Trinity College of Music Brass Band

Conductor: Stephen Maw
Regent Hall
Friday 19th October

The customary (free) lunchtime concert given as part of the Brass Arts Festival at Regent Hall was once more in the hands of Stephen Maw and his students from Trinity College of Music.  The brass band is now a well established part of college life, taking its place as one of a number of ensembles in the College timetable.  

Brass band instruments, however, are not offered as first study, the band using French horns rather than tenor horns, and with euphoniums covering the baritone parts. 

They opened their programme with Eric Banks’ arrangement of Richard Strauss’s “Fest Musik der Stadt Wien”, with Stephen explaining that, whilst it is not the full version of the work, the original dedicatees did often perform the fanfare on its own.  It proved a good choice, on the whole suiting the instrumentation, and the contrasting rhythmic patterns came across clearly, although the Eb trumpet seemed a little too prominent, which was to be even more of a problem as the band’s programme progressed.

New Zealander Dean Goffin’s “My strength, my tower”, first performed by the International Staff Band in 1962, continues to offer considerable challenges to a band, not only in the notes but also in matters of style.  On this occasion, the band fared better in the louder passages than in the quiet ones, where there was some loss of fluidity and warmth, whilst the tricky cornet cadenza presented a few problems.  

The trombone section, however, produced some excellent work, as did the French horns, although the presence of French horns rather than tenor horns in the passacaglia produced a very different effect to that normally heard.  Some of the playing in the more aggressive sections seemed rather harsh, and it was a little too heavy at times.

Goedicke’s “Concert Etude” was played on trumpet by Oliver Carey, in an arrangement by William Broughton.  He demonstrated his prowess with a clean and crisp reading of the solo line, and on the whole his sound came across well, although the band was a little loud in some of the tutti passages. His broad sound in the central section seemed to emphasise the composer’s Russian heritage even more than usual, whilst the throwaway ending was neatly accomplished.

The march “Silver Star” was included to mark Ray Steadman-Allen’s 85th birthday, with Stephen taking the opportunity to speak of the involvement of brass bands, both within the Salvation Army and outside, within their own local communities.  The band produced some of the best playing of the afternoon, with a delicate opening, solid playing from the bottom of the band and quiet control in the trio.  

The melody featured, “Yellow star and red and blue”, was played in a more legato style than is customary, and this was continued quite effectively into the final section.

Ray also had a hand in their next item, as the arranger of Stephen Foster’s “Beautiful dreamer” (published by the Salvation Army as “My story and song” in recognition of the words associated with the melody).  The trombone soloist was Peter Crocker, who led the trombone section very positively throughout the programme.  The smooth solo line and confident playing was matched by some excellent accompanying from the band.

This was followed by “Shenandoah”, as arranged by Len Ballantine.  Here the ensemble was a little untidy, particularly at the start, and the Eb trumpet was again over-prominent, although the French horn sound suited the long sustained melody, and the ending was effective.

The band closed their programme with another contribution from the 1960’s, Eric Ball’s “Song of Courage”, Stephen explaining how important it was that players become familiar with the musical heritage of brass band writing.  The band’s reading was certainly full-blooded, and they built up the intensity (and volume) at the climaxes, but there were definite problems in balance, with some conflict between the horns and flugel, and the baritone/euphonium quartet not really working.  

There was some fine solo playing however, several of the lines being farmed out to secondary players, and the duets between cornet and trombone were nicely together, whilst Peter Crocker coped well with the high-lying trombone solo.  The final statement of “Stand like the brave” brought with it a sense of triumph and victory, but it was all a little fraught.

As an encore, the band played Barry Gott’s “Lightwalk”, adjusting well to the style and with a fine rendition of the flugel solo, although there was confusion when it came to the drum break, with it appearing that some of the band came back in two beats early, although they soon recovered.    It is good that the students at Trinity have the opportunity to explore brass band repertoire, and there was undoubtedly some fine playing during their programme, with the trombone section being particularly impressive.  

On this occasion, however, the choice of items did present some problems in the light of their hybrid instrumentation, and the Eb trumpet simply failed to blend in, giving its solo lines undue prominence, despite the efforts of a very accomplished player.

Peter Bale

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