TRACK OF THE WEEK
Every week Frank selects his own favourite track of the week from our weekly Music Podcast, and it's completely free to listen too, here on Frank Renton on Brass. As he says this week,
"I can think of few, if any, brass soloists with the staying power of the Euphonium virtuoso Steven Mead, and what’s more he has never stood still, never doing the same old thing time after time.
He has commissioned, performed and recorded countless new works and arrangements by some fine musicians that have become the core repertoire of Euphonium players the world over, and that’s a terrific thing to do, using his influence and excellence to create repertoire for others.
His musical relationship with composer Philip Sparke has been both long standing and immensely valuable, so when Steven wanted to commission a piece to mark not only a significant birthday of his own, (his 60th, but don’t tell anyone), but also the passing of his father Rex, who had been a great influence on him, Steven naturally turned to his friend and colleague Philip.
The result is the Concerto Omaggio, an Italian word simply meaning ‘homage’, and Steven believes that it is one of the most beautiful pieces he has ever played. The premiere performance was in Rome with the Italian Brass Band, but the first recording was in Yorkshire with the Brighouse and Rastrick band conducted by Russell Gray, and our Track of the Week is the first movement from that Concerto, marked simply 'Scherzo'."
We hope you’ll enjoy our free track of the week that's below - and then will join us to hear all our many programmes, interviews and music podcasts. It’s a lot less than a cup of coffee a week!
