London and Provincial Music

So, the magnificent London weekend continues. Yesterday, Staines Brass gave a fine effort in St. James’s Park, and then the usual evening Baroque event in St. Martin-In-The-Fields featured the Brandenburg Concertos. On a Sunday morning where the sun is trying to break through, the warm-up event for the afternoon in the park is something which in the long winter would by the main event – a trip to Wigmore Hall for the Sunday morning string quartet.

There is nowhere on Earth where I feel quite as at home as in the Wigmore Hall, and this morning’s event promises much. The quartet even switch their programme to start with Beethoven’s Eb Major quartet rather than Schumann’s in A Minor, entirely due to the bright sunny morning. There are empty seats in the Hall, which is ridiculous when you consider the limited capacity and the huge population of the city itself. Anyone who did not turn up missed out on a very satisfying morning’s performance, not to mention the free drink afterwards.

Walking down from Wigmore Hall through Mayfair, one is apt to cross Berkeley Square. I mention this purely because it will be significant later. Green Park is crowded in the summer sunshine, and when I reach St. James’s Park the crowds are even greater. The seats are there waiting for Tilbury Brass Band, and there is no doubt that we are in for another afternoon of perfect weather. If anything, there is a little more cloud to give a few more breaks from the fierce sun, but the temperature is perfect.

The “Standard Of St. George”, that wonderful march which was featured during yesterday’s event, opens this one. It is traditional for brass bands to open with a march, and it certainly sets the right mood here. Before long we are into the solos, as “Be My Love” is given centre stage with the euphonium. Most of the first half is familiar, including Lloyd Webber’s finest composition “Memory”. The Eb bass solo, “Czardas” is extremely challenging, and sets the high point for a promising first half.

It is after the break, though, that Tilbury Brass Band really catch fire. Among other highlights, including very well played solos for flugel and Eb horn, was the “London Celebration”. You would think that this would be the one piece every band would bring here, but it is surprisingly rare. Only an hour before the start of the performance I was walking through Berkeley Square, now immortalised in Eric Maschewicz’s famous score which is featured here. This is not the only piece from the war years, as Noel Coward’s “London Pride” is also perfectly at home in this setting. At the end, Big Ben obligingly chimes right in the break between this and the next piece, just as though it had been scripted.

The great coincidence is in the trombone solo. On Saturday, we had Staines Brass playing Hoagy Carmichael’s most famous composition, “Stardust”, as a trombone solo. Today, we complete a historic double as “The Nearness Of You” is expertly played. The music of the greatest jazz composer of them all will never be forgotten, and there can no more certain illustration of this than this weekend.

As if “London Celebration” had not been highlight enough, there was more to come. I had never heard “Keep Smiling Through” in this wonderful park before today, but here it was in perfect early evening sunshine, only two months after the VE65 celebrations on Horse Guards, literally two minutes walk away. Never has any piece seemed more fitting or more welcome.

I shall never be able to look at Horse Guards again without seeing a mental picture of the “V” installations which held the good wishes of so many, and the marquee which housed the musical celebration. After today’s event I revisit it, and then go on to the Cenotaph to stand on the very same spot that I stood on two months and three days earlier. It was as though the occasion demanded it.

Even the coach operators obligingly put an extra coach on Sunday evenings, as though encouraging us to make a full weekend of our London trips. I do wish it ran on Saturday as well, though. The evening sunshine is still covering the park as I walk back through towards the palace and on to the coach station. This has been as full and satisfying a weekend as you will find anywhere, and a lot of that has been due to the outstanding contributions of Staines Brass and Tilbury Brass Band.