Hexham Courant 24.09.04
Fiona Hewitt

Talented pupils from three Hexham Schools ensured that the opening of the 52nd Hexham Abbey Festival was an occasion to remember.

The Samling Foundation concert, devoted to young musical talent, was sheer delight for the audience that packed into the Abbey.

It was the culmination of three days in which the ground-breaking new London orchestra, the Southbank Sinfonia, with its music director Simon Over has the enthusiasm and charisma to bring out the very best in young musicians.

The concert began with the orchestra playing a selection from Saint-Saëns' Carnival of the Animals.

Children from Sele First School participated by dancing down the aisles as lions and assorted creatures as the music demanded - a delightful prelude to the evening's entertainment.

There followed a selection of songs. Fiona Duncan (a Samling Scholar) sang works by Richard Strauss from the organ loft, combining beautifully with the orchestra.

And the choir of St Joseph's Middle School sang Elgar's Ave Verum Corpus, Cesar Franck's Panis Angelicus and an arrangement of Brother James's Air.

The choir performed with a maturity belying its youth, responding superbly to the experience of working with professional musicians.

The clear young voices resounding in the Abbey was very moving - and their Latin pronunciation was impeccable.

St Joseph's music coordinator, Philip Rosier, can be very proud of what he, and they, have achieved.

Sadly the choir was positioned in the south transept, so only the audience in the north transept got a good view. Many people in the nave either could not see the singers at all or had their view severely restricted.

The final piece before the interval, Beethoven's Egmont Overture, was played by musicians from QEHS with reinforcement from the Southbank Sinfonia.

This is an ideal work for an orchestra to display its talents - tuneful and vigorous - and it was an exciting performance, demonstrating why QEHS achieved Performing Arts College status on September 1.

Here too credit must go to the school's head of music and assistant head, Len Young.

The second half of the concert began with Poulenc's Organ Concerto in G minor, a wonderful work, full of contrast from queit to fortissimo, from solemn to lyrical. The soloist, Andrew Passmore, was equal to the challenge.

Andrew has held an organ scholoarship at the Abbey for the past two years and until recently was a pupil at QEHS.

The Abbey's Phelps organ is a mighty instrument and there were moments when the strings in the orchestra seemed overwhelmed. But this was a thrilling performance.

The concert concluded in more restrained and introspective mood as Fiona Duncan sang three more Strauss songs.

Despite her youth, she has already performed numerous operatic roles and worked with many distinguished artists.

While her voice had freshness and purity, it also had the strength to reach the furthest recesses of the Abbey.

One can only guess at the work that went into the preparation for this concert, but the rapport between conductor and performers was palpable.

The Hexham-based arts charity, the Samling Foundation, is to be congratulated on such a successful initiative that enabled some of our young people to raise their musical skills to new heights.

As the foundation's artistic direction, Karon Wright, put it, "They have the potential to be the superstars of tomorrow and we want to help them."

> Top of page