What makes an orchestra mighty? The Foundation Orchestra at Sevenoaks School is the orchestra open to all in Years 7, 8 and 9 and they produced a superb performance of the march from Tchaikovsky’s Symphony no 6 in an ingenious arrangement by Richard Ling.

All 86 members took their place in the Pamoja Hall for the first concert in the Christmas series of ensemble concerts, this one for the large classical groups. And there followed an amazing assortment of groups, ranging from the brass department spread all around the Pamoja Hall to the refined Flute Choir and Sevenoaks Strings. We heard the latter group accompanying Pia Lai in Kreisler’s Introduction and Allegro after Pugnani and the former in the famous Carillon movement from Bizet’s L’Arlesienne. The Wind Band were in fine form and their performance of the music from The Magnificent Seven was a real crowd pleaser. In terms of breadth, this was a mighty first half indeed. But perhaps might can also be measured in finery, in attention to detail and in creation of atmosphere. Those are words which can describe the Symphony Orchestra’s performance of the 3rd and 4th movements from Dvorak’s Symphony no 8. This was the orchestra once again in the finest form.

But for sheer might, nothing can quite match what happened just after the interval. Crowding the stage, although not exceeding the fire regulations (quite) and appearing from every door around the balcony performed no fewer than 218 musicians from Grade 1 to Diploma level, from piccolo to double bass. And they gave us Offenbach’s Can-Can as you have never heard it before. Setting aside the technical feat of assembling (and rehearsing) this number of musicians, the performance was so inspired it was heard twice over. Involving nearly a quarter of the school, this was indeed The Mighty Orchestra.