1963; Music Festival

The classes in this year's festival were the same as those of last year's festival, with the addition of a Sight-Reading Class, and a Junior Piano Class. The adjudicator was Mr. Barry Rose, organist of Guildford Cathedral.
The day began with the Junior Piano Class, which was won by G. Carpenter, chiefly because of his use of rubato in Fur Elise.
One of the classes requiring the most preparation was, perhaps, the Ensemble Class. This was won by the brass ensemble, who played a 17th. century piece with neat phrasing and intonation which produced an enjoyable performance.
In the Novices' Class (open instrumental) the two competitors were Carpenter (flute) and Wilson (violin). Carpenter's confident performance, against a less experienced performance by Wilson, won this class.
O turn away mine eyes, by Boyce, was the set piece for the Junior Vocal Class. There were some very musical performances given but the best was a confident, well-phrased performance by J. Cordwell, who won the award.
The most varied and the largest class was the Open Instrumen-tal. Instruments involved included the trumpet (Finch and Spelman), flute (Parry and Steemson), organ (N. Common), oboe (R. Bramhall), clarinet (C. R. Bramley), clavicord (R. Telford), bassoon (D. Chatterton), and trombone (K. Burns). The eventual winner was Russell Parry, who gave an extremely fine and techni-cally near-perfect performance of Concertino by Chaminade. The general quality of this class was so high that the adjudicator's marks were the same in many cases (four people tied for second place).
The Senior Piano Class this year included some interesting pieces. David Lea won with a thoughtful, musical performance of Ravel's Sonatine. Graham Conridge came a very close second because of his technically brilliant performance of Debussy's Jardins .wm.a la Pluie.
The competitors in the Sight-Reading Class (an innovation) were given two minutes to study a Bach prelude before having to play it. Conridge accomplished this with no mistakes and, therefore, was the winner.
The Senior Vocal Class showed much that is promising for the future. Nicolas Common (baritone) won this class with his perform-ance of Di Provenza , Il Mar, Il Suol form La Traviata. Though his performance could have been more animated, the timbre of his voice, in mezzo-forte and fortissimo passages was good. David Chatterton (tenor), singing Donizetti's Una furtiva lagrima, showed excellent suave tone, and came a very close second.
Finally, the unknown quantity of the day, the Composition Class. This included a rhapsodic piece for piano by G. Conridge; a pleasant, tuneful piece for flute and piano by Wilson; an extremely interesting sonata for piano by J. V. Conway in which the composer intended to summarise the peaks of the romantic period; a sextet in the classical style by G. Carpenter, which had been performed earlier as an entry in the Ensemble Class; and a delightful set of variations for clavicord by R. Telford, which he played on the instrument which he had himself built. This composition was the winning entry in a most interesting class.
Our thanks must be expressed to Mr. Barry Rose for giving us his opinions in such a pleasant way, and to Mr. Moffatt for organi-sing the Festival.
To anyone who heard the competitors during the competition it must be obvious that not only is music becoming more popular in the School, but the School's musicians are becoming more expert as time goes on. It is to be hoped that this welcome trend will continue.
NICOLAS COMMON.

1963; The Monoux Youth Orchestra

This Orchestra consists of most of the members of the old School Orchestra, and also many instrumentalists from the district. The Orchestra's purpose is to afford the opportunity for good musicians to play longer works than can be reasonably attempted by the normal school orchestra.
Our first concert was given on the second of April, after a life of about two terms. The first piece was Malcolm Arnold's Little Suite for Orchestra. The two works by Jarnefelt, Berceuse and Praeludium, were very musically performed by the whole orchestra, the violin solo in Berceuse being played warmly and sensitively, as fits the music, by Garth Morton, the leader of the orchestra.

The best performance of the evening by the complete orchestra was the Beecham arrangement of Handel's Faithful Shepherd Suite. This was played very well, and everyone seemed to get into the mood of the music. What mistakes there were did not interfere with its musicality.

