Ensemble a la Mode gave a fine debut concert in the beautiful setting of St Clement Danes Church on the Strand. 

The group was led by trombonist SAC Jonathan Pippen, who explained wittily that it is quite unusual for such a task to be entrusted to someone of such a lowly rank!  

The ensemble has been established to promote new music for brass and it was good to see the powers that be supporting such an enterprise.

Welsh landscape

They opened with Adrian Clifford’s ‘O Pastor Animarum’, which is not a specifically religious work, but was inspired by a South Wales landscape featuring an old abbey - hence the plainchant references. 

The start exhibited an austere beauty, with open sounds and sustained notes producing an organum effect, with tinkling bells.  

The tranquillity was broken by a more energetic interlude, complete with driving side drum and fast unison figures. 

As the percussion died down it gave way to a horn solo with a muted backing.  Another vigorous passage over rolling cymbal and tam-tam featured the added sheen of Cpl Ben Godfrey’s piccolo trumpet before the music portrayed the calm of the evening sunset.

Stunning trombone feature

Jonathan took up the solo spot for the second item, Peter Meechan’s ‘Storm’ for trombone and brass quintet. 

Stemming from a conversation concerning the difficulties in moving from slow to fast tonguing, the composer has produced a very challenging work focussing on that aspect of playing. 

It began peacefully, with slow-moving, sustained chords backing a legato melody which gradually became more complex.  

The storm broke in a real tour de force for the soloist, with lightning-fast scales and arpeggios, often mirrored by the accompaniment.  The whole range of the instrument was featured, with some particularly fruity sounds in the bottom register. 

By the end the audience seemed as satisfyingly exhausted as the soloist was by his exertions.

Prokofiev favourite

There was one transcription in their programme which linked with the final item. 

Lieutenant Kije was a character supposedly invented to satisfy the demands of the Russian military authorities, and Prokofiev’s music is full of his own characteristic touches. 

The ‘Romance’ showed off the many tone colours of the ensemble very well, with Sgt Andy Keegan’s euphonium featuring prominently.  

Euphonium and tuba pedal notes made quite a contrast with the piccolo trumpet melody at one point.

Inspired fantasy

Bill Connor may have had Lt Kije in mind when composing ‘The Worm Heads South’. 

It is a coastal feature in South Wales from which Jonathan Pippen’s former group Worms Head Brass took its name, and presents a fantasist setting out for a warmer climate, allowing the composer’s imagination full range. 

After a full-blooded opening, with meaty chords and ostinato figures from the trumpets, a tongue-in-cheek march took over, very much in the style of Prokofiev or Shostakovich, with trombone glissandi and exaggerated vibrato on the euphonium. 

Thundering timpani interrupted the flow before a moment of concord, leading to calmer interludes alternating with quite frenetic passages.  

The ending when it came was quite enigmatic, leaving things somewhat in the air.

The concert was well received by an enthusiastic audience, and one looks forward to further offerings from these talented musicians. 

Peter Bale