Friday 7th July 2023, musical interlude

 


A warm sunny day in N Wales, and a less frenetic programme. We arrived at the pavilions this morning to learn that the contemporary dance competition had been cancelled due to late withdrawals, so settled down instead to the solo instrumentalists preliminary heats.


On show, three pianists, a brace of cellists, a percussionist and a tuba player. All vying for title of young musician of the year, and at various stages of aspiration towards a full professional career. As ever with these things, the repertoire was designed to show off technical competence and versatility, not reward listening for pleasure, but it was still a pretty relaxing couple of hours.

The highlight was definitely the herd of parping elephants conjured up by the tuba, though the complex patterns weaved on the marimba were pretty hypnotic too.

We then gave ourselves the rest of the morning off for good behaviour, skipping the early knockout stages of the solo singing competition in the full knowledge that the finalists will re-emerge on the main stage at tomorrow’s evening concert. We found a great spot on the outdoor decking of the Corn Mill restaurant, overlooking the Dee, for a boozy lunch and the odd sighting of white water rafters threading a course down the river.

Rejuvenated by a bit more downtime and a constitutional nap at the tilt, we headed back into town for the evening show - Guy Barker’s big band jazz group and top-draw guest vocalists Clare Teal, Vanessa Haynes and Tommy Blaize (of Strictly fame), as well as Giacomo Smith on the clarinet/ alto sax. Big, bold, brassy sounds from an assortment of trombones, trumpets and saxophones, with numbers mainly inspired by the New Orleans scene from the ‘20s to the modern day. 

The cultural onslaught continues to the final frontier tomorrow.

Joff x


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