Crowthorne Orchestra

Our Spring Concert well. Although I only brought 9 of the audience, there was a good crowd in the Old Gym at Wellington College. We played several pieces:

• Grieg: Peer Gynt Suite No.1, Op.46
• Dvorak: The Noon Witch, Op.108
• Leopold Mozart: Sinfonia Pastorella for Alphorn and String Orchestra
• Mussorgsky: Night on the Bare Mountain
• Smetana: The Moldau (Vltava) from Ma Vlast
• Khachaturian: Spartacus Ballet Suite No.2

and they all went very well indeed. I was particularly pleased with the Mussorgsky and the Smetana, both big pieces with plenty of trumpet to play. It was a real thrill to be playing such powerful and well-known music. I also really enjoyed getting to know Dvorak's Noon Witch, a piece I had never come across before, but it has really grown on me.

The audience were suitably amazed by the carbon fibre, telescopic Alphorn played by Frances Jones who explained how the real ones are made (and how heavy they are, being wooden and three metres long) and played a few solo pieces before playing her solo with the orchestra in Leopold Mozart's Sinfonia Pastorella. As there are no parts for brass in this piece, I was able to join the audience and see this part of the performance from the front, which was excellent.

This concert included some quite ambitious music for us, but the next one is even more ambitious, Sibelius Symphony No 2 in D Minor, one of my all-time favourite symphonies. I am really looking forward to playing that!