Today our long awaited residency in Nelson begins. Over the next four days  we’ll give a performance of our Pilfered Piano programme, coach various young chamber groups, conduct a concert of Gabrieli in the Cathedral and combine together with the students in the final concert in a big Strauss finale.

After doing our individual daily warm up routines we gathered in the main hall for welcomes and introductions by our affable host and friend David Bremner, who is also Principal Trombone of the New Zealand Symphony Orchestra.

The students have arrived in already established chamber music ensembles from all over New Zealand and two from Brisbane and Melbourne, Australia. After an outline of the course from David and some housekeeping from Rachel, our Chamber Music New Zealand host, we were able to mingle over a rather generous buffet lunch in the very plush, newly refurbished foyer of the Centre of Musical Arts.

The afternoon saw the first of 3 allocated chamber music coaching sessions. The forces of Septura divided up into different rooms, quirkily named after legendary brass players for the week, such as Maynard Ferguson, Wynton Marsalis, Arnold Jacobs and Alison Balsom. I was able to float between rooms to see how my colleagues were getting on and help to choose a group to receive the honour to warm up the audience prior to our performance tomorrow night.

It was apparent the standard was incredibly high and the level of preparation by the groups was to be commended. It was also refreshing to hear new music and varied ensembles, including ‘Brass Quad’, an ensemble consisting of 2 trumpets trombone and euphonium, playing all of their own arrangements.

This was followed by the first of the daily ‘Geeky Brass Stuff’ sessions in which a different ‘no holes barred’ topic is discussed each day. Today’s was ‘mouthpieces’ which generated some interesting discussions, especially from our resident expert Huw Morgan.

To finish the day, it was time for Septura to put all our wise coaching words into practice in our own rehearsal for our 5 Chamber Music New Zealand performances.

Having focused on Mussorgsky’s Pictures at an Exhibition the previous day, this was a chance to reacquaint ourselves with our American in Paris programme. Although we have now played this many times, one of the joys of brass chamber music is how these works evolve and improve over time. For me the enjoyment of this programme increases in every airing. Coming back to something afresh often means getting the rubber out on old pencil markings and trying new ideas and learning from previous performances.

On the theme of reacquainting, it is great for us to have our very own super-fan Tadao from Japan observing the whole course, armed as always with his camera and iPad hanging around his neck. Tadao is adding to his ever increasing portfolio of Septura visits including Finland, Germany and London, documenting his trip with pictures of local landmarks and various cuisines on Facebook to his merry band of followers back home.

It’s not long until we return the favour and join Tadao’s own Tokyo Brass in our forthcoming trip to Japan in June!

The story begins at London Heathrow’s Terminal 3, with a typical touring check-in of 6:20am. Given previous touring mishaps, the simple fact that we still had flights booked made it one of our more successful starts to a tour.

Not really knowing how cold Spain would be in December, most people came wrapped up for winter. Phil Cobb had inadvertently picked up one of the band members’ coats from an East 17 concert earlier that week.

A hearty Heathrow breakfast was a perfect opportunity for Simon to pre-mortem everything that could go wrong on the trip. Thankfully nothing did, but it pays to be prepared.

Most people caught up with sleep on the flight – my 3 month old son had very kindly woken me at 2am to make sure I didn’t miss the flight. Matt Knight, however, isn’t like most people, and he excitedly and energetically poured over/conducted the score of The Nutcracker in preparation for tomorrow’s concert.

Simon had hired a minibus to drive us from Bilbao to Tafalla. It was beautiful drive through the Basque countryside, despite feeling like we were passengers in the Wacky Races! Simon’s claim that ‘the car just kept stalling itself’ was met with much laughter, but all things considered he did adequately.

A bite to eat and then we were down to the Culture Center to polish the following night’s concert: Schütz’s Das Wort ward Fleisch, Bach’s Christmas Suite, Handel’s Messiah, and Tchaikovsky’s The Nutcracker. It was great to be playing this programme again. It’s easy to take The Nutcracker for granted, but there are some truly magic moments in it. Plans are afoot to record this work, but more of that later.

Tired chops signalled the end of rehearsal, with shouts of ‘a couple of beers, nothing silly?’, met with much enthusiasm. Over dinner back at the hotel (and some fantastic local wine), one of Simon’s pre-mortempredictions did not come to pass. The Nutcracker requires Matt Knight to fire a replica gun in the air. Simon had spoken to British Airways about the best way to transport a gun, to which he was advised to keep it in his hand luggage and just take it out at security! We feared this might cause alarm and result in Simon being detained, so we left the gun at home, and thankfully Amazon Prime Spain did not fail to deliver.

