It was a fine evening in the little Basque town of Zumarraga where I was the guest of Spanish Brass (SBLM). I feel very fortunate this summer to have played with two of the greatest brass quintets in the world (Gomalan Brass, Riva, July) and now, Spanish Brass. They are a fantastic unit; warming up together, eating and travelling together, they are serious but they laugh a lot, if you know what I mean. They are also brilliantly well organised.
So, after a 5 hour drive from Valencia where we rehearsed the evening before, we arrived for a late lunch in our nice traditional typically Basque hotel, and we were hoping for a little afternoon siesta, only to find a very noisy wedding reception in full swing. Even ears plugs couldn't cancel the 'singing' and noise. But, one we arrived at the incredibly beautiful ancient church, for a rehearsal at 6pm, we easily focussed our minds on making great music in these extraordinary surroundings.
A full church greeted us at 7.30pm, and yes, we started on time...in Spain !!
It was basically the same programme as we recorded on the 'Brass and Wines' cd.
It's a very tough programme but the rich acoustics of the church were helpful, with no really long echo. It fact the acoustics were just about perfect.
Here's the full programme:
1st Part
Batalla Imperial Joan Baptista Cabanilles (Arr. Carlos Benetó)
Toccata y fuga Johann Sebastian Bach (Arr. Fred Mills)
* Concert for Oboe in C Minor - Georg Philipp Telemann for euphonium and brass quintet
* Lisonjas de la Alcahueta - Juanjo Colomer for euphonium and brass quintet
2nd Part
* Brass & Wines José Rafael - Pascual Vilaplana for euphonium and brass quintet
I. Expectativa
II. Almoroig
III. Albir
Asturias Isaac - Albéniz (Arr. Maxi Santos)
La Boda de Luis Alonso - Gerónimo Giménez (Arr. Fco. Zacarés)
* Kaleidoscopic Overdrive - Ben McMillan
for euphonium and brass quintet
encore: * Bravura Variations - Arr.Howey
* solo with Brass Quintet
and here is what the prgramme looked liked:
As I said, the church was really spectacular !
and the audience went home highly satisfied.
For more pictures from this concert, before and after (!), and 1000s more from Spanish Brass on tour, have a look at their fascinating blogsite:
To purchase the Brass and Wines CD click HERE