerly anticipating the concert, which opened with the Chapel Choir singing the beautiful anthem You Raise Me Up. The children were seemingly unphased by having to unpack their instruments, take their places and sing without a warm up, within minutes of arriving.  Apart from services for School, this was the first outing for choir members this academic year but they sounded very polished and produced a lovely round, warm and well-balanced sound – a considerable achievement considering they had only a few weeks to adjust to the loss of the Year 8 singers in the Summer.

The solo and group items demonstrated the wide variety of instruments taught at Beeston: flutes (Emily Joice and Pollyanna Esse), oboe (Guy de Soissons), recorder (Milly Richards), clarinet (Jamie Farnell), tuba (Tom Dale, proving beyond doubt that the tuba can indeed be a solo instrument holding a melodic line), violin (Thomas Bussell, gamely making his Beeston concert debut after only a few weeks at the School, Teddy Clifton, Hebe Hughes and Alice Lindsell), cello (William Faye, Milly Richards and Romilly Stuart), guitar (Damson Young), harp (Susannah Willcox), and voice (Charlie Comyns), starting with Vlad Benn, the only pianist in the concert, playing the technically demanding Vivace Assai by Haydn with great aplomb.
 
Without exception, all of the 15 instrumentalists played well and should be congratulated on their achievement but perhaps worthy of special mention is Charlie Comyns’ charming performance of L.Marsh’s pretty song Butterfly which was warmly received by the audience, as was Hebe Hughes’s musical account of the popular Jupiter Theme by Holst on the violin. Milly Richards gave a spirited rendition of Corelli’s Sarabanda and Giga on the recorder and last to play was Susannah Willcox who delighted us all with J. Clarke’s Chaconne on her new concert harp.

Controlling nerves on an occasion such as this is always a problem for musicians and something that we have to learn to cope with. The youngest soloist, Pollyana, who was playing in a concert for the very first time, admitted to being fairly terrified before she played Greensleeves on the flute but she nevertheless produced an assured performance with a well controlled, full tone. One to watch I think!

The Chapel Choir brought the concert to a close with an arrangement of the Irish Blessing sung with feeling and featuring very pleasing solos from the Head Choristers Milly Richards and Teddy Clifton.

After a delicious tea provided by the ladies of Metton it was time to head back to School. By now it was raining very heavily indeed, ensuring that everyone was well and truly drenched as we made our way to the ‘Tardises’ in the dark. Not quite heavily enough however to dampen our spirits!