Track List

Lost in Translation
i. Moscow Fanfare Traditional
ii. Proschaniye Slavjanki Agapkin
iii. Den Pobedy Tukhmanov

Festive Overture Shostakovich

Adagio from Spartacus Khachaturian

Jazz Suite No. 2 Shostakovich
i. March
ii. Waltz No. 2
iii. Dance No. 1

Dance of the Sugar Plum Fairy Tchaikovsky

Montagues and Capulets Prokofiev

From Russia with Love (RAF Shades of Blue Orchestra) Barry/Bassie

Old March of the Ukrainian Cossacks Zaphorovsky

Russian Sailors Dance Gliere

Song of the Volga Boatman (RAF Shades of Blue Orchestra) Miller

Pictures at an Exhibition Mussorgsky
i. Baba Yaga
ii. The Great Gate of Kiev

NOTES

In August 2011, just before summer leave, the Band spent a week recording in the beautiful acoustic of St. Michael’s Church, RAF Cranwell. This is the latest CD from the Band and my first as Director of Music! The Russian sound has always been a big favourite of mine, the variety of music on this recording works brilliantly with a Symphonic Wind Band.

The music opens with ‘Lost in Translation’ a medley of Russian marches - Moscow Fanfare, Proschaniye Slavjanki [Farewell of Slavianka] and Den Pobedy [Victory Day] all performed by the Band when they marched across Red Square, Moscow in 2010 for the 65^th Anniversary of the Allied Forces Victory in Europe.

The punch and sheer power that the musicians’ give to Shostakovich’s first offering, Festive Overture is immense. An air of sophistication arrives with the tranquillity and majesty of Khachaturian’s Adagio from Spartacus before Shostakovich energetically returns with three movements from his Jazz Suite No.2. Alongside the virtuosic playing in the woodwind and percussion sections for the March and Dance is the beautiful alto saxophone playing of SAC Judith O’Hara in the Waltz. Tchaikovsky even gets a mention with a very different arrangement of the Dance of the Sugar Plum Fairy from the pen of Sammy Nestico. Of course no recording would be complete without the instantly recognisable sounds of Prokofiev’s Montague’s and Capulet’s from Romeo and Juliet.

The Shades of Blue Orchestra, under the direction of their new leader, Principal Trombonist Corporal Ben Bradley feature on two of the tracks; Count Basie’s arrangement of From Russia with Love, (a tenuous link to the East I know) and Glen Miller’s treatment of an old shanty first published in 1866, The Song of the Volga Boatmen. In between the Big Band charts the musicians are given a workout with energetic renditions of The Old March of the Ukrainian Cossacks and Glière’s Russian Sailors Dance.

Mussorgsky’s epic ‘Pictures at an Exhibition’ provides a suitably grand ending to the recording… unfortunately I didn’t have enough time for a complete performance, but I am sure you will enjoy the last two ‘Pictures’, Baba Yaga and The Great Gate of Kiev… the Band certainly did!