Tattenhall Music Society Season Off to a Rousing Start

The 2017/18 season got off to a rousing start with the first visit to TMS by the Metropolitan Brass Ensemble, a quintet made up of some of the country's finest brass musicians who play with the top national and international orchestras and ensembles.

The quintet, comprising Tim Barber and Matt Palmer on trumpets, Andy Maher on French horn, Simon Powell on trombone and Ryan Breen on tuba, opened the evening with J S Bach's My Spirit Be Joyful. This bright, vibrant, antiphonal rendition entailed Andy, Simon and Ryan being on the stage while Tim and Matt were playing from high up in the bell-ringing tower – in spite of Tim's absolute fear of heights!

Malcolm Arnold's Brass Quintet allowed the ensemble to demonstrate the full range of the format's possibilities, followed by the more tranquil Brass Quintet by Victor Ewald. The first half was rounded off with a hauntingly romantic arrangement of the traditional Irish folk song, She Moved Through the Fair.

The second half opened with Joseph Horovitz's well-known Music Hall Suite, which was followed by a very engaging and amusing question and answer session led by Tim, whose demeanour one audience member thought bore a striking resemblance to Jack Dee! The subjects ranged from the very technical – types of trumpet, types of mute, purpose of trumpet valve slides, the tuning of the different instruments, the positioning of French horns in symphony orchestras – to the more prosaic – what musicians do when they want to cough, getting rid of condensation from their instruments, and why brass players tend to drink a lot of beer!

The concert programme was rounded off with Michael Kamen's Quintet and a popular selection from Leonard Bernstein's West Side Story.

All in all a thoroughly enjoyable way to spend a Sunday evening and an absolute bargain to be able to hear such versatile and gifted musicians for a mere £10 a ticket – only £8 if you are a TMS member!

Next month's concert on Sunday 12 November at 6.30pm in the Barbour Institute will feature two sopranos, a baritone and a pianist who will play music by Mozart, Poulenc, Chopin, Britten, Schoenberg and Sondheim, together with hits from Broadway and the West End – truly something for everyone!