Best of brass coming to cathedral

VICTORIA Brass will take to the stage for the first time in five years to delight Bendigo audiences at the Sacred Heart Cathedral.

Principal conductor and Bendigo expat Dr Matthew van Emmerik said the 27 and 28 November concerts were “all about the musicians” and the distinct sound of the church’s organ.

“The concept of what we’re trying to do here is to have a celebration for the musicians after the lack of performance opportunities over the last two years,” he said.

“The idea really came from thinking that something needed to be done of a high level.

“We have the best players in the state performing with the band so it’s quite a special thing,” he said. “The repertoire for the concert is geared around that.”

On the program are organ symphonies Widor Toccata and Saint-Saens along with Bach’s famous Toccata and Fugue performed by guest soloist Dr Calvin Bowman.

The concerts will also mark the Australasian premieres of Philip Wilby’s The Pilgrim’s Progress, which has spoken elements narrated by soloist Matthew Little, and Circius by Norwegian composer Torstein Aagaard-Nilsen.

With the COVID-19 pandemic having been a real detriment to community music making, van Emmerik said when the band reunited “it was like we’d been playing together week in week out.”

“It’s just absolute elation to be perfectly honest,” he said.

“We’ve been working really hard on putting these pieces together and making it a pretty special couple of events.

“The whole reason this was put together was for the musicians to feel like they’ve achieved something over this two-year period.”

Of the concert venue, van Emmerik said it was an unmatched space that he had always wanted to perform in.

“We needed to find a venue that would benefit the music and we needed the music to be able to benefit the venue,” he said.

“As a young person growing up and living in Bendigo, I always thought how good it would be to have an elite ensemble performing in the cathedral and what it would be like to conduct it.

“For the audience in the middle of that sound, it will be something that I don’t believe people have ever heard in the cathedral before.”