When I started my HOWARD SNELL BRASS back in the 80s I had a few different things in mind from what had gone before. In no particular order... I wanted to give chamber music opportunities to the solo players of the FODEN Band of which I was conductor at the time... and I wanted to try for a different brass ensemble sound to that which had become the norm with the Philip Jones Brass Ensemble. His approach was based around orchestral brass sound and style, although in the hands of the players of such sophistication that Philip gathered around him, it was a great deal more than that. Clarity of style and phrasing, together with a precisely controlled level of delivery, constituted a unity of music making that is still the mark at which to aim. With the much more mobile family of brass band instruments available, and with players of great virtuosity, it meant that my approach was based more on the fluidity of woodwind and strings than in the statuesque chordings of orchestral brass.
In this case comparisons are unnecessary, because both occupy different musical spaces, but with artist performers such as Martin Winter, Alan Morrison, David King, Kirsten Thomas, Robert Fulcher, Nicholas Hudson, Paul Milner, Nicholas Childs, Thomas Wyss and Simone Rebello it was easy to realise these aims.
The three recordings made for Polyphonic are still available....
