Brass Players: The Accompanist's View
by Nicholas Oliver

About 18 months ago Chethams School of Music advertised a vacancy in the piano accompaniment department – a new full-time staff member was required. As I and the other members of the team pondered over the applicants for the post we naturally considered the qualities we felt we were looking for and one repeatedly came to mind – ‘we really should get someone with some experience of the Brass repertoire’. Absolutely, we agreed and, indeed, how about someone willing to specialise in this area? From there, it followed so naturally, ‘why don’t we get someone who will do the whole damn lot?’

Of course, we did no such thing and our excellent, now only new-ish accompanist works, as we all do, with players from across the instrumental families. But why did these unworthy notions suggest themselves in the first place?

Well, we were of course anxious to protect and preserve the floor coverings in our rooms from one of Brass players’ most endearing habits – I mean what other activity requires one to regularly unscrew or open bits of tubing and tip or blow out bodily fluids directly onto the floor? Well, I suppose one could think of some but let’s not go there…

So what is it about accompanying Brass players that causes a deepening of the worry lines on even the most competent and experienced accompanists’ brow? Is it the nail-biting suspense of wondering if the trumpeter’s top C in Bozza’s Caprice is there today or whether it may be temporarily unavailable? “The note you are requesting is switched off. Please try later”. Is there something particularly unendurable about an elementary level and inadequately taught performer? No, neither of these. All instruments have their Achilles heels and does anything sound worse than a poorly played violin? Is there an issue with the Brass repertoire? Ah, we may be on to something here. It has to be said that there are a lot of spectacularly badly written piano parts. This is by no means unique to the Brass repertoire but there are a proportionally large number of pieces where the piano part lies awkwardly for the pianist and arrangements from instrumental accompaniments often just don’t work. Some of the repertoire itself too is perhaps on the unmemorable side – I will not risk naming particular pieces but I was amused during a recent Euphonium masterclass where I was accompanying when the teacher’s first question to the student following the play through was “Do you think this piece is likely to be in the repertoire still in, say, 10 years time?” Er, I don’t think so. Come to think of it, why in the world were we playing it in the first place? Of course many Brass instruments are historically primarily orchestral, ensemble or band creatures and there is relatively little original solo repertoire. Thus the world of transcriptions and arrangements has to be explored and quality is not always guaranteed.

But I must not sound overly jaded or cynical. There are great masterpieces in the Brass repertoire, Hindemith’s Sonatas for Trumpet and Trombone have great piano parts and, though difficult, are very rewarding to play. There is a great deal of good music for Horn and piano and Brahms’s Trio op.40 for Violin, Horn and Piano is one of the glories of the chamber music repertoire.

Any instrument played well is a delight to listen to and accompany whatever the repertoire (almost!) and the beautiful tone of any of the Brass instruments played well is hard to beat. So keep it all coming at us you Brass players, we accompanists can handle it. What’s this? Three Miniatures for Tuba and Piano by Anthony Plog? Well at least they’re only miniature – isn’t there anything by Haydn?

Nicholas Oliver studied at the Purcell School for young musicians before gaining a scholarship to the Royal Academy of Music where he studied with Jean Anderson. Postgraduate studies continued at the Royal Northern College of Music with Marjorie Clementi, Martin Roscoe and Ka Kit Tam. He won several prizes at both colleges for solo and chamber music performances including the R.A.M.'s Elsie Cross prize for performance of twentieth century piano music and the Christian Carpenter award for piano accompaniment. He won the Young Pianist of the Year Award in 1984 and second prize at the 1991 Dudley International Piano Competition, since when he has been enjoying an increasingly successful performing career. A recent solo recital was commended for "assiduous attention to detail, sure technical finesse and a wide expressive range". Nick is particularly active in the field of chamber music in which capacity he has given numerous recitals with instrumentalists and singers for music societies and festivals throughout the UK. He has appeared several times at London's South Bank and at many of Britain's majot concert halls. A performance of the Elgar Sonata for violin and piano in a Purcell Room recital was acclaimed in the "Strad" magazine for its "whimsical playing, powerful, serene and grand with immaculate ensemble and balance." He and cellist Richard May were prize-winners in the 1994 inaugural EMI Jacqueline Du Pre competition for cello and piano duos. Following one of their many recitals, a critic for "The Times" wrote of the Shostakovich Sonata "simply one of the most gripping performances I have heard." Nicholas has broadcast frequently on independent radio and has released several recordings. Performances abroad have taken him to many European countries as well as Africa, Canada and the USA and is currently Joint Head of Piano Accompaniment at Chetham's, working with singers and instrumentalists in a wide variety of classes and performances.Nicholas was made an Associate of the Royal Academy of Music on 1997 and was elected to the Royal Society of Musicians in 2000.