Santana's trombone star

Santana [was] doing it his way, playing those silvery, fluid and purposeful guitar solos, giving other band members their moments in the spotlight (it's not often I come away from a rock concert recalling with pleasure a trombone solo)

David Cheal
Telegraph 15/5/06

Congratulations to Jeff Cressman for being one of the few that please the rock critics.

Tannhauser treachery

the Tannhäuser overture was spoiled by the trombones. The three gentlemen in charge of these instruments confidently delivered the 'Pilgrims' Chorus' with all possible coarseness, flat throughout.

George Bernard Shaw, 1885
commenting on a London perfomance by Richter
with thanks to Ken Shifrin's alto trombone thesis

Those searching for clues to authentic performance of Wagner would be wise to ignore this evidence.

Cornetts and Sackbuts in Birmingham

Young up-and-coming British cornett and sackbut group Sacrae Symphoniae can be heard in Birmingham and Coventry over the next few weeks - don't miss them!

Sacrae Symphoniae will perform a rush-hour concert on Friday 19th May, 6pm, at The Oratory, Hagley Road, Birmingham.

This busy professional group are also appearing at Coventry Cathedral on Saturday 10th June (7.30pm) along with Coventry Philharmonic Choir and a starry line-up of soloists to perform Monteverdi's Vespers.

Further details on their website

Roberts on the radio

This Tuesday night, BBC Radio 3 listeners can hear a new piece featuring the orchestral brass section. The conductor and former horn player with Fine Arts Brass has been commissioned by the BBC for this broadcast and a concert last week in Cardiff.

19:30 Performance on 3

The world premiere of a 'celebration of glad noise' by Stephen Roberts puts the spotlight on the orchestra's brass section, in a concert given at Swansea's Brangwyn Hall, introduced by Piers Burton-Page.

Stephen Roberts: Sinfonia for brass, percussion and strings (Radio 3 commission,world premiere)
Rachmaninov: Piano concerto No 1, Op 1, in F sharp m
Mussorgsky, orch. Shostakovich: Prelude to Khovanshchina (Act I)
Stravinsky: Petrushka

Noriko Ogawa (piano)
BBC National Orchestra of Wales
David Atherton (conductor)

The point of music being lost?

Sprezzatura is that charm lent to a song by a few "faulty" eighths or sixteenths on various tones, together with those ["faults"] made in the tempo. These relieve the song of a certain restricted narrowness and dryness and make it pleasant, free, and airy, just as in common speech eloquence and variety make pleasant and sweet the matters being spoken of.

Guilio Caccini, Le Nuove musiche, 1601

This Florentine composer has much to say about how his songs should be spiced up with a bit of imagination, but this passage in particular reminds us that generally we need to shape phrases with the same audibility as one intonates speech. And if we don't it will sound unpleasant and dry. Clear guidance from near the time of birth of art music itself.

Eric Crees judged the ITA Remington Trombone Choir competition last year and commented in the ITA magazine that most of the groups were boring, comparing their 'note-getting exercises' to parrots reciting Shakespeare. He said that those few musicians that added the music were like shining beacons.

I'm asking myself how do large quantities of musicians end up playing boringly? Is my playing boring? I think am going to work harder on expression and try and break some of the 'rules' for my upcoming performances to see what I can learn.

I have a colleague who thinks it should be a criminal offence to play boringly. It's because classical music is retreating - the number of professional musicians is a fraction the number compared to 100 years ago and this trend continues. So why should we let classical music go the way of pop, where the music takes second place to sexy photographs, slushy magazine interviews, all designed by brand managers to appeal to a certain demographic of CD buyers? If you don't focus on the music then it will die and you are left with a hollow industry no better than perfume or pop music. The marketing makes many feel good but has little artistic merit, doesn't touch us at all deeply, and will be forgotten very quickly.