Brassband excerpts for tuba: English Heritage

Composed by George Lloyd
Performed by Bernd van Echelpoel, Tuba player with Antwerp Symphony Orchestra and principal E-flat tuba with Festibaval brassband
tuba professor at The Conservatory from Antwerp
B&S and Besson Artist
Played on E-flat tuba Besson BE981S and mouthpiece Randefalk R2
#wearebans #wearebesson #wearebuffetcrampon #tuba #thesoundofantwerp

[@Geoff_Tuba_UK]

This excerpt brings back lots of memories.
But, firstly, very nice sound and technique, Bernd.
This is a rare opportunity for the Eb bass tuba to feature, in a lyrical manner, within a brass band score.
Excellent. Your bathroom seems to have decent acoustics.
I think Erik Leidzen's Sinfonietta remains the most lyrical solo passage ever demanded of the Eb bass (th-cam.com/video/0_k0gOsgu-o/w-d-xo.html @ 2' 40" to 3' 10") but others may disagree.
Secondly, George Lloyd almost gave up writing for brass band after the 1985 European Championships. At this event his Royal Parks was used as the set test piece. Unfortunately, the band that won (by a big margin) that part of the competition failed to win the overall competition. Lloyd was annoyed that a presentation score of RP was given to the newly crowned European Champions, rather than the band that played his work the best (those are his words). Fortuitously, Lloyd sat next to Geoffrey Brand on the flight back to the UK after the event. During the flight Brand convinced him to write more for brass band, such as Variations on a Bass Theme and latterly English Heritage. Without that conversation these works would surely not exist.
Thirdly, and sadly for me, I played this test piece with my band at the All England Masters in 1993. I was, if I say so myself, a fine player and this solo line was well-suited to my style ( th-cam.com/video/bjvn3HrJZBU/w-d-xo.html ). But, I had been heavily involved in the management of the band since 1989. The stress of this role was taking its toll. It was impacting on my playing. At the contest, I played ok, but not to the standard I set myself. I was not happy. This made me re-think everything. A year later I left brass bands altogether. This solo passage triggered a chain of events that led to that move.
Finally, on a brighter note, when I visited Antwerp in 2018, at the time I was working in Brussels, I did have the finest tasting cup of coffee that I have ever had in my life!. Antwerp has more than diamonds to offer.

[@BerndBelgianTuba]

Waw, lots of stuff I didn’t know! Thanks for your comments!

[@philipperapalli2562]

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