Derwent Brass (Conductor: Jack Capstaff) -

Band Number 5. 

Derwent Brass (Jack Capstaff) - Music of the Spheres

This could be big. Off the back of their Qualification to the National Championship Finals, Derwent have challenged themselves with the British Open piece. 

Beautiful Horn opening controlled well full of emotion. Lovely build up into the first fast section. Massive sound created from the band. 

Expressive conducting which I love to see. 

Great Trombone sound. Followed by the Tenor Horns. Beautiful Euph sound created. Followed by the Flugel, once again a lovely sound. 

Very fast tempo on display, confidence in his players. Good Sop. 

What a sound this band makes, pushing dynamics to extremities. 

A few intonation slips but minimal and these do not take attention away from the playing on display. 

Beautiful duet between Solo Baritone and Solo Euph matched dynamically well. Followed by the Solo Horn and Sop. Flugel entrance is beautiful and projected well. Chris Robertson shines through in the upper range beautifully. Bravo. 

PC braves a tough solo very well, with style beforing being joined by the Solo Euph creating a lovely sound together in octaves. Lovely crescendo into a lovely controlled sound. Once again the Sop shows their class with entrances. Bravo. 

A great attempt from both Solo Horn and Soprano on difficult solo passages. All Soloists play beautiful throughout this section with a lovely sound. 

Lovely playing, with another great attrance from soloists throughout with a shoutout to our very own Elise. 

Back into fast section, a couple entrances not fully together unfortunately but easily fixable for the future. Nice trombone sound during solo followed by a controlled shock chord. Great lower band sound. Euphonium is just wow, easy to listen to and a lovely build up before fading away. Some great Tenor Horn playing underneath here, a difficult part. A few clips of notes here and there but nothing major. 

Bass Trombone sound!

Huge sound created by the band, so full and rich and doesn’t sound overblown. Nice Trombone section sound, just careful with tuning when playing that loud. 

Just watch intonation Cornets when muted. 

Bell effect works well the majority of the time. 

Back into some beautiful lyrical playing from the band, both Flugel’s very in tune with each other. Bravo. 

Once it gets going the pompous tune is lovely to listen to with solo seats shining through, and a strong trombone section. SOP! I cannot express how impressed I am. 

Final section is navigated well, with dynamic contrast. Big sound from the Tenor Horns in their “rips” and a beautiful trombone gliss to finish with. 

WOW. Throughly impressed with this performance and one that the Band and MD should be mighty proud of. 

Well done.

~ Sam E.