AFTER less than a year, Geoff Grey and his Canberra Wind Symphony have established themselves as Canberra’s premier wind ensemble, presenting an ambitious season of concerts in 2016.

The ensemble is not a symphony orchestra, nor is it a big band, a dance band or a military band. It’s quite large though, with around 45 players, featuring brass, reeds, flutes and a wide range of percussion and quite comfortably covers all genres.

This concert presented a program as diverse as it was interesting. As the title suggests, it was music from France, even including George Gershwin’s ‘An American in Paris’, inspired by his visit to the French capital in 1926, when he met Maurice Ravel, whose ‘Bolero’ was given a fine performance in the second half of the program.

The concert started off confidently with a rousing verse of ‘La Marseillaise’.

Later, soloist Jo Stephenson, playing a baritone tuba, gave a very sensitive and expressive performance of Charles Gounod’s beautiful baritone vocal piece, ‘Jesus de Nazareth’. But generally in the first half, until the Gershwin piece, which was at the end, the ensemble was tentative and unsure. Grey, himself, seemed nervous although his patter was engaging and entertaining.

In the second half, the ensemble was more confident and sounded in better balance to me. Perhaps this was because, in the first half, I was in the front row but moved up the back for the second half where the sound of the various sections blended into a more satisfying whole.

Offenbach’s ‘Infernal Gallop’, featuring just the brass and percussion, got things off to a lively and exciting start in the second half, followed by a very creditable performance of ‘Bolero’, again just with brass and percussion. Chris Jennaway, playing a snare drum, kept that interminable rhythm going at a strict tempo all the way through. He used just a couple of 20c coins at the start, seamlessly changing to sticks as the volume got louder.

But it was the last piece in the program, Camille Saint-Saëns’ ‘Marche Militaire’ in which the ensemble showed its true strength. Grey was a lot more animated and confident, inspiring first class and very assured playing. It was an exciting end to the concert and the near-capacity audience gave it enthusiastic applause.

There is no doubt, as they near their first birthday, the Canberra Wind Symphony is finding its niche and promising to be a fine addition to Canberra’s music culture.

[Photo of Geoff Grey by Peter Hislop]