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The Sydney Brass

To: brass-band@xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx
Subject: The Sydney Brass
From: Philip Anderton <p.anderton@xxxxxxxxxxx>
Date: Wed, 31 Jan 1996 17:13:35 +1100
Reply-to: brass-band@xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx


Hi,
  Last Sunday the Sydney Brass (a composite Brass Band drawn from the Sydney
bands) gave a concert in the Eugene Goosens Hall in the Australian
Broadcasting Commission building in Sydney. I couldn't make the performance
(had to go to a Sydney Symphony Orchestra performance in the opera house,
spouses orders), but a critic gave the following review:

"BRASS TURNS ON A POLISHED ACT
Most of the music played by the 35 musicians of Sydney Brass at an ABC
recital on Sunday came from that singularly insular phenomenon, the British
brass band competition. The band repertoire depends on its test pieces, for
there is not much else of great moment. The burden of a difficult program -
competently played, though subject to a few of those technical slips which
stand out in a brass band like sore thumbs - was eased by the clear-cut
conducting of David Stanhope, who also appeared as composer with the
lightning thrusts of a Fanfare for Nine Trumpets and folksong variations
called A Leadsman, A Lady and A Lord. The best music was the Moorside Suite
by Holst and the ugliest was Howarth's ungainly Songs For BL. Dour was the
symphonic prelude Prometheus Unbound (1933) by Granville Bantock, written as
a brass band test piece but used three years later as the introduction to a
large work for choir and orchestra based on Shelley's poem. There was also a
Fantasy by Philip Sparke (1978), folksong-based, in which the euphonium
soloist, Mark Howcroft, guided a corpulent instrument skilfully through the
hoops. An hour of brass band music goes a long way. After an hour of it, so
do I."

Fred Blanks, Sydney Morning Herald, 31/1/96

 This review says alot about the knowledge level (or otherwise) of the local
musical hierarchy in matters pertaining to brass bands. They are treated
with disdain by Conservatorium Academics and Media Critics alike, which
indicates an unfortunately narrow musical scope here compared with Europe
and the UK. The best championship bands can achieve a quality of sound
beyond anything I have ever heard the SSO produce. It is a shame people can
be so narrow-minded.

Phil Anderton
Warringah Concert Brass, Sydney.


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