Cathedral Brass

St Kilda Brass
Conductor: Steve Miles
Otago Girls High School Choir
Sunday 9th October

Steve Miles made his eagerly awaited debut as resident conductor of St Kilda Brass in a fine subscription concert at Knox Church, Dunedin (New Zealand) on Sunday October 9th.

Steve Miles with St Kilda Brass

Steve arrived in Dunedin from Brighouse and Rastrick in late July in time to help with preparations of Wilby's "Paganini Variations" for the Otago Southland Contest held a fortnight later. At this contest he showed his class as a player, thrilling the audience with his virtuosic euphonium playing in Peter Graham's "Brilliante".

Steve's first concert as conductor confirmed his top-notch musical pedigree in a demanding programme entitled Cathedral Brass. Opening with a stirring account of John Williams's "Olympic Spirit" with cornets and trombones placed antiphonally in the gallery, the band followed with the first of two fine test pieces from the past that have achieved the status of band classics: Gregson's "Variations on Laudate Dominum" showed the sonorous bottom end sound of the band to good effect in a well-paced performance.

St Kilda Brass: Horns & Tubas

Eric Ball's "Journey into Freedom" hasn't been heard in the south for some time and it was good to be reminded of how great a work this is. Steve drove through the opening "industrial" sections achieving a tight ensemble and kept the forward momentum throughout the flowing love theme achieving a very cohesive performance. The band showed its' all round strength in this with secure and musical playing all around the stands.

The second half began with Ray Farr's arrangement of Bach's "Toccata" with the band sounding suitably organ like in the church acoustic and the percussion team excelling. Steve featured music from his Welsh homeland in the "Welsh Clog Dance" and "Ballad" from Peter Graham's "Day of the Dragon" followed by an upbeat arrangement by Gareth Wood of the traditional melody "Sosban Fach". This was followed by a beautiful arrangement by Brighouse's Leigh Baker of the "Agnus Dei" from Faure's "Requiem" that was extremely effective with fine dynamic contrasts and good trombone and back-row cornet contributions.

St Kilda Brass: Trombones

The "piece de resistance" of this concert was Frank Renton's difficult and exciting transcription of the final movement from Saint-Saens's "Organ Symphony" joined by Karen Knudson at the organ. The large audience was treated to a very fine performance with real excitement generated in the build up to an overwhelming climax. As throughout the concert, the playing of Gary Valentine (Soprano) and the front row cornet team (led by Chris Gillum) was very fine.

St Kilda Brass

Adding variety to the concert was the Otago Girls High School Choir fresh from a trip to Japan who gave two delightful brackets (all from memory) that demonstrated why they are one of the better school choirs in the country.

Steve Miles can feel very happy with his first foray into conducting. Throughout the afternoon he exuded a relaxed confidence and calm that brought out the best from his players. Along with his role as the Southern Brass Academy Director, Steve's work with St. Kilda is making a real impact on brass playing in the south.

Peter Adams

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