National Brass Band Championships 2012

[PhilGreen]

Am very proud to say that Fodens Band have completed the very rare "double" of winning both the British Open and, on Saturday, the National Championships of Great Britain brass band competitions, the latter at the Royal Albert Hall, London. Playing Howard Snell's transcription of Ravel's Daphnis and Chloe (suite no.2) the band beat a magnificent Brighouse and Rastrick into 2nd place, denying them a hat-trick of wins. Here are a few photos for my band loving colleagues.

[bilmac]

Phil--I was there. I heard all the big bands and can say(FWIW) that Fodens were worthy winners. Musical with a focus on texture and colour rather than sheer power, unlike some of the other runners and riders who had a blastfest.Not that sort of piece! B&R gave you quite a run for it though.Well done.

[PhilGreen]

Guys,

Here is the BBC recording of our winning performance. Great photo of our mutes on the BBC webpage.

http://www.bbc.co.uk/programmes/p0105xz1

[Adam C.]

Thanks for posting the link to the audio, Phil.
Wow, that Daphnis arrangement is amazingly difficult. Sounds fantastic!

[PhilGreen]

Thanks Adam. Some the parts were incredibly difficult, soprano cornet part was in the gods all the way through and so difficult to rehearse because of that. The tuba parts were relatively simple by brass band standards but they were "the hardest easy parts I've ever played" to quote another of the tuba players. ppp to start the piece in octaves with the euph (higher) and BBb's (an octave lower) with one from each pair muted - that's no way to start a contest performance in front of 3,000 people!
Another TubeNet member, Steve Sykes, conducted his band to a fantastic podium placing. They were a real dark horse going into the contest but proved more than a few wrong with a great 4th place.