The following day was tough – six hours of teaching, sound check, then gig. Language barriers focused the mind and made for some novel pedagogical approaches. But the students were great and really took on board what we were saying. No matter what the standard of player, the music was always shining through, and this is huge testament to the teaching in the area and the Tubala Brass Festival. We are not quite sure what happened in the tuba class: Sasha only had two students, one of whom was a euphonium player. Six hours later they all looked as shell-shocked as each other!

It’s obviously a huge pleasure to play chamber music with such remarkable players, and this concert was no exception. An audience of around 350 gave us a fantastically warm welcome, and enthusiastically demanded two encores from our bruised faces.

Following this, we met many of them in the foyer, where I confidently broke out some very rusty Spanish on anyone who lingered, whilst the rest of the group signed copies of CDs for our new fans.

A local bar enticed us in and suggested we try something typical to the area (we were aiming to go straight to bed), which we washed down with the obligatory Spanish goblet of Gin and Tonic.

And here finishes our first trip to Spain and the final gig of 2018. Chat naturally turned to next year with some really exciting projects and tours planned. But until then, all of us at Septura wish you a wonderful Christmas.

The Altmark Festival was Septura’s first German destination of 2018, and we met early on Saturday morning to polish up our Borrowed Baroque programme. We have performed this a number of times in the UK recently, and merely had to bring James Fountain up to speed on our newest piece, Stravinsky’s Pulcinella Suite.

After working our way through the programme with satisfying efficiency (James is rather good at the trumpet), we headed off to St. Pancras to catch a train to Gatwick. The airport ritual was fairly fluid, thanks to EasyJet priority boarding (#thedream), and awaiting the group at Berlin airport was our transport for the weekend, a maroon battle bus and driver Mr Müller. After a brief game of instrument Tetris, I ended up taking one for the team and sitting in the slightly space deficient front seat, allowing me to showcase my limited GCSE german conversational skills, which were soon outstripped by the SatNav and BB RADIO (a relentless stream of euro/dance hits). After two fairly long hours of sitting at a 25 degree angle, we arrived at Ratswaage Hotel in Magdeburg, a city 30 km or so from the concert venue for the following day. Accommodation sorted, brief and restrained frivolities ensued, consisting of a few good quality german beers, and a surprisingly excellent late night meal at Gorillas Restaurant & Grill in the centre of Magdeburg.

The following day the members of Septura arrived chipper and refreshed for breakfast, where only Dan West managed to clock the bespoke omelette option (the group envy was palpable). Mr Müller and his lovely maroon bus awaited and whisked us away to the beautiful Schlosskirche Letzlingen, which sat opposite a  lavish castle. After discussion with the church vicar, we discovered the castle was built in 1843 to be used once or twice a year by the Prussian King Friedrich Wilhelm IV as a hunting retreat.

 

Following a brief warmup we knuckled down and sound-checked the programme for the concert. As with many churches, the shape seemed to amplify the tuba heavily, and diminish a fair amount of clarity among the trombones, meaning the majority of the rehearsal was used to find an acceptable balance between us. The rehearsal over, we headed out and enjoyed a generous picnic, including ice cream dessert, kindly provided by the festival.

The concert itself was a great success, certified by the crisp, incredibly regular applause. A particular highlight was James Fountain playing his solo in Handel’s Rinaldo, Lascia ch’io pianga, from the pulpit, despite his initial trepidation at the idea. We were persuaded into playing two encores by the appreciative audience and enjoyed a lengthy standing ovation.

After a quick beer and a chat with the vicar we were on our way back to Magdeburg, where we began celebrations on a job well done. It being a Sunday night we were afraid that Magdeburg wouldn’t offer us adequate meal options. However, we ended up with a varied diet: starters at an Italian restaurant, and then a dangerously large Schweinshaxe at a separate establishment. Despite our best intentions to get an early night, time flew and it was heading ominously towards the small hours when the merriment came to a close. Subsequently, the 6 am start the following day was only loosely adhered to by the tuba player, much to the ire of his disgruntled colleagues. Nevertheless, we made our flight and travelled safely back to London.

All-in-all the mini tour was a successful outing, and we can only hope to return to the wonderful Altmark Festival in the future.

 

Tour stats:

Days : 2.5

Concerts: 1

Hours of sleep:  < 10

Irritating Tuba Mutes Carried: 1

Distance traveled: 2464 km