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Canadian Brass yule fun has snowman, Bizet bull

John Lehr, Special to The STAR, December 2003

Nothing proclaims celebration and festivity like the sound of brass instruments. And if those instruments are played by the members of Canadian Brass, there is even greater cause for celebration.

These five players were on stage at Roy Thomson Hall last night performing their annual Christmas concert to a packed house, and they celebrated the season with music that was both playful and tuneful.

Canadian Brass has been entertaining audiences for 34 years, and now that trumpeter Stuart Laughton has rejoined the group (after a very long absence), three of the five are original members. Trombonist Gene Watts and tuba player Chuck Daellenbach were also there for the first note. They did not use their seniority to keep the newcomers out of the limelight, however.

On the contrary, trumpeter Joe Burgstaller and horn player Jeff Nelson were often pushed to the fore. Burgstaller, having already produced an impressive flurry of notes on piccolo trumpet in a Frescobaldi toccata, played the solo in a Vivaldi concerto with equal ease. Nelson played the horn solo in a Mozart rondo.

A certain amount of corny humour is always to be expected at a Canadian Brass concert. The first part of the concert contained most of the serious music, including selections from Handel's Water Music and a thrilling canzona by Gabrieli. It wasn't till the end of the first half that the group got down to some serious fun. Burgstaller donned a red-nosed mask for an irreverent version of "Rudolph the Red-Nosed Reindeer," and Daellenbach sank lower and lower as he played the solo in "Frosty the Snowman" until Frosty had entirely melted and he was playing the tuba lying down.

The hijinks reached their peak in the second half when, after a klezmer-inspired medley of Chanukah songs and another medley of yule tunes, the men acted out an abridged version of Bizet's opera Carmen complete with bull (Daellenbach) and bullfight.

Hannaford Street Youth Band sat behind the quintet throughout and made a splendid sound when it came time to play their Christmas selections. And they helped end the evening beautifully by joining Canadian Brass for Bach's Jesu Joy of Man's Desiring.

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