The Wykehamist
nine. They would bring us two pieces: the Beethoven Coriolan Overture Op. 62, allegro con brio, as well as Mussorgsky’ s Night on a Bald Mountain. Despite‘ missing half its people’( as Henri Berteau claimed), the potential effects of this were not felt at all. Out boomed the Beethoven with its dramatic exposition. The orchestra sounded like a beating heart, with a pulsating badum, badum resonating with the audience. The dramaticism was added to by the staccato and shorter bows in the strings, which helped create tension inside the piece. As for the Mussorgsky, it was the reason I was supposed to be at the concert in the first place, I later remembered. It was one of the pieces we had studied in class, and the writing of the music was supposed to be based on, as the title suggests, a night on a bald mountain. The exposition, much like the Beethoven, was incredibly dramatic with lots of tension, especially with the gradual crescendo at the beginning leading to a dramatic, massive chord played by the whole orchestra. Briefly, the tension is released as the orchestra descends in pitch before a whole new wave of tension forms as the orchestra once again repeats the buildup. Eventually, there was the chime of a church bell, which reverberated through New Hall much like it would on a dark, barren mountain.
As for the final piece, we truly saw the sheer musical prowess of Winchester College; sinfonia and symphony orchestra would combine to play the ET theme, with a grand total of 86 musicians involved, including some of the music dons on percussion as well. Especially passionate( as always) was SRB, who was put on cymbal duty and every time the cymbals were heard, they were heard reverberating throughout New Hall. As for the music, there’ s not much more to say about the classical ET theme. Powerful, dramatic and flowing with the pride of 86 excellent individuals, it moved not only our hearts but our bodies as well as the audience giving the grand orchestra a deserved, grand standing ovation. And with that, the concert was over. On my way back, I realised that it was past preces already, and the concert scheduled for an hour had taken almost two hours to finish. However, time could not have passed faster. I lamented my laziness in engaging with the musical facilities at the school. If I were back in JP again, I would most certainly have participated more in musical activities all around the school.
Frank Yu( F)
19