St George's Concert

Just before our recent half term break, on Wednesday 13th February, the Music Department presented their Annual Spring Concert, performing at the prestigious St George’s in central Bristol. The 550-seat venue was packed to the rafters with supporting peers, staff, parents, VIP guests and other music enthusiasts, and all were thrilled by the level of talent and musicianship on display. 

After a welcome speech from Mrs Tear, Badminton's Symphony Orchestra opened proceedings with Mozart’s Overture from his Greek mythology opera, ‘Idomeneo’. As per tradition for Spring Concerts, Upper Sixth musicians are given the opportunity to perform solo items. After the opening item, we heard our first soloist of the evening; Nicole on flute, performing four movements from John Rutter’s Suite Antique, including the haunting ‘Prelude’ and the quirky jazz-style ‘Waltz’. Our next soloist, Sylvia followed this with a sublime and passionate performance of Dvorak’s ‘Song to the Moon’ from his late-Romantic opera ‘Rusalka’. The Symphony Orchestra then returned to the stage on mass to present the famous second movement from Beethoven’s seventh Symphony, before our third soloist, Antonina, ended the half with a stunningly virtuosic performance of Haydn’s Cello Concerto in C major. 

After an intermission, the Year 5-7 Choir kick started the second half with John Rutter’s sacred choral setting of ‘For the Beauty of the Earth: Continuing the choral music theme, this was then followed by Schola Cantorum’s performance of three haunting ‘Winter Songs’ by Norwegian composer Ola Gjeilo, made even more spine-tingling by the piano and string accompaniment. Our fourth and final soloist of the evening, Olivia, was up next with a flawless performance of Mozart’s Clarinet Concerto, accompanied by old-Badmintonian Francesca on piano. Our singers then returned to the stage, as Senior Choir performed two more well-known numbers; ‘Wherever you Are’, a Christmas No. 1 back in 2011, and Billy Joel’s ‘And So It Goes’. 

To end the evening, we celebrated all musicians by having almost all performers back on stage for one last time. Accompanied by piano and string orchestra, our choirs combined to give us a rousing rendition of ‘A Million Dreams’ from the smash hit movie ‘The Greatest Showman’. This was followed by some messages of thanks and farewells from Mrs Griffith, before we packed up and left St George’s for another year.