At least half the family there, fellow members of Corsham Wind Band, which started the musical journey, and quite a few players from an orchestra in which she once played – what a local birth in battle for young French horn aspirant, Lauren Reeve-Rawlings.
And, obviously nervous at the start, she came through with flying colours: Both as a player and a communicator.
A varied programme, from Cherubini and Mozart, through an elegant Saint-Saens Romance to contemporary Jeffrey Agrell, enabled her to showcase the instrument as well as her own musicality and dexterity and also, somewhat charmingly, to tell the audience a little about an instrument with which she obviously has a love affair.
The first movement of Mozart’s Horn Concerto No 3 in E flat, written for the legendary French player, Joseph Leutgeb, was vintage horn. She played it with aplomb and maturity, phrasing it well. Accompanist Davies paced it with typical Mozartian glee and panache. His playing was always sympathetic and highly supportive of the soloist.
It contrasted strikingly with Agrell’s Romp for Solo Horn, a demanding exposition of new techniques and different sounds from the instrument.
Her career is certainly one to watch.
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