The Suite of English Folk Songs by Vaughan Williams was played with a certain familiarity, and perhaps contempt, by some members of the orchestra who had played it so often before. The rustic mood of the piece was reflected in the three movements which the players met with spirit.

The overture to the second part was Rossini's L'Assedio di Corinto, a difficult piece, especially for the strings, which has for most of its length triplet passages. Both the percussion and brass were allowed to give full vent to their musical feelings. If this piece was not played musically, it was certainly greatly enjoyed.

The main piece of the evening was the Clarinet Concerto No. 2. by Weber, which was played by Antony Pay, a brilliant player who is principal clarinet in the National Youth Orchestra. The solo line was played perfectly, and the soloist's exceptional technique was obvious. The last movement, Alla polacca, was very stirringly played and resulted in a fitting climax. The moving Romance was performed very sensitively and the contrast of the runs of demi-semi-quavers was made very marked. The performance was much appreciated by the audience.

Sibelius's Karelia Suite concluded the programme. This piece suffered from stage nerves and was by no means as good as it had been at the final rehearsal. The first movement melody was played with good tone but the trumpets were inclined to race, and the difficult first-horn part was managed very well by our first-horn player who has only been playing for a fairly short time. The ruminative Ballade was quite well in time, and the 'cello players kept the pizzicato passages very steady. The final movement, a march, formed a fitting climax to the evening.

On the whole this first concert was a very worthwhile endeavour and was enjoyed very much by the disappointingly small audience. We are anxious to increase our numbers by persuading the better young players in the area-and there are quite a few of them-that their enjoyment and experience can be greatly increased by coming together to enable us to perform works of the symphonic repertoire.

P.S.Finch

1963; School Orchestra

This Orchestra consists of most of the members of the old School Orchestra, and also many instrumentalists from the district. The Orchestra's purpose is to afford the opportunity for good musicians to play longer works than can be reasonably attempted by the normal school orchestra.
Our first concert was given on the second of April, after a life of about two terms. The first piece was Malcolm Arnold's Little Suite for Orchestra. The two works by Jarnefelt, Berceuse and Praeludium, were very musically performed by the whole orchestra, the violin solo in Berceuse being played warmly and sensitively, as fits the music, by Garth Morton, the leader of the orchestra.

The best performance of the evening by the complete orchestra was the Beecham arrangement of Handel's Faithful Shepherd Suite. This was played very well, and everyone seemed to get into the mood of the music. What mistakes there were did not interfere with its musicality.

The Suite of English Folk Songs by Vaughan Williams was played with a certain familiarity, and perhaps contempt, by some members of the orchestra who had played it so often before. The rustic mood of the piece was reflected in the three movements which the players met with spirit.

The overture to the second part was Rossini's L'Assedio di Corinto, a difficult piece, especially for the strings, which has for most of its length triplet passages. Both the percussion and brass were allowed to give full vent to their musical feelings. If this piece was not played musically, it was certainly greatly enjoyed.

The main piece of the evening was the Clarinet Concerto No. 2. by Weber, which was played by Antony Pay, a brilliant player who is principal clarinet in the National Youth Orchestra. The solo line was played perfectly, and the soloist's exceptional technique was obvious. The last movement, Alla polacca, was very stirringly played and resulted in a fitting climax. The moving Romance was performed very sensitively and the contrast of the runs of demi-semi-quavers was made very marked. The performance was much appreciated by the audience.

Sibelius's Karelia Suite concluded the programme. This piece suffered from stage nerves and was by no means as good as it had been at the final rehearsal. The first movement melody was played with good tone but the trumpets were inclined to race, and the difficult first-horn part was managed very well by our first-horn player who has only been playing for a fairly short time. The ruminative Ballade was quite well in time, and the 'cello players kept the pizzicato passages very steady. The final movement, a march, formed a fitting climax to the evening.

On the whole this first concert was a very worthwhile endeavour and was enjoyed very much by the disappointingly small audience. We are anxious to increase our numbers by persuading the better young players in the area-and there are quite a few of them-that their enjoyment and experience can be greatly increased by coming together to enable us to perform works of the symphonic repertoire.

P.S.Finch