ORILLIA SILVER BAND ‘PREVIEW’ WAS ‘PRAISEWORTHY’ AHEAD OF NEXT WEEK’S NABBA CONTEST
Mark Clairmont | MuskokaTODAY.com
ORILLIA — It’s more than 50 years since the Orillia Silver Band took a competitive rest.
You’d never know it.
Saturday’s night’s winning concert was no contest; they were in a class by themselves playing their absolute best.
Billed as a “preview,” it was more “praiseworthy” as the 35 musicians went public ahead of next week’s North America Brass Band Association competition.
Good thing, too, because while they hope to bring home hardware, the judges won’t see — but only hear — them in a blind adjudication Friday and Saturday.
Conductor Neil Barlow has them in fine form after months of rehearsals for the planned trip to Fort Wayne, Ind., where some of the best U.S. and Canadian brass bands will unite to compete in five classes.
Barlow placed this exceedingly excellent ensemble in the second level, behind the professional and first levels and ahead of the third, fourth and youth ranked bands.
The Weston Band in Toronto, with many friends in Orillia, will compete at the first level.
Saturday’s send-off at St. Paul Centre was as always a warm and fulsome performance in the expansive church hall.
A successful test run, which not only showcased the well known and popular local band’s talents with challenging pieces that wouldn’t be out of place on the bandstands of any competitors at NABBA, it highlighted at least three cornetists of high note — Jonas Feldman, Michele McCall and Debbie Silverthorne. Along with euphonium veteran Paul Raymond.
Barlow opened with the band sounding a famous “Fanfare” from La Peri, by Paul Dukas, that alerted the crowd of well over 100 to more of what it was about to hear in the two-hour extravaganza.
They followed up with “Adagio for Strings,” by Samual Barber, which Barlow acknowledged to string players on hand as being difficult for them to play, but “fiendishly difficult” for brass players to wrap their fingers around their valves.
Then it was a quick Silver, more traditional, Dragoons march.
Their fourth offering for the much appreciative audience was a lovely folk song arranged by Goff Richards. It was entitled “Shepherd’s Song” and again featured a beautiful solo by principal cornetist Feldman who engaged in a gorgeous melodic call and response with Raymond who sat directly across — the two facing and separated only by Barlow and his baton (in one ear out the other) — at the front corners of the band.
Headlining the concert were the two contest pieces the band is taking south side and presented both sides of the intermission.
He touted them both as “praiseworthy.”
And notably their first offering.
The wonderful “Laude,” by composer James Curnow, is a monumental work for brass and percussion and is the obligatory “test piece” that all bands perform at the contest for comparative purposes, said Barlow.
It featured a particularly rich depthness of sound from McCall’s on a haunting flugel horn solo, which was first heard buried within the heart of the Silver before emerging with lightness and clarity from the inner middle ear of the band.
After a deserved break and social time with their fans, Barlow and band opened their second act with a piece the members chose from three fall rehearsal options that had to at least be of equal skill as Laude and was their own contest entry.
They chose the classic work “Little Suite for Band,” by the British composer Malcolm Arnold. One that had three variations before the recognizable tune and again made room for Feldman’s fabulous floating cornet.
A number that was clearly up to their musical standard with every instrument and player extending their rhythm and range to their fullest and one that will certainly represent Central Ontario and Canada well in these difficult times.
And for lovers of compositions in the pop genre from the 1970s, the band finished off with a fun pop arrangement of the tune “Music,” by guitarist John Miles and also featuring a lush introductory solo with dulcet tones by Silverthorne.
Barlow said the musical “journey” of getting the Orillia Silver Band to such a high level to compete has been “enjoyable” as he watched them push themselves to extraordinary levels.
The second level is where they will compete, but in this concert they were in a class all their own.
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