This article was published in the November 29 issue of the British Bandsman magazine
A busy year for Steven Mead , recording masterworks, teaming up with Europe’s finest brass quintet , recording with Whitburn , jazzing it up in Austria, live recordings in Japan and USA
For those who have bought my CDs over the years, I thank you. But why on earth, I hear you say, in the year of the credit crunch, would you want to embark on yet more recordings. Good question, and I will attempt a long-winded answer. Firstly I didn’t see the credit crunch coming and it’s not my fault anyway.! Over the years I have enjoyed going into a studio making CDs with brass bands , wind orchestras, a chamber orchestra and piano, and each time there has been a good reason, driven by repertoire usually or a creative project I just couldn’t resist. The three Euphonium Magic multitrack CDs were an enormous ‘studio’ challenge to make an orchestra of euphoniums sound live and powerful , the series of The World of the Euphonium with the Polyphonic company allowed me to record pieces for the instrument which helped to popularize new pieces for players around the world and the older recordings I did with Howard Snell and Faireys (Oration, The Essential and Bravura) were such a pleasure to do.
This year provided me with a series of quite unique opportunities which at the advancing age of 46 I was keen not to overlook in case I would wake up one day soon, unable to play! Each was completely different and each took me to 5 countries to make; the England, Spain, Austria, Japan, USA and Scotland. I want to tell you in particular about three of them that are released now on my own label, Bocchino Music (pronounced Bok-eeno in case it ever comes up in conversation), which is Italian for mouthpiece (and something less polite, I discovered some months after I named it thus !).
Firstly is the double CD titled Audacious, which was recorded in Studio 7 at the RNCM with the incredible Japanese pianist Tomoko Sawano. She is remarkable in that her fearsome technique, constantly driving for perfection in everything she does is matched by her extraordinary musicality and ability to predict exactly what the soloist will do next. And to hear such power and precision from this slip of a lady around 5’3” is almost beyond belief. For years I’ve wanted to record the Euphonium Concerto by the Finnish composer Yukka Linkola; ‘fearsome’ is putting it mildly, with too many high E’s, F’s F# and G’s to be funny. But it’s truly great music too, full of memorable dramatic and lyrical moments. Peter Graham’s new concerto he wrote for me and the Osaka Municipal Band (Japan) , imaginatively titled ‘In League With Extraordinary Gentlemen’ was also just completed in its version with piano and I just had to record this too. My good friend from Hungary, Roland Szentpali had also just finished a new sonata (Sketches 1998) full of invention and style and so the programme was falling into place. I decided it would be an album of the most difficult pieces, a ‘sadomasochistic musical fantasy’,or as Iwan Fox so cleverly put it, “..dons the crampons and wields the icepick to tackle some of the last remaining fearsome high peaks for the euphoniu”. Gerard Klaucke’s artistic front cover summed it up in a different way with an menacing shark (could this be the critics?) closing in a gleaming treasure chest and euphonium. The rest of the programme added some breadth to the expressive scope, Hungarian Melodies (V.Bach), Mosaique (Boutry), Gliere’s expressive Impromptu and Tchaikovsky’s virtuoso violin classic Valse Scherzo (the latter two both specially arranged by Luc Vertommen). The Friday-Sunday recording was a physical marathon in the best recording tradition and I was so appreciative of the help I got from Richard Scott, Keith Farrington and my good friend and ex student Mark Bousie. Tomoko once again worked her brilliant brand of piano magic for the whole weekend, never once complaining about repeating the hardest sections for me and often insisting she replay some of her solo sections over and over that seemed perfect the first time !
