Wood

The woodwinds are a select group with their own sounds but I don't often get to hear them arrayed like this. The breathy flutes, the sinuous clarinet and their deep bass clarinet brothers and brooding double-reeded oboes and bassoons. There was piano and horn, too. Was the horns a ring-in? It's certainly brass not woodwind, it fit nicely. These were various combinations from the RMC Duntroon Army band playing music of the the Twentieth century. Apparently most woodwind music has been written in the last hundred years, after the development of the instruments as chromatic in all keys. The Clarinet quartet (flute, clarinet, bassoon, oboe) started with Wiberny Ulla in Africa, all African rhythms and jazz/improv-like lines. Then my favourite, Poulenc Sextet for piano and wind quintet (flute, clarinet, oboe, bassoon, horn). This was a complex piece with feature lines and melodies passed throughout the group through several movements of varied feels and tempos. Great stuff. Then two Ross Edwards pieces, Binyang mimicking birdsong and Interior mimicking the sound of the Australian bush, played by solo clarinet with light percussion. Intriguing and a performance tour-de-force. Then Malcolm Arnold Divertimento played by the Wind Trio (and apparently every other wind trio) - flute, clarinet and usually bassoon, but this time, oboe - and a lovely discovery Alfred Reed Pastorale, a light country lyric on flute with piano accompaniment, and to finish, Canberran Nick Gilbert Creative compounds played by the Reed Quartet (oboe, clarinet, bass clarinet, bassoon). This was modern, all compound time signatures and seriously satisfying to my ear. So a vary varied program with a range of fascinations and some nicely professional playing. Very nice.

The RMC Band Woodwinds performed at Wesley. They comprised (excuse the missing ranks) Lisa Agnew and Kylie Simpson (flutes), Carl Brumfield (oboe), Matthew O'Keefe, Jacqui Broomhead, Natalie Dajski, Lenore Evans and Steve Wylks (clarinets), Lizz Affleck (bassoon), Tim McCabe (horn), Sean Henderson (piano) and Dick Cutler (percussion).

The modern Army

How unexpected was this and what a great pleasure. I've seen the Duntroon band but this was different. The other times, they were around 20 players, big band style, popular music. Always competent if an odd sight in their uniforms. But a pleasure. This, today, was the full band: symphonic in extent and in complexity and repertoire. But a wind ensemble, so no strings other than one lone double bass (Barnaby Briggs looking decidedly more military than in his other incarnations). It was obvious from the first glance at the program: Puccini, Grainer, Grieg, Bernstein, and two lesser recognised, Sheldon and Tosti. Tosti and Puccini were operatic with a soprano up front. Another proof of this outfit's flexibility. (Apparently Fiona Wilkins, soprano, had been singing rock and pop to 2am a few days before). The Sheldon was busy and rhythmic with layered melodies and changing bar lengths. The Puccini was the lovely O mio babbino caro from Gianni Schicchi. How lovely is that? The Grainger was his Colonial song. The Grieg was his piano concerto A minor, no less (just the first movement). And the peak, for me, one of my faves of the musical genre, Bernstein Symphonic dances from West Side Story. Just fabulous and exciting and tear-jerking. Three different conductors. One soprano singer. 40 other musos. Three tubas; lots of clarinets. It's fun to identify players you know from the jazz scene: Baba, Barney, Julian. Others? But how unexpected. They are playing a few gigs next week but in the more light vein. Just another take on the Army band.

The Band of the Royal Military College, Duntroon, performed at Llewellyn Hall. Conductors were Andrea McMahon, David Bird and Matthew O'Keefe. Soloists were Fiona Wilkins (soprano voice) and Sean Henderson (piano).