Brass Spectacular

The Royal Scottish Academy of Music & Drama
Artistic Directors Bryan Allen & Nigel Boddice
Sunday 24th April

Featuring:
Bones Apart; Oystein Baadsvik; Fine Arts Brass; Intercollegiate Ensemble; John Kenny; Johnstone Band; Mark O'Keefe; National Association of Brass Band Conductors (Scotland) Competition; RSAMD ‘All Star Brass'; RSAMD Big Band; Royal Scottish Academy Brass; Scottish Co-op Band; Scottish Consort of Trumpets; The Rylo Ensemble; Derek Watkins; West Lothian Schools; Yamaha Brass Quintent Competition.

Glasgow on Sunday 24th April was the place for the RSAMD's ‘Brass Spectacular' – a full day of everything connected with the brass instrument.  Concerts, masterclasses, recitals and competitions were on offer throughout the day, but strangely, it failed to catch the imagination of the public as the whole event had a very quiet, subdued feel about it.

Those present though, thoroughly enjoyed themselves, but it is a long time since this correspondent was at an event that just didn't have that real buzz about it.

The organisers had made it accessible for everybody with no charge being made on the day for any of the events, the only pre-requisite being you acquired a ticket to enter the concert hall for the opening and gala concert due to safety on numbers.  (which in the end was a little over safety conscious to say the least)

With no costs involved, those who might have come along probably took advantage of the beautiful weather or considered Rangers v Celtic to be of far more importance.  After all, it wasn't as though they'd paid in advance so the individuals weren't losing out were they?

Numbers though wasn't the issue hear as sadly when the opening concert took place at 1pm the auditorium was less than half full and those speaking would have benefited from the use of a microphone.

A decent concert it was though with the ‘All Star Brass' getting things going with music by Paul Patterson entitled ‘Royal Eurostar'.  With players dotted around the hall and an organist, this was certainly music for the connoisseur.

Oystein Baadsvik needs no introduction and was the 4BR star of the day.  The tuba virtuoso performed the first of his numerous performances during the day leaving the audience in complete disbelief and amazement at his ability and technique.

Bones Apart followed them on stage for a quick spot, and later we particularly liked member of staff at the Acadamy, John Kenny, making the trombone sound like a motor bike.  The popular Fine Arts Brass also did a ‘mini-spot' – tasters really for the rest of the day, and the other two contributions were a performance of the popular ‘West Side Story' conducted by Bryan Allen that seemed to fade away strangely towards the end and the ‘Sorcerer's Apprentice'.

From here, it was a case of split yourself into four, as four halls were in use for different events.

The Opera Studio staged the ‘Yamaha Brass Quintet Competition' featuring seven quintets from around the country with a judging panel that included, Andrew Duncan.  Andrew and his colleagues declared the Royal College of Music in London to be the winners as they had performed the best ‘as a unit'.

Of interest to many though was the innovative Conducting Competition held in the Groves Studio.  Ten would-be conductors were whittled down to just four by a judging panel chaired by Richard Evans that included Paul Cosh and Raymond Tennant.

The idea was to find four finalists for later in the day and for the judges to assess the conducting techniques of the entrants.  All ten had no preparation with the Johnstone Band whatsoever; it was just walk in and conduct a piece of music by Peter Graham.

Mark Bell, David Hamilton, John Ward and Bede Williams were the chosen finalists.  Richard Evans just gave everybody advice at the end whilst commenting on the standard the judges had witnessed.

The final was the same philosophy as the preliminaries, no preparation at all, as they conducted the Scottish Co-op Band in Sparke's 'Barn Dance & Cowboy Hymn' and the piece they'd played earlier by Peter Graham.

The winner was David Hamilton, a seventeen year old who plays with Annan Town (APD) Band in Scotland.  David was the one person out of the four who forgot about the score and conducted the band. Without question this competition worked well, as in the past Alan Duiguid has been the winner of a similar competition and has gone on to greater things.

Oystein Baadsvik was one of many performers who gave recitals and in front of many tubists, just left them wondering how on earth he does it.

The Gala Concert featured many of the day's participants in action once again with the inclusion of West Lothian Schools who are the newly-crowned National Youth Champions of Great Britain. With Nigel Boddice involved in the event as Artistic Director, it was perfectly understandable to see West Lothian involved here, but it was a bit disappointing that Scottish Co-op were not used more than they were.

Compered by Richard the Gala Concert commenced with a performance of Fanfare for Glasgow' by John Wallace, before West Lothian performed ‘Amazonia' from 'Windows of the World'.

Oystein Baadsvik, did what he'd done previously and amazed people with another virtuoso display, whilst Angela Whelan also played music from 'Windows of the World' with her lovely flugel voice depicting ‘The Rising Sun'.

David Hamilton got the chance to conduct the band he plays with, West Lothian in ‘Victory' from 'Cry of the Celts' and we had some fabulous playing in ‘Celtic Dream' from Simon Lenton on piccolo trumpet and Richard Kidd on euphonium.

Fine Arts Brass then took to the stage displaying why they are such a class act finishing off with the popular 'Carnival of Venice'.

The final part of the first half (that was too long to be honest) featured Arlene MacFarlane on trombone and Ryan Quigley (trumpet) playing ‘In the Wee Small Hours', ‘Earth Walk' and ‘Alone with My Thoughts'.

With the first half over-running, Rylo Ensemble concluded the day's events with a shortened set, but not everybody came back in.  With free tickets those involved with West Lothian thought about school and work the next morning.

The Gala Concert certainly could have been structured better to give it more of a balance. 

This event was worth while but the attendance figures appeared to be disappointing though which was a shame for the organisers.  Hopefully this is an event that will happen again.  Bryan Allen and Nigel Boddice though need Scottish folk to get behind it though.

It does ask the question though that if people won't attend something that is free, what do you do? Perhaps brass aficionados are becoming very choosy in what they attend.

Malcolm Wood

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