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New venue – same virtuosity

A dedicated team of talented music teachers and keen young musicians delivered another highly successful Foundation Day Concert.

WORDS: MR DAVID ASHTON ('65) PHOTOGRApHY: MR JOE CASTRO

Several busloads of overseas tourists arriving at the Hilton hotel at Docklands on the chilly evening of Friday 27 August might have momentarily thought ‘if it’s Friday, this must be Edinburgh’, as the Scotch College Pipe Band played outside the Melbourne Convention and Exhibition Centre. But the band was simply welcoming Scotch Family members to the 2010 Foundation Day Concert.

Once inside the cavernous foyer of the brand new convention centre, visitors faced some delays entering the plenary hall where the concert was to take place. Staff, though cheerful and very helpful, were still familiarising themselves with the seat configuration, and had to resort to maps to direct guests to seats. The concert consequently began nearly 20 minutes late.

The performers, too, had to cope with a venue perhaps more suited to a convention address than a multi-faceted musical event, and no doubt Hamer Hall is being missed as it undergoes its $130 million transformation.

Despite the challenges of coping with a new and unfamiliar venue, the performers delivered a succession of memorable performances which more than maintained the high-quality reputation of Foundation Day Concert music.

The concert opened in its customary way, with Mr Roger Schmidli conducting his own arrangements of Advance Australia Fair and the College Song. Mr Schmidli retained the baton to conduct the Symphonic Wind in polished performances of Windsprints by Richard Saucedo and Cloudburst by Eric Whitacre. Mr Schmidli invited the audience to click their fingers during part of the latter work, creating an uncanny likeness of raindrops falling.

Mr Ferguson next took the baton for the Symphony Orchestra’s renditions of the first movement of Prokofiev’s Violin Concerto no 1 in D major op 19, with soloist Richard Tuckwell coping well with the varying tempi of this lyrical piece. Dominic Wong and the orchestra then combined smoothly in the opening movement of Dvorak’s Cello Concerto in B minor op 104. Dominic’s – and the orchestra’s – performance were most creditable, as the concerto was easily the most demanding work in the concert.

After Captain of Music Edward Cliff conducted the school and the Symphony Orchestra in 40 Years On and the Boating Song, the Academy Strings, conducted by Mr James deRozario, took centre stage for another Dvorak piece, the finale of his Serenade for Strings in E Major op 22. Composed in just two weeks in 1875, the serenade is one of Dvorak’s most popular works. The fifth movement has echoes of a Bohemian village dance, and the Academy Strings did well to convey a mood of lighthearted celebration.

The audience – particularly the younger members – showed great appreciation of the last portion of the concert before interval. The Military Band (conducted by Mr David Musk), the combined Military and Pipe Bands and then the Pipe Band alone (under Mr Mark Saul) played and moved with precision and lyricism.

After interval the Show Band, directed by Mr Roger Schmidli, played an arrangement of Caravan, featuring tenor saxophonist Benjamin Strathmore, and Gordon Goodwin’s The Jazz Police, with guitar soloist Hugo Visentin. This was the highlight of the night for audience members nostalgic for the Big Band era, and the percussion was particularly memorable.

As always, the College Choir, conducted by Mr Andrew Hunter and accompanied by Mr Nicholas Buc, charmed the audience, with Andy’s Gone with Cattle (soloist Mitchell Wong, with Edward Cliff on oboe) and the gospel anthem He Never Failed Me Yet (soloists James Woodhouse, Tom Hayman, Lachlan McLaren and Yos Tampi, with Daniel Tram on bass and Edward Cliff on drums). Next came the Chamber Choir’s beautiful and sensitive renditions of Sure on this Shining Night and the traditional Loch Lomond, accompanied by Mr Nicholas Buc with soloists Jonathan Chen and Mitchell Wong.

Launching the final part of the program – massed school singing backed by the Symphony Orchestra under Mr John Ferguson and Mr Andrew Hunter – was the College Anthem. This was followed by a selection of well-known songs from Broadway led off by the beautiful Bui Doi from Miss Saigon, featuring the fine tenor voice of School Captain Jack Fowles.

Congratulations to Director of Music Mr John Ferguson and his dedicated team of talented music teachers and keen young musicians, for another highly successful Foundation Day Concert. The 2011 event will mark the concert’s centenary. GS

Updated: Monday 24 June 2013