We had a great day playing Vaughan William's 2nd Symphony. With a full complement of lower brass (three trombones and a tuba) plus Meriel Barclay on harp and full wind and strings we filled Long Melford Village Hall both physically and musically. This is not the easiest music to play and okay, some parts of the music presented us with pitfalls which we dutifully fell into but Matt, our conductor, explained the music to us, how it was structured, and why it was so influential on film music. Its really interesting when someone explains why the music sounds like it does, why some parts are more difficult to play than others and where its influences come from. It makes playing the music so much more rewarding. There were some lovely solo parts for different sections of the orchestra and we horoughly enjoyed playing it all. Whether we play it in a concert is a different matter - its complicated music to play to concert standard and audiences take time to warm to it - plus its an expensive work to perform as the music is pretty expensive to hire and we would need to bring in quite a few extra players to do the music justice. But - exploring the music in a workshop environment was enormous fun.
And here are the pictures to show how much fun it was....
First violins having fun.
Our happy leader, Steve
Sometimes double basses just have to stop and smile