News Spring Instrumental Concert 2025 28.03.2025

Tuesday’s Spring Instrumental Concert was a real celebration of the array and quality of instrumental music at Godolphin and Latymer.

The concert began with the Percussion Trio’s energetic performance of No Paradiddles by our percussion teacher Mr Neville, followed by an exhilarating rendition of Brahms’s Hungarian Dance No. 5 played by the Percussion Ensemble. The Philharmonia presented the Rondo from Michael Coe’s Pieces in a really dancing, energised performance, before the Concert Band brought a shift in mood with an dramatic rendition of Mission: Impossible. Its drama and rhythmic drive was wonderful juxtaposed by the joyful exuberance of ’Livin’ La Vida Loca’.

This year, each of our departing Upper Sixth Music Scholars were featured as soloists or composers. Accompanied by our String Ensemble, Ella, Maya and Imogen each played a movement from Vivaldi’s The Four Seasons: one from ‘Spring’ and two from ‘Winter’. This was truly beautiful, stylistic, vibrant playing, and skilfully and tastefully accompanied by our String Ensemble (numbering nearly fifty players!).

The Symphony Orchestra (also numbering nearly fifty players) began with Camille Saint-Saëns’ Allegro appassionato, Op. 43, featuring Youan as cello soloist. This was a performance filled with real fire and intensity, and Youan demonstrated a real understanding of Saint-Saëns’ lyrical and dramatic contrasts.

A highlight of the evening was the world premiere of New Forest, composed by Rania (and specially commissioned to be performed by the Symphony Orchestra). This is a truly captivating composition, showcasing a wonderful array of timbral colour and melodic invention, and balancing delicacy and grandeur in equal measure.

Finally, the Symphony Orchestra played the entirety of Haydn’s Symphony in D Major No. 104 ‘London’. This was the first time, for many years, that the Symphony Orchestra has performed the entirety of a symphony, and for a school to be able to do this is rare indeed. From the playful first movement to the stateliness of the Minuet and Trio, the Symphony Orchestra captured the full range of Haydn’s wit and grandeur, and the conclusion of the Finale was met with a deserving and prolonged ovation.

Many, many congratulations to all of our performers on an outstanding term of music-making.