London and Provincial Music

We are now right in the heart of the summer season. The next two weeks will not only be the highlight of this band season, they will probably be the highlight of any band season. The bandstand in Eastbourne is 75 years old this year, and the next two weeks will feature daily performances from the Band Of The Guards Association and the Central Band Of The Royal British Legion. The 16 day extravaganza of music starts, though, in the park just across the road from the Guards Museum itself, St. James’s Park.

The Ipswich And Norwich Coop Brass Band were here two years ago, and produced the first real quality performance in a year which was beginning to become irksome with its total lack of quality. For now, in 2010, we have a totally different story. The band season has been of the highest quality, and the weather has been incredibly kind to us. It is kind again today, and we can look forward to three hours of quality brass band music from a known quantity.

Today’s Ipswich And Norwich Coop Brass Band performance was quickly into top gear, as only the second piece brought us “A Nightingale Sang In Berkeley Square”. We are close enough to that landmark to have heard it if it did. From Berkeley Square to Bizet, no less, with his “L’Arlessaine” The solo was an unusual trombone version of “All I Ask Of You”, which is nearly always heard as a cornet and euphonium duo. The unquestioned highlight of the whole event was a rousing “Zampa Overture” to finish off part one.

I shall charitably overlook the fact that the band chose to play “Snorin’ In The Rain” on a perfect summer day with the sun shining brilliantly over the southern trees which we are facing, and concentrate on more interesting matters. Rodrigo’s “Concierto de Aranjuez” has become a regular part of the brass band repertoire, and despite being written for guitar it seems to fit right in. My spell checker may not like it, but most of the audience seems to.

Ipswich And Norwich Coop Brass Band deliver again in a season which has brought so many highlights and hardly a single disappointment. Not even the malevolent rogues in Northampton Bummer Clowncil who have reduced my local season to a stinking pile of rubble can stop the tide of optimism and quality which we are riding. Despite my own local season being the worst ever, I have had my own best ever year, and don’t forget the greatest highlight is yet to come.

We are not yet done with Saturday 24th July, either. The evening event in St Martin-In-The-Fields features the last composition in the all too short life of the greatest name in the entire history of music, Mozart’s “Requiem”. When you consider that the programme also features “Ave Verum Corpus” and Handel’s “Zadok The Priest”, you can see why this is one of the best £6 investments you could ever make.

At the end of the St Martin events, I am usually either headed for Euston of Victoria Coach Station for a long ride north to Northampton. Not this time. The destination is south, right to the coast and to the place which will be the centre of the music world for the next two weeks. By the time I reach a moonlit seafront, the calendar has already crossed over to 25th July. The sixteen day highlight has begun, with a varied programme of quality brass band music from Ipswich And Norwich Coop Brass Band.