A fave outing

It may not be the favourite outing but it is a favourite outing.  That's the RMC Band when it puts on a gig, in concert band format or other.  Today it was the Woodwind group and it was widely varied with all manner of wind instruments and just one guitar.  I like it because it's just so pro.  Sometimes just a little moderate but always decently done, well trained and capable, understanding and varied.  My Mum's in town and she came to this one and asked if they are soldiers first.  No, trained musicians first, although with uniforms and some level of military training and I'm sure a responsibility to pick up arms when the latest enemy invades.  (Don't worry, we usually get there first!)  Whatever.  The music was intriguing and well played, though, and hugely varied in combinations.  Two clarinet solos and one oboe; a Celtic group, a woodwind quartet and clarinet quintet and woodwind trio and sax quartet and the combined Wind group.  Music from those Irish tunes to a modernist clarinet solo using delay with repeats on the beat and mixing octaves.  A Beethoven movement and a Bernstein overture (Candide) and a Richard Strauss Serenade.  And a string of modern pieces otherwise.  Really quite adventurous even if in matching, marching khaki.  My favourite?  Perhaps the Beethoven for the familiarity or the Strauss for the conductor-led richness of the bigger band or the solo clarinet with that effective delay or the solos with notable chops or just the delirious scalar lines that bounced through the ensembles in a few pieces.  In the end, I think the Woodwind trio playing Kaspar Kummer Trio for flute, clarinet and bassoon op.32 was my favourite with the merging of tonalities and the capable playing but it was all a pleasure.  That's how I find a capable, workmanlike, prof gig like this: a huge pleasure, as always and as expected.

The Woodwind Group of the Band of the Royal Military College (Duntroon) performed at Wesley.