19 August 2019

Brinda's best

>br> Brindabella was a different orchestra this time. I haven't played with them for a few years, but sat in for Geoff who was away for a while and then did the concert. The program was satisfying (starting with Mozart and working though Mascagni, Humperdinck, Saint-Saens, Holst and a few pop favourites, Ketelbey and Vangelis). We had a few members of NCO and Woden Winds filling out some positions. We had a decent room with space and the noisy aircon was mercifully turned off for the concert. I loved to start with Mozart Marriage of Figaro overture with its pleasures and quick runs. From the top I noticed that Brinda was playing satisfyingly tight. Craig Johnson, ex-head of Army Band, was up front. He was generous and pleasant in rehearsals, but had a good ear for advice and drilling and some effective exercises in intonation and harmony that did good. I always expect to play right on the night, and we displayed this here: much better than rehearsals. And the Elephant! We played selections from Saint-Saens Carnival of the Animals and the Elephant was our bass-end feature. It was accompanied by an amusing narration from seriously well-voiced Mike Goodman. Overall a great pleasure and the best I've ever heard from Brinda. Congratulations!


Brindabella Orchestra performed at Weston Community Centre under Craig Johnson (conductor). Mike Goodman (narration) introduced the menagerie movements in Carnival of theAnimals. The low end was provided by Geoff Prime and Eric Pozza (basses).

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