For several years I’ve had the pleasure to be associated with a professional 12 piece brass ensemble from Upper Austria, Sound Inn Brass. We’ve toured together in their homeland, Germany, Spain, USA and South Korea. The programmes have always been a nice mix of classical arrangements, original brass music and some big band items towards the end of the 2nd half of concerts. Since I also took on conducting them about two years ago we have moved towards more popular styles which highlight the rich talent within the group and have given me a chance to become a lot more stylistically aware myself. Collecting together some great arrangements from sources within the group we found we had the basis of a terrific programme and one that we ‘tried out’ on audiences around Europe. The recording was then inevitable, as frankly we were just having too much fun to keep it to ourselves. When I heard that Hans Gansch would come in and play on a few tracks to I was delighted and we ended up recording in a recital hall at the pictueresque Music School in St. Martin, Upper Austria. It’s just released now, entitled ‘Strike Up The Band’ . It gave me a chance to do some real jazz playing for the first time, complete with improvisations and it gives a chance to show off one of the greatest young players of his generation, Salzburg based Johannes Baer. We hear his genius as composer, arranger and trumpet jazz genius. We’ve just toured Austria with this programme to unbelievably good audience reactions so I hope that some of the more traditional brass band audiences will be attempted to have a listen to this. Mike Moor was the brilliant technical master in the UK for me with this project
I first heard the Spanish Brass Quintet (http://www.spanishbrass.com/sblm_ang.html ) about seven or eight years ago and was immediately impressed by the wonderful tonal quality, typically Spanish flair and incredibly perfect intonation. I was fortunate to be invited to take part in a couple of their courses they host with international teachers and that attract high level students from all over Spain. At one of these courses near Valencia about two years ago we played together for the first time in a little arrangement by Carlos the first trumpet player. Everybody recognize the combination had possibilities and subsequently we discussed a recording which has finally come to fruition. They commission two leading Spanish composers to compose original works for this combination one of which the title track of the disc, Brass and Wines. I was fortunate to be offered repertoire from Peter Meechan who contributed his beautiful Elegie, Ben McMillan a talented young American composer who wrote a piece, Kaleidoscopic Overdrive especially for us and Professor Henry Howey, USA who contributed two fabulous arrangements perhaps the most notable of which is the finale of the Tchaikovsky Violin Concerto of which is perhaps the most daunting five minutes or so that I’ve ever recorded, even more so than the Linkola if that’s possible. The recording took place just outside Valencia, and the editing and production took place in the UK, a big thanks goes to Richard Scott for his invaluable help with this project. The Spanish Brass Quintet are the ultimate professionals and recording with them was a real privilege, one of my career recording highlights. We’ve given about eight concerts in Spain now with plans for further projects in different countries. These are five guys who enjoy their music, their own company and take great pride in what they do. They always warm-up, eat and travel together and discuss every facet of the quintet’s planning and strategy. You feel this bond of understanding in every note they play.
Many in the band world will know of my relationship now with The Whitburn Band and earlier this year we recorded a CD which will be released in time for the area contest next march. This has some of my favourite euphonium literature on it including Thomas Ruedi’s supreme arrangement of Tchaikovsky’s cello masterpiece Rococo Variations, the Vernon Brigg’s excellent brass band arrangement David Gillingham’s Vintage, Peter Graham’s Canaans Land, Luc Vertommen’s arrangement of Bizet’s famous Carmen Fantasy as well as several other beautiful contrasting works.
To complete this year’s series of recordings are two live discs one of which has just been released, Symphony of Fables, by the Osaka Municipal Band, a professional wind orchestra from Japan. Peter Graham was there on the night in June too as I gave the world premiere of his euphonium concerto. It’s a superb work one which will be heard played its brass band version by David Thornton and Black Dyke at the RNCM Festival of Brass in January. All Peter’s most loved hallmarks are in this three movement concerto, and the audience adored the piece as I knew they would.
And finally, a live recording was made of the Brass Spectacular concert in Charlotte, North Carolina, USA just a couple of weeks ago where an All-Star Brass band made up of members of the New York Staff Band, other local SA bandsmen and women the Fountain City Brass band and other pro plays in the area under the baton of Scotsman Jamie Hood cametogether for a superb weekend of music making. This CD of SA classics should be released early in the new year.
So it’s been a year of opportunity to record some memorable music with really fine musicians. For me, recording a CD has never lost its challenge and responsibility. Technology continues to assist us to come up with a ‘perfect’ product, aided by the intricacies of digital editing and skilled people assisting with the application of these techniques. The final part for me, once the playing has been completed is to always care for the details, ensuring corners are not cut, presenting the product so that people are pleased to have it in the hands. Before too long the traditional CD as we know it will probably be gone, replaced by digital downloads. This is such a pity, as the compressed MP3 formats lose so much richness of sound and depth. With the support of keen listeners who will support musicians by buying their CDs, its demise could be some years away. Happy listening!
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This article was published in the Nov 29 2008 issue of the British Bandsman