One year on from the inaugural concert of The Space, Sevenoaks School held its 44th annual Alan Adler concert in the Pamoja Hall on Friday 15 April.

In contrast to recent years, where this has been a showcase of senior groups performing at St John’s, Smith Square, this was primarily a concert featuring all the large instrumental ensembles from the Foundation Orchestra to the senior Symphony Orchestra. In addition, we heard the Sennocke Consort in fine voice with Howells deeply-moving ‘Take him, earth, for cherishing’, a hugely demanding work for a school choir to undertake. This was followed by Pia Lai and Elspeth Newey’s stylish rendition of Vivaldi’s Concerto for two violins in D minor.

From then on, it was all orchestral, first with the Sevenoaks Strings. Under the baton of Sam Gladstone, this group continues to improve and their exciting performance of ‘Mantras’ and ‘Mixing the Malt’ delighted the 300-strong audience. Also in a lighter vein were the Wind Band. Under the shared baton of Toby Carden and Julia Kiggell, they clearly had great fun with movie music from Apollo 13 and The Flintstones as well as producing a beautifully mellow sound in their performance of Bruckner’s ‘Os Justi’.

One never knows what to expect from an 80-strong ensemble of pupils from Year 7 to 9, but this year, the Foundation Orchestra has been a consistent success and in this concert, their performance of Mendelssohn’s Wedding March was no exception. Stylish articulation, accurate intonation and a good strong sound were just three of the attributes that they displayed at the opening of the second half. The jewel in the instrumental crown is always the Symphony Orchestra and this year was no exception. Opening with a reprise of Khachaturian’s Adagio from Spartacus, they performed with intensity and maturity that was bettered in the vibrant, exuberant Finlandia which closed the programme.

The Head of Instrumental and Vocal Studies, Toby Carden, brought fine control and direction to these works which once again left us all looking back at a highly successful year of music making, rounded off with this triumphantly performed, popular showpiece.

Chris Dyer