Premier Brass 2010

Saturday, 6 March 2010, was the long-anticipated concert, Premier Brass 2010, featuring the Amsterdam Staff Band (Bandmaster Olaf Ritman) and Brassband Rijnmond (Conductor Anno Appelo). The subtitle of the event was “Re-Union”, as Brassband Rijnmond was one of the first bands with whom the Amsterdam Staff Band did such a concert, several years ago. The bandmaster of the Staff Band at that time, Dr. Howard J. Evans, now bandmaster of the Boscombe Band, returned for this year’s concert as guest conductor.

The Staff Band kicked off the evening with Jubilee Overture (Philip Sparke), followed by the new flügelhorn solo, We Are Not Alone, written by Bandmaster Ritman and played by Steef Klepke, Jr.

After this, the baton was given to Howard Evans, who led the band with passion through one of Dudley Bright’s latest works, Paean. This was directly followed by Myfanwy, a gorgeous new arrangement on a Welsh theme by Kenneth Downie. The last two items from the Staff Band were Gifts for His Altar (Leslie Condon) and Vitae Aeternum (Paul Lovatt-Cooper). The latter was performed twice by the Black Dyke Band in the Netherlands (2007 and 2008) and which has become immensely popular throughout the brass band world.

The second half of the concert was for Brassband Rijnmond to provide the packed hall with brass music. After the opening piece, Fanfare and Flourishes (James Curnow), the band’s youn principal cornet, Gerben Kralt, stepped forward to play William Himes’ Jubilance for Cornet. Quite a task, considering that the concert was held in a Salvation Army hall, in front of the Amsterdam Staff Band, some of whose members have performed this solo in years gone by. Pavane by Ravel was the next item, followed by Extreme Makeover (Johan de Meij), the piece with which the band won the National Championship in 2005.

The highlight for most of the audience was without any doubt the flügelhorn solo Apex, performed effortlessly by Dik van Doorn, who has made a sort of “guest appearance” on flügelhorn for the last two years, and will move back to his old seat as principal cornet following this concert. The last piece before the massed band would perform was Finale and Reunion, conducted by Howard Evans.

After a delay of a few minutes as the stage was reset to form the massed band, the hall was ready for the grand finale. All of the items in this portion of the program were conducted by Howard Evans, beginning with Rousseau (Ray Ogg). Bandmaster Ritman has recently finished a new transcription, Denn er hat seinen engeln befohlen, of an octet by Felix Mendelssohn, skilfully transcribed for brass band with impressive results.

No massed band performance would be complete without a “big piece” and on this occasion Excerpts from “The Little Russian” (Tchaikovsky, arr. William Gordon) was chosen. The last piece of the evening was Philip Wilby’s The Day Thou Gavest, with its beautiful start on euphonium, played here by Brassband Rijnmond’s principal euphonium, Olaf Kruidhof, who has roots within the Salvation Army.

A live recording of the event was made by World of Sound (a division of World of Brass) and will be available in due course.