Enjoyed it immensely yesterday, and was impressed with how many bands managed to put on a proper performance of an astonishingly difficult piece - I was kind of expecting some of the "less fancied" bands to struggle, but no-one I heard had a real nightmare, although something odd happened at the end of GUS's performance? I had Cory, Dyke, B&R, Leyland, Fodens, Rothwell in that order; don't quite know why, but Grimethorpe's performance did nothing for me and Faireys and Rothwell can consider themselves unlucky IMO.
Being a proper BOC, I had my score in advance of the day and there were a couple of things I didn't understand - the direction in the preface of the score about where the soloists should stand said "at the front" but in the actual music, the solos are marked
Lontano - distant. That, to me, would suggest that they need to be downstage but away from the band, but nobody I saw did it this way. And nearly every band I saw had the tam-tam roll continue through the last note, where the score clearly has it stopping, there's even a rest afterwards, before the final perc hit. The end result of course was that it was almost impossible to tell if the last chord was in tune because of the wall of sound coming from the back.
Some incredible playing though, with Cory, Dyke and B&R a class apart in my book. All three had real clarity so you could hear all the detail, especially in the Farandole where there's a lot going on, and they all got the Mahler trick of sounding a bit dark and unsettling, even in the lightweight stuff.
Anyone know what the potential "unsavoury incident" at the end was that 4BR refer to in their report?
4BR said:
Fine atmosphere
The fine atmosphere created was saved a potentially unsavoury incident at the end of the contest with admirable good grace and professionalism by Martin, who dealt with the disappointment of one conductor with the skills of a United Nations diplomat.
