Holst suite in Eb, first this is simply a great piece of music, better still it is a wind band original. When I started playing this was one of very few original wind band pieces we played, and in my opinion the best. Yes the Vaughn William Folk Song Suite and the Holst second suite are very, very good, this is my favorite. I am sure that I am only partly influenced by the minor fact that it starts with a bass solo.
Not long after I started playing the Tuba my teacher very sensibly realised that I needed to be playing with other people, so git me into the Croydon Schools Wind Orchestra, as it was then known. I was not really a good enough player but at that time there very few pupils in Croydon learning the Tuba so I was in. At the end of my first term with the Band there was the Croydon Schools Music Festival, at the Fairfield Hall http://www.fairfield.co.uk/ This is a purpose built concert hall in central Croydon, which seats 2000 people, that night it was full. The first item was to be from the Band, I was sat on the back row on the Conductors left side, right at the edge of the platform, and yes that first item was the suite in Eb. So my first playing performance was to a hall full with an audience of 2,000, sat right at the front of the stage, and started with a solo!
Having got through that it is not surprising that pre performance nerves are not debilitating for me, sure I get nervous, but it just builds me up, anyway that's why the Holst First Suite has a very special place in my affections. http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=J5nTxePv7kQ&feature=related
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