The Rising Stars of Brass
Queen’s Hall, Edinburgh - 22/08/24
Lucas Houldcroft, trumpet; Cameron Chin-See, trumpet; Rachel Wood, horn; Emma Close, trombone; Peter Richards, bass trombone; with mentors Chris Hart (trumpet) and Aaron Akugbo (trumpet)
It was an extraordinary achievement that these five young Rising Stars of Brass, who had only come together 36 hours earlier, should be able to wow a packed audience at The Hub with such a wide-ranging and musically demanding recital as this one – stretching from a sixteenth century monastery to the streets of twenty-first century Rio, via the density of nineteenth century Russian pomp and Romanticism.
The starting point, however, was Antonio Vivaldi’s popular Concerto No 2 for Trumpets and Strings in C Major. This was recast effectively for seven brass instruments, with the five-person ensemble – drawn from four different music colleges – being complemented by their mentors in an upbeat account.
The Baroque theme continued with Augustinian nun, composer and organist Raffaella Aleotta’s Four Motets, arranged by Daniel West. The treatment evoked an appropriately voice-like sonority from their instruments; a modern take on one of the first-ever vocal works by a woman to be published.
It was a significant stylistic leap to the third of Russian nationalist composer Victor Ewald’s brass quintets, now well-established in the repertoire and among the first works of their kind. The Rising Stars rose to this complex challenge, conjuring images of a bustling marketplace bandstand at times.
After Stravinsky’s brief but gloriously spicy ‘Fanfare for a New Theatre’ (an energising interlude from the young quintet’s mentors, allowing them to take a deserved break) came Ave Maria for brass from Rachmaninov’s All-Night Vigil (op 37). This was a reduction from the more usual 12-part brass choir version and handled with style.
The finale was a rhythmically tight performance of Uruguayan composer and trombonist Enrique Crespo’s multi-genre Suite Americana No 1, which leaps from New Orleans ragtime to Brazilian bossa nova, Peruvian waltz and Mexican soul. The transitions were managed superbly, ending the concert on a high before a short Q&A.
Scouted through an open audition call-out for the best emerging talent in classical music, the five musicians who performed this evening were part of mentorship programme aiming to provide an expert and mutually supportive environment. Such schemes are of vital importance for the future of classical performance.
Remarkably, only two of the five brass players had met ahead of a process that gave them just a day and half to prepare for their Edinburgh International Festival debut. Their ability to learn and rehearse a programme like this, and to deliver it with accomplishment in such a short period of time, was a remarkable credit to them and to their mentors.
