Mnozil Brass in the UK - 31st May to 2nd June 2013
Published in Events on 2013-05-29 by Empty Chairs
More news from Mnozil Brass
On Jan 1st 1970, at
HAPPY BIRTHDAY – 20 years of MNOZIL BRASS – A Jubilee Programme
Hooray, we’ve managed the first twenty years!
Mnozil Brass has received incredibly positive reviews in the papers. The ensemble is virtuosic and probably the strangest brass septet ever to emerge from Vienna. We would like to offer them our heartfelt birthday congratulations. And if anyone would like to join us on that, let us extend a warm invitation to the series of jubilee concerts!
So who exactly is inviting you? Well, that would be: Thomas Gansch, Robert Rother & Roman Rindberger on trumpets, Leonhard Paul on the bass trumpet and trombone, and Gerhard Füssl & Zoltan Kiss also on trombones, as well as Wilfried Brandstötter on tuba.
The repertoire includes occasional brass music for any age and stage of life, performed now for twenty years. No note is too high, no lips too hot, no music too unimportant or too serious not to be taken on by Mnozil Brass, who always manage to make something great out of it. Music by Mnozil Brass appeals to all the senses. It is almost visible, and, when they take the stage, the very air seems perfumed.
All seven members of the band studied at the University of Music in Vienna, graduating as well-rounded musicians who, in the meantime, have found their places too as teachers in professional musical life. But they never lost their nerve and remain flippant enough to create from their virtuosic playing and unique kind of comedy the kind of scenes on stage which are so clever that they would be worthy of Monty Python.
Despite or maybe because of their academic backgrounds, it is important and, we add, perhaps necessary to have fun. Musical cabaret and comedy are rare birds indeed. And Mnozil Brass assumes they will be playing for an intelligent audience, one able to imagine what they are getting at. Enlightenment is their watchword, and this is paired with a kind of laid back perfection. This is what the septet is known for, and loved for. Not only in the city centre of Vienna.
What began as a session in a rustic restaurant was soon to take root and become part of concert life. In between times, they have given more than 120 concerts each year. In total, Mnozil Brass thinks they must have played a total of 1846 concerts, travelled at least 14,821,613.4 kilometres and consumed around 10,003 bread rolls with sausage meat. Other than that, probably ca. four hectolitres of sparkling, yeast-ridden brews and spirits have been quaffed, and around two hectolitres of CO2 neutral condensed water must have dripped out the end of their instruments.
Over the years, Thomas has produced the note c''' (loud) 46,281 times, Roman c'''' (soft) 247 times, and Robert c''''' (with optimum temperatures and tailwind) twelve times. Gerhard has played innumerable glissandi, and now suffers from tennis arm. As for Zoltan, his playing as so touched a nerve amongst audiences that people have broken down in tears. Leonhard, for his part, has ordained that the bass trumpet is actually a musical instrument. Wilfried’s tuba has fallen over four times now. So, as you see, there is every reason for a jubilee tour!
After three successful operetta and opera productions in the last few years, Mnozil Brass continue their extraordinary career by ringing in the changes for 2013. On the occasion of the 200th anniversary of the birth of Richard Wagner, the ensemble has been entrusted with a production for the City of Bayreuth. A pinnacle of success we are bound to assume. Congratulations all round!
Fri. 31 May 2013 Oldham - Queen Elizabeth Hall
Sat.1 June 2013 - Huddersfield Town Hall
Sun. 2 June 2013 - Llangollen Pavillion