Special Moments

There is no Austrian anomaly anymore. Just exceptional playing from an exceptional brass band.

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Brass Band Oberosterreich
Conductor: Hannes Buchegger
Soloists: Hans Gansch, Lito Fontana
Vocalist: Regina Mallinger
Studio Weinberg Recordings: CD
Total Playing Time: 68 mins approx

When Brass Band Oberosterreich first burst spectacularly into the top tier of banding consciousness at the European Championships in Birmingham in 2007, they were viewed as something of an enjoyable, yet brilliant, anomaly.

Packed with individual performers of the highest orchestral pedigree, the Austrians played to a different set of brass band rules.

Conservative traditionalists didn’t know really what to make of them.

Now they do.

Gifts

Being the musicians they are, they have learnt quickly to add yet another aspect of brass playing to their formidable repertoire of performing gifts. No longer a diverting brass ensemble, they are now masters of the brass band craft – and this CD proves it in spades.

The brilliance of technique, balance and precision of execution remains as lustrous as ever, but it has been moulded into a more compact, mellower ensemble timbre.

The centre of the band now balances the outer shield of cornet/trombone power, and whilst the tuba section remains as potent as ever, the overall tonal structure has a deeper, softer, less defined edge.

Even hardened Euro sceptic Daily Mail readers would now enjoy the sound they hear from these foreign counterparts.

Startling

Much of what we hear on this release echoes the startling performances they produced at the European Championships in Linz earlier this year – especially their stunning contribution to the Gala Concert.

There they indulged themselves to the full – and the audience went ballistic. The recorded reprise is equally impressive; from the opening sternum shifting Strauss ‘Fanfare’ and majestic excerpt from the ‘Karelia Suite’, to the diverting pleasure of vocalist Regina Mallinger and the bafflingly cheesy, ‘Last Call’, which could well be the Austrian’s brass band entry to the 2011 Eurovision Song Contest.

All that and you can also sit back and enjoy the fun and games of ‘Latin for Brass’ – which takes you on a tequila soaked night out in downtown Rio de Janeiro accompanied by what sounds authentically like a mix and match busload of the local mariachi band and Herb Alpert’s Tijuana Brass.
 
High class

In between there are thoroughly high class renditions of demanding set works in Jan Van der Roost’s ‘From Ancient Times’ and Hermann Pallhuber’s ‘Spirits of Puccini’.

Both are delivered with authentic bravura, coupled with a truly artistic appreciation of style; from the baroque influences of Van der Roost’s pulsating work, through to the glorious, almost OTT magnificence of Pallhuber’s Puccini homage – both played with such panache as to send a shiver down even the most jaded traditionalist’s spine.

Breath

However, it is the piccolo trumpet playing from Hans Gansch that takes the breath away.

His performance at the Gala Concert brought a standing ovation that lasted almost as long as the Marcello concerto itself, so don’t be surprised if you find yourself jumping to your feet in the comfort of your front room when you hear this too.

Neatly recorded, we could have done with a bit more information in the sleeve notes to make this into a very special CD indeed. In the event though it doesn’t fall short of being exceptional.

There is no anomaly in that.

Iwan Fox

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