Black Dyke and Grimethorpe on stage during Prom 20

Prom 21, Wiegold: orchestra and karnay players on stage, soloists in arena, trombones along back of choir

Prom 21, Janáček

With massive forces celebrating the “diversity and joy” of brass instruments and their repertoire, London's Royal Albert Hall and its neighbourhood were the home to Brass Day, part of the BBC Proms series, on Saturday 28th July. The Proms – more properly The Henry Wood Promenade Concerts, presented by the BBC – are a major concert series, now in their 113th year, running for two months though the summer. Although the core of the series has for some time been quite a stable formula of standard classical evening concerts, there has also been much innovation, adding interest, breadth and novelty to the programmes. This has involved (among other ideas) extra venues, variations in the types of music on offer, and, recently, a new idea of special, intensive days dedicated to one aspect of performance: thus in 2005 “Violins!!” took place and in 2006 “The Voice” filled the hall with a thousand singers. In 2007 it was our turn with Brass Day.

The day started, for the very keen, at 10am with “Brass Massive”, when an all-comers two-hour brass workshop at the Royal College of Music - just opposite the hall - led to a noon performance of Judith Bingham's Ziggurat, a fanfare specially commissioned by the Proms for Brass Day. This was played on the steps of the Royal Albert Hall and got the day off to a rousing start.

Brass Day then moved to the Royal Albert Hall itself for the afternoon's concert, Prom 20, a fantastic whirlwind tour of brass through the ages and round the world. The performers for this varied and exciting programme were His Majestys Sagbutts and Cornetts; Grimethorpe Colliery Band (Mark Lee, organ, Allan Withington, conductor); Black Dyke Band (Nicholas Childs, conductor); Musicians from Uzbekistan; Musicians from the Royal Northern College of Music; Members of the BBC Philharmonic Orchestra (Håkan Hardenberger, conductor). We were treated to a repertoire ranging from 1607 to ink-still-wet as we moved through periods of classical music to the brass band tradition and even to Uzbekistan, where the meaty impact of the karnay trumpets left no-one in any doubt about this being a non-routine afternoon. It seems invidious to pick things out of such a full programme, which would take me many pages to deal with properly, but – as well as confessing my abiding love for the uplifting sound and equally uplifted appearance of the karnay – I must just say that the Vaughan Williams Henry the Fifth overture performed by Grimethorpe was an amazing, boisterous crowd-pleaser; that the first indoor performance of Bingham's Ziggurat was seriously impressive; that Howarth’s Pictures arrangement never pales, especially when performed as excitingly as here; that HMSC were terrific and particularly for bringing along the lesser-known but wonderful Grillo work Sacri concentus ac symphoniae - Canzon terza of 1618; and that having Grimethorpe and Black Dyke on together for Elgar’s Severn Suite was a particular high point whose memory I will cherish. This afternoon’s concert was quite a programme and would have been a pretty satisfying day’s worth of music – but we weren’t yet half way! Fortunately the Royal Albert Hall and its environs are well-served with restaurants, pubs and bars, so that the audience could seek some modest refreshment before hurling itself with renewed enthusiasm into the evening's concert.

And what a concert this was! Compared to the afternoon's lengthy list of shorter pieces, Prom 21's programme looked, superficially, more like a conventional orchestral concert, its main focus the ever-reliable BBC Philharmonic Orchestra. This just goes to show the untrustworthiness of appearances, for this was a concert of great surprise and contrast.

First, the Judith Bingham fanfare Ziggurat received its third and final performance of the day. I do think there's much to be said for multiple performances of premières, if you have the cheek and the time to get away with it. This was the perfect opportunity to give the longer-staying audience more opportunity to get to grips with the music: it is, after all, only a couple of minutes long and it seems a waste to just play it once. I very much appreciated hearing it again.

The Ziggurat duly built (again), we moved on to the first big work of the evening, Schumann's Konzertstück for four horns and orchestra, conducted by Sir Charles Mackerras. This received a thrilling performance from the star team of David Pyatt, Michael Thompson, Martin Owen and Cormac Ó hAodáin.

The concert then took its first turn towards the "recent music" shelves with HK Gruber's trumpet concerto Aerial , conducted by André de Ridder and featuring incredible technical feats from soloist Håkan Hardenberger. This piece from 1998-99 explores a wide range of approaches and effects, moving from C trumpet to cowhorn to piccolo, using a huge collection of mutes, removing slides from the trumpet, and all this in an amazing spectrum of musical styles. Hardenberger's effortless skill almost made this piece look easy, though you knew it couldn't really be.

Brass Day reached an amazing and unforgettable high point with its next piece, the world première of Peter Wiegold’s He is armoured without, a truly astonishing piece scored for massive forces. The work featured – as well as the orchestra – trumpet and trombone soloists (Torbjörn Hultmark and David Purser), the Fanfare Trumpets of the Band of the Coldstream Guards, Tashkent (the karnay-playing musicians from Uzbekistan) and musicians from the Royal Northern College of Music, Birmingham Conservatoire, London and the South East. These latter groups of students and good amateur players had been rehearsing for some weeks before the concert. The whole was conducted by the composer himself.

Imagine the incredible theatrical spectacle: looking down at the central arena you see the main concert stage with the orchestra and the Uzbek musicians (five karnay players and two percussionists). In the choir, seventeen trombones are spread out in a long arc either side of the bust of Sir Henry Wood, almost looking like a guard of honour for the Proms’ founder. Thirteen tubas stand round the edges of the central, oval arena which accommodates many standing members of the audience. The trumpet and trombone soloists are on the boxing-ring-like temporary stage in the arena's centre - they came and set up at the start of the piece in a dramatic ritual, making much of the ceremonious opening and closing of cases. Two large mixed brass choirs are in the end stalls to either side of the stage. There are more trumpets high up in the top gallery and in the audience, sometimes moving around. Finally, the Coldstream Guards are on a small stage at the other end of the arena, opposite the main stage, with eight trumpets and two drummers. I have never seen a more spectacular, vivid, instrumental line-up. Of course this massive work has what one can only call “big bits” but there were also lovely reflective moments - one karnay player swaps to a reed instrument for a while; there were breath effects and percussion sections: we were offered beautiful slow quiet bits as well as the monster racket, which certainly was awe-inspiring. The piece ends very quietly and the soloists leave. The Albert Hall erupted into a huge delighted reception for the performers and composer. The karnay players blew again in response to our applause: these instruments are not just music but a force of nature. It's like friendly whales saying a warm goodbye. Goodness knows when and how it will be possible to perform this piece again, but when it happens, I want to be there.

It's almost obligatory to end a show like this with the Janáček Sinfonietta, but then why not? People like it and it provides a major feelgood factor to whisk the audience off down Exhibition Road and along to South Kensington tube station in a happy daze. The more conventional but still impressive forces of the Janáček made the desired impact with a fine performance of this much-loved work, with Mackerras again on the podium.

This was an astonishing day of brass for which we are all deeply indebted to the BBC and the Proms’ imaginative programming.

Links:
BBC Proms
Proms 20 and 21: Brass Day