On the evening of 2nd December, the Sutton Music Service presented their second half of their autumn concert series at St Andrews United Reform Church.
Members of the London Philharmonia Orchestra played alongside the Sutton Youth Symphony Orchestra (SYSO) and the Young Musicians Orchestra (YMO), giving the students an opportunity to work with professional musicians.
The SYSO began by playing pieces from the collections ‘English Folk Song Suite’ by Vaughan Williams and Coleridge-Taylor’s ‘Hiawatha Suite’. The former was actually composed by the previous Vice President of the Adult Sutton Symphony Orchestra.
Afterwards, the Philharmonia Orchestra gave a fantastic performance of Vivaldi's ‘Chamber Concerto for Violin, Flute and Cello’.
This was followed by two pieces performed brilliantly by the YMO: Bizet arr. Stone’s ‘Farandole’ and Trad. arr. Brooker’s ‘Cavatina’.
The Philharmonia orchestra also played Villoldo arr. Milone’s ‘El Choclo’ and Strauss arr. Milone’s ‘Bandit Galop.
SYSO’s final solo piece was John Ireland’s ‘Mai-Dun’, which was a challenge for both the SYSO and the Philharmonia, yet they still gave an impressive rendition of it.
The evening finished with all three orchestras coming together to perform Malcolm Arnold’s ‘Little Suite No.2’.
Overall, each performance was really well played. All of the young musicians were incredibly talented and a lot of hard work has gone into their preparations for this concert.
Patrick Reeve, one of the first violins of SYSO, said that “the Philharmonia were a wonderful presence in the orchestra as they provided much support and help, as well as acting as role models for the players.”
