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Hannaford Street Silver Band

March Madness

I must admit I did not expect much from a program made up mostly of
marches, including the 4 finalists from Hannaford's march contest.
However I was pleasantly surprised by what turned out to be an enjoyable
afternoon.

The 4 contesting marches proved to be interesting and creative with the
winner being a real barn burner. Titled "Mischievous Spirit" and written
by a young Ottawa composer whose name I unfortunately missed, this
should find a place in the repertoire of all bands with the technique to
play it. It has lots of notes but is remarkable free of cliches while
still being a march. Let's hope it gets published soon and used on both
sides of the pond. The 2nd prize winner, Castlefrank by Keith
Ketteringham is also an interesting and useful addition to the
repertoire although not as technically challenging as the winner.
Members of the Young Ambassadors will remember it as one of the massed
items on their program with Weston Silver Band in the summer. Keith is a
member of Weston, presently playing tuba but equally adept on trombone,
euphonium and baritone. I was not as impressed with the 3rd place winner
as I was with Ty Watson's march, Strength and Honour which was 4th but
it was suggested that Ty's piece was not quite as martial,as it might
hve been. Ty will be consoled by the fact that the CD by Doug Yeo and
Nick Hudson to be out soon will contain 2 of his compositions.

A tribute to Johnny Cowell, retiring at 75 from Hannaford's flugal chair
ten  years after his first retirement as Principal Trumpet with The
Toronto Symphony, was a moving celebration of a 70 year career as a
soloist, orchestral musician and composer extraordinaire. After the
playing of his composition The Olympians, Johnny proved he can still
keep up by joining Stuart Laughton and Ray Tizzard for the trio,
Rollercoaster and the solo encore, Man with  a Horn.

The band's playing was as usual technically adept but they once again
showed their unwillingness to attempt a real piano or pianissimo. Too
bad. That and the dry acoustics of the Jane Mallett Theatre keep this
band from achieving real greatness. Having said that, they have
developed an audience by unique and creative programming that extends
beyond the typical brass band aficionados.

The band was under the assured direction of Harry Pinchin of Edmonton
Wind Band fame, subbing at the 11th hour for Jim Curnow. I particularly
enjoyed Curnow's When Time Will be No More and the transcription from
the original strings of Don Coakley's Celebration. The commissioned A
Northern Suite by Andrew Agar seemed to run out of musical ideas long
before it ran out of notes. That's the risk of commissions I guess but
Hannaford are to commended for their efforts.

Dave Buckley - one man's opinion only.

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