Output details

Gameshow: Saxophone Concertos by Michael Ball, Graham Fitkin, Andy Scott & Jacob Ter Veldhuis. Rob Buckland & guest John Harle: saxophones, RNCM Wind Orchestra, Clark Rundell/Mark Heron: conductors.

Buckland’s research contribution to the creative process of this project to record three concertos newly written for him and one (Ter Veldhuis) re-scored for wind orchestra, concerns, besides his own role as soloist, the challenges of preparing the accompanying players in repertoire that explores territory beyond the usual wind orchestra set-up. The technical production of the CD was also overseen by Buckland, and a further research process involved seeking and testing solutions to the problem of capturing the sound of a full wind orchestra recorded ‘live’ in such a way that it could be creatively re-mixed in post-production, just as contemporary orchestral film scores are produced. Players were arranged in sections to allow for the maximum clarity: brass and woodwinds separated and screened off from each other; drums and percussion in a curtained-off area; and the soloist isolated to minimise sound spill from the ensemble. The medium of wind orchestra provoked highly eclectic responses from each composer. Michael Ball’s Concerto, for example, consists of a highly virtuosic solo part with accompaniment that would challenge a strong youth band while Fitkin’s Gameshow has a ‘chamber ensembles’ line up, with a strong rhythmic centre: the musicians are required to balance articulation, voicings, note lengths and attacks extremely precisely. Andy Scott’s Dark Rain posed particular challenges to the musicians: with two solo saxophones, drums and electric bass added to the standard line up, new genre-specific ideas had to be absorbed by players used to a very different kind of literature, in order to bring the varied sections of the piece to life in a stylistically convincing way. Buckland directed the players in numerous sectional and full rehearsals, helping them to achieve convincing renditions of the work’s particular grooves.