Gung-Ho is one classy production. Robert Catto's cover image of a feather caught in time and space is as arresting as they come and David Bremner's playlist shows just why he is one of our premier trombonists.
Producer Wayne Laird has caught the NZSO principal in full flight, working from
the sort of repertoire that only trombonists know to full-scale commissions from local composers, capitalising on the playing power of the National Band of New Zealand and the New Zealand Symphony Orchestra.
A 1942 Fantasy by Paul Creston is a dynamic opener with Bremner dauntlessly navigating the American composer's dashing and darting lines. "Most pianists are not fans," Bremner observes in his sleeve notes, and little wonder, considering its fiendish demands on them, demands which don't faze Sarah Watkins in the least.
Franz Strauss' Nocturno, however lyrically delivered, works better on the French horn for which it was written.
The strengths of this album lie in the local, starting with Kenneth Young's Panic, a solo workout which sets off placidly enough but soon lives up to its title.
Anthony Ritchie's Clouds, written last year for Bremner and the National Band of NZ, is a beautifully crafted piece, spectacularly recorded. But it would have benefited from more in the way of programme notes than Bremner's "aw-shucks" introduction, telling us about the problems of travelling to the concert venue.
Ritchie was inspired by cloud formations in the Morrinsville sky, likening the trombone to an aeroplane weaving its way through these clouds in a turbulent flight. Needless to say, Bremner is an exemplary pilot.
Chris Gendall's Gung-Ho scores high-tensile virtuosics for Bremner, Watkins and ace percussionist Lenny Sakofsky. Its stalking octaves and twitchy chords patrol an expressionist space and the group's ensemble work is awe-inspiring.
Gareth Farr's Funambulistic Strains sets up Bremner as the solo tightrope athlete with the NZSO under James Judd, taking the album to a dazzling close.
William Dart
Photo / Supplied
