Uploaded December 2023 | Updated September 2026, 4 days ago
In 2023 Guildhall School celebrated 10 years of Milton Court, our beautiful performance and learning space. To celebrate the anniversary, the School hosted a joyful concert in Milton Court Concert Hall, featuring the Guildhall Chamber Orchestra, under the baton of Joshua Weilerstein. We hope you enjoy this performance from the concert.
Vaughan Williams’ Serenade to Music is a setting of words from the final act of The Merchant of Venice, which is effectively a hymn to music; an invitation to let its sound ‘creep into our ears’. The orchestra is complemented by 16 vocal parts. For practical reasons the vocal parts can be performed with choir alone, or with choir plus four soloists, but in this concert it was performed as originally intended, with 16 solo voices.
Adding a solo violin to the texture (performed here by Kryštof Kohout) Vaughan Williams wrote blissful, moonlit music of wonder and rapture, all couched in a sweep that is cinematic. The music critic and writer Robin Hull recalled that ‘During the first rehearsals, the singers were so moved that their lips seemed unable to articulate’, and the story goes that Rachmaninov – present at the premiere to play his Second Piano Concerto – was overcome with emotion on hearing the work.
Voices:
Hector Bloggs
Karima El Demerdasch
Jacob Dyksterhouse
Samantha Hargreaves
Harry Jacques
Dominic Lee
Tom McGowan
Hannah McKay
Gabriella Noble
Manon Ogwen Parry
Lowri Probert
Tobias Campos Santiñaque
Lydia Shariff
Sang Eup Son
Zheng Tu
Abbie Ward
In 2023 Guildhall School celebrated 10 years of Milton Court, our beautiful performance and learning space. To celebrate the anniversary, the School hosted a joyful concert in Milton Court Concert Hall, featuring the Guildhall Chamber Orchestra, under the baton of Joshua Weilerstein. We hope you enjoy this performance from the concert.
Vaughan Williams’ Serenade to Music is a setting of words from the final act of The Merchant of Venice, which is effectively a hymn to music; an invitation to let its sound ‘creep into our ears’. The orchestra is complemented by 16 vocal parts. For practical reasons the vocal parts can be performed with choir alone, or with choir plus four soloists, but in this concert it was performed as originally intended, with 16 solo voices.
Adding a solo violin to the texture (performed here by Kryštof Kohout) Vaughan Williams wrote blissful, moonlit music of wonder and rapture, all couched in a sweep that is cinematic. The music critic and writer Robin Hull recalled that ‘During the first rehearsals, the singers were so moved that their lips seemed unable to articulate’, and the story goes that Rachmaninov – present at the premiere to play his Second Piano Concerto – was overcome with emotion on hearing the work.
Voices:
Hector Bloggs
Karima El Demerdasch
Jacob Dyksterhouse
Samantha Hargreaves
Harry Jacques
Dominic Lee
Tom McGowan
Hannah McKay
Gabriella Noble
Manon Ogwen Parry
Lowri Probert
Tobias Campos Santiñaque
Lydia Shariff
Sang Eup Son
Zheng Tu
Abbie Ward
