The Ryedale Festival, now in its 41st incarnation, dominates the churches, stately homes and arts centres of the region for just over two weeks. This morning concert, coincidentally, was the 41st of this year’s programme.
The intention of Inner City Brass is to “exceed the traditional expectation of a brass concert” and in that they certainly succeeded. There was barely a hint of the rumbustious baroquerie of the Philip Jones tradition. Instead we had a varied mix of works, mostly from the 19th century onwards, with a world premiere as the centre piece.
Callum Au is best known as a trombonist/arranger in the jazz field and his familiarity with brass showed in Storyshaped, a piece in seven short movements, “a musical exploration of the elements and archetypes that give us that intangibly familiar feeling in the stories we love best.” Unfortunately that means no surprises and, though melodic and pleasing on the ear, Au’s piece did seem a little bland. A fanfare introduced the first movement and from there on we proceeded, dissonance-free, probably the most effective move involving second trumpet James Fountain supplying an attractive off-stage commentary.
First trumpet Chris Avison set his stall out from the start with his arrangement of Susan LaBarr’s soulful Grace Before Sleep, a raid on the American popular classical market that was repeated at the end of the concert with film composer Bruce Broughton’s When a Body Meets a Body, mutes everywhere in a sort of perpetuum mobile with interruptions.
That ended the concert in a light-hearted mood that had already been set by Ross Knight and Fnugg by Oystein Baadsvik. At the conclusion of Brahms’ Herzlich tut mich verlangen, Avison led the others offstage, leaving a meekly grinning Knight with his tuba. He proceeded to demonstrate the range and eccentricities of the tuba to the delight of all in Baadsvik’s dance piece – this reviewer is not sure about the musical content, but it was fun!
There was no doubt about the musical quality of Schumann’s Kinderszenen, with the always affecting Traumerai appearing to beautiful effect, but rather surprisingly the finest moment of the one-hour concert, when virtuosity allied perfectly with musicality, came from the only baroque piece played: J.S. Bach’s Fugue in G. Blair Sinclair’s trombone began the fugue, articulating the notes with exemplary precision, then Alex Hamilton joined him on horn, and so it went on, with the full five-man ensemble leaving the audience breathless.
Reviewed on 29th July 2022.
