Royal Scottish Academy Brass with Steven Mead

Royal Scottish Academy Brass
Steven Mead (euphonium)
RSAMD
Friday 30th April 2004

There may be those who were present at the European Championships whose only encounter with the students of the Royal Scottish Academy took the form of the somewhat lacklustre and rather bizarre fanfares performed during the awards ceremony.  They were not seen at their best in that setting, for whatever reason, unlike the previous day, when they shared a lunchtime concert with euphonium virtuoso Steven Mead.

Led by their Director, Bryan Allen, they opened with "Fanfare Stadt Wien", written by Richard Strauss in 1942.  After a couple of splits in the first few bars the young players seemed to grow in confidence, and the antiphonal effects came across well.  The one minor distraction came from one of the two tuba players - apparently reading off a copy of the score, each page was discarded on completion, sometimes when only a few bars of music had been played, forming a not-too-tidy pile on the floor!

The next item, James MacMillan's "Exsultet" took the audience into the area of music theatre: the lights dimmed in the auditorium leaving the tuba player on his own at the back of the stage.  Beginning eerily with the deepest and quietest of subterranean pedal notes, the opening was almost imperceptible.  It seemed an age before his calls were answered, firstly by a tentative trombone to the right, and then by the haunting sounds of the French horn, standing to the left.  As the music rose in intensity the two trumpets joined in, one standing each side behind the audience, until the lights were on and a consonant chord was heard, almost for the first time.  There followed a series of chords, alternating loud and quiet, high and low, until the music subsided to once more leave the tuba on his own, again in darkness, and back in his very lowest register.  A very unusual item, but extremely effective, and demanding some fine work from all the players, especially the tuba - no name, I'm afraid.

Thomas Doss is one of Austria's leading composers, and he wrote "Sir Eu" for Steven Mead to play with the group "Sound IN(N) Brass AUSTRIA".  A fine display vehicle, with an accompaniment that is far from straightforward, it allowed Steven Mead to perform with his customary flair, with fluid runs and arpeggios, and his clear, pure tone soaring over the ensemble.  There were also plenty of trademark chords and other effects, but all put to good use in the service of the music itself.

The students continued with music by Jim Parker, noted for his work in various spheres, including his collaborations with Sir John Betjamin, the "Captain Beaky" records, and more recently the "Ground Force" music in conjunction with Black Dyke.  "A Londoner in New York" was written for the Philip Jones Brass Ensemble, with movements entitled "Echoes of Harlem", "The Chrysler Building", "Grand Central Station" and "Radio City".  Full of humour and light-hearted references, whilst still calling for considerable expertise from the players, the train effects in the third movement worked particularly well.  The students seemed ready to let their hair down - and their trousers, in one case! - and there was some nifty footwork in evidence as well.  The percussionist also made a fine contribution, with a kit including an appropriately tinny sounding splash cymbal and a rope tension bass drum.

Roger Harvey made an arrangement of "Jeannie with the Light Brown Hair" to play on trombone with London Brass, but it works beautifully on euphonium, at least in the hands of such a sensitive player as Steven Mead, calling for delicacy and refinement as the melody rises first to "D" and then to a final top "F".  The three trombonists who provided the accompaniment for the opening received their own well-deserved round of applause at the end.

The final item was "Zeibekikos", the Greek dance from the Wilby concerto for euphonium.  Dispatched again with apparent ease, there was more first class support from the eleven brass and three percussion on stage, who were all kept very busy with the intricacies of the accompaniment.  When two of the percussionists combined theatrically to smash the plates at the end, the audience left both soloist and ensemble in no doubt as to their appreciation of the efforts they had made.

Bryan Allen had spoken during the concert of his pride in the students, three of who had recently won awards in nationwide competition; in addition, Andrew King had received 2nd Prize in the European Solo Competition the previous evening.  With a trip to China in the offing, the future of brass playing north of the border appears to be in good hands - and Steven Mead can play a bit as well, to fly the flag for England!

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