As a prelude to an evening of 'full-on' orchestral music, four smaller ensemble groups took their positions in The Stoller Hall, the newest venue addition to Manchester's burgeoning music scene, proudly positioned within the UK's largest and most prestigious music school.
The Stoller Hall is Manchester's third concert hall, and it's smallest, holding around 300 people, but that doesn't detract from the importance and prominence of this venue which is already attracting world class names and hosting major music events and festivals. It is grandiose and intimate at one and the same time.
Chetham's School is also going through a time of both change and celebration. At the end of this year, Stephen Threlfall, the Director Of Music at Chetham's will retire, after a long, distinguished and fruitful time with the school, giving way to new blood, whilst 2019 will also see the school celebrate 50 years as a centre of musical learning.
In the meantime however, back to this afternoon, and the four groups who graced this stage.
The first was The Trumpet Ensemble who had split themselves in half and stood in the choir stalls either side of and above the stage. The piece they had chosen was a short fanfare by Stan Pethel aptly named simply 'Antiphon'. Antiphony in music is where two melodies play one after each other rather like a game of ping-pong and comes from the Christian chants of church services where a phrase is sung by the priest and then the congregation repeat that phrase. [or a slight variation thereof]. It proved a lovely opener.
On the stage we then heard The Saxophone Choir, a group of 11 students ranging in age quite considerably, with a couple of the youngest and smallest being almost as big as the instruments they were playing. They performed two pieces in extremely contrasting styles. First a piece by Mendelssohn (arranged by Robert Rainford) which used strict rhythms and no deviations from the rules of classical composition. This was followed by a piece of modern jazz called 'Witch Hunt' which saw two of the ensemble come forward to play solo riffs, one of which was one of the youngest and smallest in the group who took this 'Blues Brothers' style very much in his stride. The whole was delightful and wonderful to see / hear.
Next, as the size of the ensemble was augmenting each time, was The Violetta Strings. This was a group of some twenty-odd string players, most of whom had only joined Chetham's school this September and were probably giving their first public performance as a pupil. There was only one violist and so conductor and tutor Owen Cox helped out and played viola too, leaving the ensemble conductor-less. He said that one of the first rules of ensemble playing was to listen to any instrument other than you own; I would have thought also, especially at that tender age, it would have been important to have a conductor and to watch and follow his lead, but seemingly they didn't seem to need this, as they played three short pieces, again in contrasting styles and they were superb. They might only be at the very beginning of their music training - some were only 8 years old - but they understood what was needed in each piece and really did seem to be listening to and working with each other excellently.
Finally, the largest group, the Wind Band. Not really an ensemble, but more of an orchestra really when they are 50 members' strong and boasting 7 of those for percussion! David Chatterton took the baton for this piece as they finished the concert with a loud and magnificent celebration of Leonard Bernstein, who was born 100 years ago this year, with Clare Grundman's arrangement of his music titled, A Bernstein Tribute. using some of Bernstein's more famous tunes from West Side Story, On The Town and even Candide, this was a truly splendid way to finish off this concert, get us all in the mood for the Symphony Orchestra concerts to follow and to showcase the younger talent of the school.
Smashin'!
Reviewer - Matthew Dougall
on - 17/10/18
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