North West Counties Brass Bands Association Youth Section Champions 2008

12th October 2008

Testpiece: Variations on Laudate Dominum (Edward Gregson)

A reasonable opening - good Trombones - good full band tutti sound but Euphonium is very flat and under pitch - and rushing semiquavers too which causes the tempo to rock. Be careful not to get ahead. At letter D very stylish playing from both soloists, especially Solo Cornet. Just a hesitancy in Euphonium as you know. Not all Horns enter at F which causes momentary unease. Nice balanced sound when all are in but the bar before G is untidy in back row Cornets. The notorious letter H is generally well handled and I brings the usual safety. The passage into K is less convincing than H. Very confident Solo Trombone. Nice Euphonium at M, excellent sound, but the accompaniment fails to start together on every phrase - this is all very hesitant under a quality soloist. Again nice balance - Solo Horn is slightly flat into O and again back row Cornets after O are left exposed. Wonderful sounds at P - I can stand more Soprano here! This is all top quality here. The Flugel section at Q is very heavy to begin with for 'mp' and all a little scrappy. Well played Cornets but again Horns struggle with technique from T to U as you know. Ensemble 13 bars before Y is wayward in Horns/Baritones/Trombones and momentarily matters become very uneasy for 5/6 bars. Matters recover and the close is very impressive. Bravo Soprano!
Overall this performance was very convincing, not without blemish as you all know, but some very good sounds indeed led by an excellent principal cornet. Nice sounds, good balance, just a few moments of uncertainty in ensemble, a few nerves too.

	Tuning	Rhythm	Tempo	Dynamics	Balance	Soloist
Excellent				X	X
Good	X	X	X			X
Fair
Poor

Well played and thank you, good luck to you all.