Wild Nights Out...... May

Isle of Wight Symphony Orchestra
This was, as ever, a glorious concert. The first piece was 'Danzon No. 2' by Marquez; this was lively and really set the bar for the rest of the evening. The next two pieces were written for recorder, and featured the extremely talented Miriam Nerval. Her first piece was a Recorder Concerto by David Bedford, and used every type of recorder, with orchestral accompaniment. The concerto began with bass recorder and gradually worked up through tenor, treble, descent and sopranino. I enjoyed the latter stages more than the start as the deeper recorders were harder to hear, however Miriam played extremely well, and at times was playing two recorders at once! Skills. The final recorder piece was Vivaldi's 'Recorder Concerto in G Major'. This was glorious. I have never seen anyone's fingers move so fast - the skills and techniques needed were extremely demanding, and Miriam did a superb job.

 

After the interval, the orchestra performed 'Symphony No. 10 in E Minor, Op. 93' by Shostakovich. I wasn't so keen on this; it was played well, but went on for a long time and I got rather bored in the first part. The piece did improve on me later on and I was really enjoying it by the end. Another superb evening by IOW Symphony.

Medina College Hair show

Every year, the Hair and Beauty students of Medina College put on a show. I went for the first time this year and was really impressed by the skills of the students involved - I struggle to do even the basics with my hair, even now, and these students had made some really complex creations. The evening was also a fundraiser, and raised £1000 for 'Kissy Puppy', a local children's charity. Very well done to all involved.