Concerts

Regular Elk's Street followers will know that the little boys have music as one of their hobbies. Recently, there have been a couple of concerts.

For those of you who don't believe that Thomas really does play French horn, below a video as evidence.





Thomas was playing a Russian folk song (Korobeiniki) about an itinerant trader and was accompanied by Henry.

There were a couple of wobbly bits in the middle but for a first major performance Thomas did well. The boys are very different - Henry plays horribly at home but generally pulls off a good performance when under pressure; Thomas, on the other hand, plays much better at home than in public. Apologies for the lousy video quality, your correspondent is not the world's best cameraman, and the position of my seat meant the piano rather overshadowed the horn.

If you want to hear a more professional version of the song, click here for the song in Finnish, and here for the song in Russian. And the styles are very different!

For the little boys the next performance was at a concert on Fathers' Day in aid of diabetes research. The choir of the primary school's music classes, grades three to five, sang a few songs and some of the children in Henry's class had instrumental solos.

Below, a few photos.

The choir with Henry's teacher at the front. (Thomas in the front row on the far left.)


Henry standing tall in the back row.


Thomas in the front row.


Thomas one more time.

Thomas is really not keen on being in the limelight - and then they put him in the front row, poor chap!

(Close-up photos courtesy of Tuomo)

Music class concert

Yesterday Henry took part in his first more serious concert with the music class. The event was held in the Concert Hall of the Lappeenranta Town Hall and was the now traditional concert with the Dragoon Guards Brass Band. The soldier boys played wearing their normal army uniforms, but to see what they look like when wearing their dress uniforms click here.

The themeof the concert was "The Animals' Excursion," so all the songs were about animals. The hostess for the evening was Sanna Kemppainen from the local theatre, Lappeenrannan kaupunginteatteri.

The songs that Thomas, who was in the audience, enjoyed most were:

• Inke tinki minki
• Teddykarhujen huviretki (known in English as 'The Teddy Bears' Picnic')
• Karhunelämä (known in English as 'Bare Necessities' from the film The Jungle Book)
• Neljä kissanpoikaa (a nice song composed by Georg Malmsten)

Below a couple of photos.

The concert programme

The choir waiting patiently for the concert to start

The choir, grade 3 to grade 6 children, is colour-coded with the pale colours being the younger members. As with the post "The final countdown - Part 1," points are awarded for spotting Henry.

The song "Neljä kissanpoikaa" is about 4 kittens who don't follow their mother's advice. They go onto the ice, which in autumn and spring can be very treacherous. Luckily, they are all saved by the dog, Halli. The moral - do what your mother tells you!