By Georgia C (Year 11)

Our Music Scholars, together with our Music GCSE and A level students enjoyed a trip to see ‘Symphonie Fantastique’ by Berlioz at Southbank earlier this week.

The concert began with a bang in the form of Tchaikovsky’s Concerto No.1, which has arguably the most recognisable introduction of any concerto ever. It was totally mesmerising to watch the pianist’s very expressive face as he played, but even more so watching the energetic conductor wave his arms around, as he was completely in control of the music, and seemed to be ahead of the orchestra for the entire show. After the concerto was the pianist’s encore, which was moving and really quite lovely, but was unfortunately unnamed. Then during the interval, things took a drastic turn as four harps were wheeled out in preparation for Berlioz’s very optimistically named Symphony Fantastique. This was very dramatic and led the audience through a rollercoaster of emotions, and Berlioz certainly knew how to make the most of the wind section, giving the bassoons several well deserved moments of glory. We were slightly unconvinced by the third movement, which we thought lacked depth, and we understood why the composer placed it in the middle of his symphony. However, it was ultimately a great trip and it was “fantastic” to see so many instrumentalists play with such passion and fervour for the music.