NWE News

It's Show Time...

A player’s perspective.

The requested theme was ‘show tunes’ and the opener ‘Big Country’ from the film certainly fitted the bill. The signature opening from clarinets was not best suited to the venue’s acoustics but still gave a good account of itself. As a player we were off to a good start, with the audience on our side!

‘Oklahoma’ is one of those shows with such recognisable tunes well known to many. There was a wobble early on with a missing tune, but we stayed together (just) and later selections were much tighter, and again seemed to be liked by the audience.

After two big set pieces the much fluffier ‘El Sombrero’ provided a change of scale. As a composition it is not in the same league, but I felt we returned a competent rendition.

Back to the big guns for the next item, a selection from ‘Fiddler on the Roof’. Judging by the audience response a well played selection.

That rousing number was followed by ‘Some Enchanted Evening’. A much slighter piece, but our performance did have the contrast to the previous item, with a much more lyrical feel.

The final number for this half was ‘Orpheus in the Underworld’. This selection shows of some of the best music from the operetta, and features some distinctive solos, all well played, by the clarinet, oboe and euphonium.

The second half started with a bright and breezy selection from ‘Chicago’. The trumpet intro made a very impressive opener, but I felt that the final shout of ‘that’s jazz’ did not have the pizzazz it could have done.

Next was a piece that, to me, was one of the most difficult to pull off, ‘Girl with the flaxen hair’. This is so quiet, still and soloistic any deficiency shows up. We did pull it off I think, even if some our rehearsal performances were better. Nerves possibly.

Back to blockbusters for the next item, with excerpts from ‘Joseph and the Technicolour Dream Coat’. Well played, but I was not looking to see if any of the audience were singing along.

As a contrast, ‘Eine Kliene Nachtmusik’ harks back to a more classical era. It is however so well known that most listeners will have views on how it should sound. Even with cut down performer numbers it was never going to have the lightness and transparency of the original. We gave a satisfying performance, I think, and was worth the detailed study.

‘Pineapple Poll’, an arrangement of some of Gilbert & Sullivan’s best work was always fun to play. To me, part of the appeal was to identify all the snippets of tune and their source. I got most of them! As a performance it was an excellent piece to end with, it had the combination of dance-like feel and rousing finisher.

  A very appreciative audience was rewarded with the encore of ‘Glen Miller Special’, a selection of popular tunes. This unfortunately was a bit ragged in places, and again our ‘vocals’ were not too impressive, but the audience loved it.

To me, it was a successful concert, with a very responsive audience, and the hospitality prior to the actual concert was much appreciated and should be mentioned.

As always, thanks are due to those additional players who came to help and added their contribution to our performance. 

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