What Do Bassoonists Have in Common with a No.52 Bus?
by Graham Sheen
former Principal Bassoon, BBC Symphony Orchestra &
Academy of St Martin in the Fields,
teacher, composer & arranger.
Academy of St Martin in the Fields,
teacher, composer & arranger.
Apologies if you have heard this in a slightly
different version, but the answer is that first you don't see any and then they
turn up in bunches. And there will be a bunch of twelve assorted bassoon students
and professors giving a concert at the Guildhall School of Music and Drama on July
7th at 1.00pm in the Music Hall. ADMISSION IS FREE and all
are most welcome to our wide-ranging programme of both arrangements and
original works, spanning music of four centuries and from the serious to the
frivolous.
At Guildhall we have long had a tradition of the
bassoon department presenting an end of year recital, though it has never been
possible, owing to an ever more crowded events calendar, to hold one every
year. We hope that as a result of timetabling bassoon ensemble playing on a
regular basis and the support of Head of Department, Richard Benjafield, the
bassoon department show will become annual treat.
It’s often said that Bach is indestructible, a claim
which we be challenging with a performance of the first movement of the third Brandenburg
Concerto (9 bassoons and contra). The central work will be the marvellous Triangulation
by Richard Bissill (7 bassoons and contra), a beautifully conceived and brilliant
balanced three movement piece which has deservedly established itself as a
bassoon classic. Interspersed will be some of Michael Norris’s Bagatelles
for trio and some new transcriptions for large ensemble of Rameau, Lotti and
Gabrieli’s Sonata Pian e Forte. Our traditional finale will be, as
always, Leroy Anderson’s Bassoonist’s Holiday, once mistakenly called Bugler’s
Holiday.
That date again: July 7th at 1.00pm in the
Music Hall of GSMD, Silk Street, Barbican.
LINKS
Guildhall School of Music & Drama
