Adjudication Ebbw Vale 2008

Dances &Alleluias

Adjudicator

Philip Harper

Draw 5

Dances and Alleluias

Rather hit and miss to begin and when it settles at 10 the ‘ppp’ is too loud to be effective.  Good transition to 42.  For me the ‘f’ dynamic is not compact enough and is too loud.  There is some detail missing and it all sounds rather frantic and out of control.

Good euph transition, but needs to be quieter when ‘pp’ and ‘ppp’.  Then nice trombone, but all ‘pp’ effects should be simply that – effects!  They’re too conspicuous.  Nice duet playing but I feel that the picture would be much more effective if you were (all) playing quieter (the score says ‘pp’ after all!)

Real high-risk approach at 169 – over tempo and again lots of detail is lost and it once again sounds like a frantic panic!  It’s difficult to make sense of it at this speed – sorry!

420 well-played baritone and nice sounds.  431 comes in with a crunch rather than ‘washing’ over you as it should.  Needs more roundness.

440 accomp. is very insensitive – I’m sure s. cnt does a good job but I can’t really hear him/her.

Moving to 469 becomes rather harsh and overblown with big tuning issues becoming very apparent towards the close.

Overall, as you might have guessed, I thought it was all too loud, lacking finesse.  The fast stuff wasn’t detailed and a lot was glossed over.  Some good individual playing though!

Philip Harper 17-5-08

Order of play 5

Points 180

Placing 6