National Youth Brass Band of New Zealand: Brass Aotearoa

By WILLIAM DART

If you have a soft spot for brass bands, you'll have to play only the first five minutes of the opening track from Brass Aotearoa and you'll buy the CD.

Philip Sparke's The Land of the Long White Cloud is an exciting showpiece, set in a generously resonant recording. The opening bars are the stuff that John Williams fanfares are made of and, a few minutes later, when the march kicks in, you'll be tapping a toe or finger along with it.

This album is a nice concept, with a Dick Frizzell cover capturing all the mysteries and challenges of a childhood adventure.

Most of the music chosen by Nigel Weeks and his National Youth Brass Band of New Zealand has been written by local composers; and the two other works have New Zealand connections.

Sparke's score was commissioned by the New Zealand Brass Band Association in 1980; and back in 1953 our National Band carried off the British Open by playing George Hespe's rather jolly The Three Musketeers.

Of the New Zealand works, Ross Harris' Bremner Aria makes the most immediate and I suspect, lasting impact. Written for, and sensitively played by trombonist David Bremner, this compresses lyricism, fascinating colour play and a rousing climax into just under six minutes.

Dwayne Bloomfield's Behold the Narrows from the Hill suffers through its length. At almost 13 minutes, it is too diffuse, too much locked into its narrative and not always successful in the avoidance of cliche.

Waipiro, the longer of Gareth Farr's two pieces, has an agreeable weave to it. Again, it doesn't always sidestep the tempting cliche, and I'm not sure that those log drums eradicate evocations of themes from bygone Westerns.

Farr's second piece, Tawhirimatea, a portrait of the Maori god of the wind, is a dazzling scherzo, the welcome Pacific touch here being the mysterious sounds of the conch.

We know that some of the best, and certainly some of the most adventurous, music in this country is being made by youthful musicians; Weeks and his young players are certainly among these.

Label: Trust Records MMT 2049