CONCERT - Birmingham Town Hall

A group of 12 pupils from the Removes and Shells had the opportunity to attend a wonderful concert in the newly re-furbished Town Hall in Birmingham on Tuesday afternoon.

The very accomplished Orchestra of the Swan (based in Stratford) played a fabulous concert of music by Mendelssohn, Mozart and Beethoven under the baton of their Artistic Director David Curtis.

The concert started with the highly descriptive Overture ‘Fingal’s Cave’ by Mendelssohn, which was written after a stormy crossing to the island of Staffa.

This was followed by an exquisite performance of the Piano Concerto No. 21 by Mozart, which was played by 26-year-old Taiwanese pianist Chiao-Ying Chang. This concerto is one of Mozart’s greatest and it was given a very fine performance.

After the interval (and the consuming of an ice cream each) we returned to our seats for a performance of the Symphony No. 7 by Ludwig van Beethoven. This piece was known to be one of Beethoven’s favourite compositions and is full of great melodies, energy and vitality. It is ‘the apotheosis of the dance’ and is full to bursting with rhythmic momentum which left us with a smile on our face and a jolly spring in our step.