51. Guildhall School, Milton Court 10th Anniversary Celebration, 25 October 2023

 

City of London and Livery Masters were invited to celebrate the anniversary of the opening of Guildhall School’s transformed training facilities, including state of the art concert hall, theatre and studio theatre, in addition to associated rehearsal, administrative and teaching spaces.

A jazz reception provided an opportunity to catch up with everyone on music issues, including the value of music teaching in schools and colleges.   We were then ushered into the concert hall where the programme started with the world premier of Stannum by Hollie Harding.  It was a celebration of metal bashing, loud and soft.  This was followed by Mendelsohn’s Overture from a Midsummer Night’s Dream.   In addition to the feather-light strings evoking fairies, we heard the hee-haw braying of the donkey and the enchanted wood.  There was a novel presentation of Vaughan Williams’ Serenade to Music with 16 individual solo parts as was originally intended, rather than the normal use of a choir and four soloists.  This gave the piece a greater variety as well as the challenge of identifying which soloist was performing.

After Gershwin’s Walking the Dog and excerpts from Bernstein’s On the Town we were treated to the melancholy and folk tradition in Florence Price’s Andante moderato.  The highlight for me was Four Dances from Estancia by Ginastera.  I loved the mix of traditional dance rhythm with flowing harmony evoking pastoral scenes.  The final dance was a tidal wave of percussion with a resurging rush from every instrument available.  It was eardrum- and mind-blowing.  As we returned to the anniversary party it took a while for my brain and head to recover.

There were various stage props scattered about and they provided useful talking points for meeting students, past students, stall and Livery.  I had an interesting discussion with the Master Haberdasher on the issues of flooding for their Monmouth Schools as well as the funding challenges to Masters from the financial sector.  It was fascinating to talk to the Master Clockmaker on the thriving clock manufacturing sector in the UK.  We still always want to know what the time is and quality clocks are valuable gifts especially to say thank you.  This turned to a debate on what you give a Lord Mayor who does not want dust collectors.

Time flew on a most enjoyable evening.