Monday, April 05, 2004

Singapore Polytechnic Alumni Band - 4th April 2004

I’ve just played the most personally unprepared concert in my life!

This must be the concert whereby I go on stage not sure of my parts at all, playing through as though it was a normal practice but only at Esplanade Concert Hall. Stressed!

I felt so stupid during the tuning man! I was like playing an A for the woodwinds, a Bb for the brasses and a final Bb for the whole band. Somehow all the woodwinds decided to join in during the brasses and when I played the final Bb for the whole band, no one tuned after me! I was like... EEEEEEEEEEEH…

Somehow the hall felt more resonant than the SAF concert I played in last month. There was an echo after I played my tuning A as compared to the SAF concert where the A disappeared immediately.

Hungarian March
I thought this was quite well done. The opening wasn’t as good as what they had practiced but it was still reasonably good. The band sounded very well balanced from where I was sitting. Not bad for the very first piece ever the alumni band is playing.

Second Suite for Band – Alfred Reed
Something funny happened during this piece. The emcee, Wilson, just walked out onto stage at the end of the first movement and started to say something. All of us were like: Oh no! I think he was quite embarrassed. The piece went well, slight cock up in the solos for 2nd movement, but otherwise was fine. I lost my grip on my reed and went flat on a prominent note! Sian man! Silly mistakes like playing A natural instead of A flat.

Big Fun in the Sun
Anyone who went to the concert might not believe this, but nearly half the band was sight reading this very piece on stage, myself included. Yes, sight reading. Thankfully, it went well except for quite a few wrong entries by yours truly.

I think it’s overall quite a good performance by the alumni band. I don’t know how the concert goers will rate it, but I really I think it’s a very good effect given that it’s the debut performance of the band.

How about some comments, people?

PS* Photos from the concert are currently available at my link to my photos link at the top of this page. I'll look into linking photo directly to here ASAP. :)
fjozn at 12:21 PM