Euph4ria in Concert

St Martin-in-the-Fields, London
Friday 22nd April 2005

St Martin-in-the-Fields is one of a number of venues in London offering free lunch-time concerts for the benefit of commuters, tourists and residents alike.  Founded in 1726, both Handel and Mozart are known to have played there, and since the 1950's it has been the home of the Academy of St Martin-in-the-Fields.  A wide range of music can be experienced, including a popular series of candlelit concerts featuring the musicians in period dress, even if voices, strings and keyboards tend to predominate.

On Friday 22nd April, however, the church echoed to the sounds of low brass in the form of the all-female tuba quartet Euph4ria.  Formed at the Royal Northern College of Music in 2000 and comprising Susan Edwards, Louise Manchester, Lauren Petritz-Watts and Gemma Twomlow, they have met wit considerable success both in this country and abroad, including an appearance at the Tuba Conference in Hungary last year.

They opened their programme with Rimsky-Korsakov's "Procession of the Nobles" (arr M Forbes).  Following the unison opening, they seemed to take a little while adjusting to the acoustic, with the repeated semi quavers lacking in clarity, but they soon got into their stride, and it was clear that the somewhat unfamiliar sounds found favour with the 150 or so people in the audience.

Much of the music of the Gabrielis was written with a church acoustic in mind, and the "Canzona, La Spiritata" (arr P Rauch) was given space to breathe, the contrapuntal lines sounding out clearly with some very delicate playing from all four performers.

J Stevens' "Benediction" , the first original piece for tubas on the programme, commenced with solo tuba, with the other parts gradually joining in, and topped by a high-lying euphonium part.  It called for sustained, homogenous sound, harmonically straightforward but with effective suspensions and the occasional chromatic inflection.

Introducing Karl Jenkins' "Paladio" (arr G Robertson), it was pointed out that it is one of those pieces many will recognise, without being aware of the title.  With ostinato figures from the euphoniums set against a steady tread from the tubas, there were well-controlled surges of sound as the music grew in volume and intensity, and the semi-quaver runs which appeared in all the parts were handled well.

S Pleshak's "Searching for the Truth" was the winning composition in a competition held at one of the Russian conservatories.  Based on Russian folk tunes, it had formed part of Euph4ria's recital which earned them the prestigious Professional Performance Diploma. Opening with high euphonium, answered by tuba, note clusters followed, with strident, declamatory phrases from both euphonium and tuba, being met with a whispered response from the other players.  As the tempo increased, the music became more insistent as if to illustrate the search of the title.  A serene euphonium melody, first played as a solo and then accompanied in thirds, preceded a more light-hearted section, before a final question was met with a brief, positive coda.  Definitely a challenging work, and one which would probably reveal more with repeated readings.

"Consequences" , by Michael Forbes, reminded some of the tuba's brass band heritage, whilst others were more conscious of the jazzy aspects of the writing.  Opening with a flourish from all four players, rhythmic patterns were laid down, often highly syncopated, over which melodies were imposed by each instrument in turn.  A bluesy middle section then offered some welcome relief from the frenzied activity.  The group's uniformity of approach and confidence in handling the irregular rhythms and occasional shot notes, all negotiated cleanly, made this possibly the most impressive playing in the concert.

The penultimate item was the 2nd movement from "Sonatina for Tuba Quartet" by J Reeman, which brought forth more fine, sustained, lyrical playing.  There was a real sense of tranquillity, particularly inn those passages where the notes cascaded gently downwards through the parts.

"Fantasy" by R Martino opened somewhat frenetically, with octave and unison phrases nicely placed and some excellent double-tonguing.  With moments of calm amidst the driving rhythms and assertive figures, it made for a positive and uplifting finale.

The curate introducing the concert had pointed out that people were welcome to donate according to what they could afford, or according to how much they had enjoyed the playing.  Judging from the response as the audience left, either there were some very wealthy people there or else their music-making had really gone down well. 

Unfortunately there was no time for an encore as the church was needed in preparation for another concert, whilst Euph4ria themselves had two further concerts to prepare for, one of which they were sharing with a male voice choir!  Whilst it would have been good to have had at least one more substantial work, the recital seemed to match the mood of the diverse audience, and it was definitely an hour well spent, the group communicating well both in terms of their playing and the introductions, shared amongst all four players.

Peter Bale

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