Celtic Brass – St Kilda Brass Band

St Kilda Brass (NZ) took to the stage once again on Saturday 20th May to showcase an evening of Celtic Music.

St Kilda Brass, conducted by Steve Miles

The venue – the brand new Performing Arts Auditorium at Kings High School was an excellent choice for such an occasion, easily accessible and looking great!

The band took to the stage in their usual orderly fashion before the entrance of Musical Director Steve Miles who without any hesitation started straight into Phillip Sparke's Hymn of the Highlands.  The piece started with both Solo Horn and Solo Baritone behind the audience which made for a great atmosphere before the main theme Highland Cathedral was introduced by the Flugel Horn.  Some lovely sounds were created in this first movement entitled ‘Ardross Castle' and the acoustics of the hall were perfect for the sound of a brass band.

Horns - St Kilda Brass

Quite unusual to have an entire half of a concert taken up by one piece of music (Hymn of the Highlands is a suite of seven movements) but the conductor took time between each movement to introduce soloists, the first of the evening being Barry Gordon on Euphonium.  Summer Isles is a beautiful original melody full of atmosphere and Barry displayed a lovely Euphonium sound throughout the movement. 

Gary Valentine was the next soloist to be featured on Soprano Cornet.  Written for the ‘God' of the Soprano Peter Roberts, Flowerdale is an extremely demanding number on the soloist which calls for a great deal of power and stamina.  I'm sure Gary Valentine was glad that this piece was so early in the concert!

Next came the rousing Strathcarron a Scottish Sword Dance.  This was extremely exciting and showed off the wonderful technical skills of the band.  There were one or two moments where some of the running passages got a little messy for my taste but the overall effect was very exciting.  Another solo item followed and this time it was the turn of Principal Cornet player John Lewis.  John was given a huge welcome by the Dunedin crowd which seems to get bigger and bigger at every concert.  Full of tender playing and beautiful warm sounds, Lairg Muir was just stunning and showed why John is regarded as one of the best cornet players in Australasia. 

Cornets - St Kilda Brass

From a solo to a Trio – Alladale featured Horn, Baritone and Flugel.  A ‘cheeky' little number that instantly put a smile on my face.  I'm not sure whether the conversation between the Solo Horn and Soprano players was intentional? But the playing nevertheless was very pleasant.  The last movement of the piece Dundonnell was again very exciting and the sounds that the band created were fantastic.  My only criticism is that for us oldies in the audience the volume did at times get a little loud!  This may have been due to the fact that there were no curtains on the stage but still…

The second half started with the introduction of one of the evenings guest artists, ‘The Champions of Otago Pipe Band.'  The band was very orderly in their entrance though were not all in the same Tartan.  Was this a mixture of different Pipe bands?  Anyway the ten minutes or so that followed were very enjoyable with famous Pipe tunes galore.  The highlight of the set for me had to be Amazing Grace.  Though the playing was top notch, there was a definite in-balance between the Pipes and the Snare Drum that was in the Centre of the Stage.  Was there a Microphone left on I wonder?

St Kilda Brass continued the concert with Peter Graham's Cry of the Celts, an arrangement of Ronan Hardimans' Lord of the Dance.  The opening movement was again very loud, aptly entitled ‘Knightmare.'  There were a few moments of hesitancy in the band from time to time but this was soon covered by some very big sounds!  The second movement ‘Suil a Ruin' featured Matt Taine's Tenor Horn playing.  Matt was featured in St Kilda's last concert with Simone Rebello and I must say he sounded like a different player.  Not that I was unimpressed in the previous concert, in fact quite the opposite, but this was great stuff…well done!

A curious introduction of the bands next soloist welcomed Flugel Horn player Marty Kibble to play Breakout.  Some very nice lyrical playing here from the soloist before the bands second guest artist appeared.  Gina Todd, from a well known Tap Dancing family in New Zealand, thrilled the audience with lightning feet and well choreographed movement.

The next movement introduced both the bands Euphonium players Barry Gordon and Gary McIndoe to play Lament.  Though I don't agree with Steve Miles spin on the ‘Da Vinci Code' (God being Welsh and the Holy Grail being a Euphonium!) the Euphonium is a very pleasant sounding instrument and easy to listen to when played well.

The last movement of the piece ‘Victory,' very nearly brought the house down and once again featured the Tap dancing talents of Gina Todd (who incidentally I see from the programme is engaged to conductor Steve Miles).  Real thrilling stuff with high kicks and spins galore – the reaction from the audience said it all and the last number was repeated again as a truly fitting encore.

Though very entertaining this concert was a little short and the audience was making their way out of the hall at about 9.25.  However, this was once again a very enjoyable evening with a very different flavour.

Sean McDonald
(Dunedin)

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