Music

Brass Lab, Cottier's Theatre, Glasgow

Michael Tumelty

Five stars

ON Thursday night a newish group, Brass Lab, founded by Bryan Allen, trumpeter extraordinaire, previously brass guru at the old RSAMD, made its Cottier Chamber Project debut with a brass quintet concert that opened with Lutoslawski's mind-blowing Mini-Overture, continued with the evocative portraiture of Judith Bingham's Dream of the Past, and concluded with Philip Wilby's Classic Images.

In between these, all delivered with style and panache by the inimitable Allen and his platoon of untouchables, was a new piece by a young musician called Jay Capperauld. Remember that name. He's a tall, slim, fair-haired Scot. I wrote about his music through his student years. He's an original: new thinking, fresh expression and nothing second-hand; it's all his own. His jazz orchestration (Heroin Chic) is mind-blowing. His command of abstract musical drama with a historical anchor (an incredible piece on attempts to contact Harry Houdini beyond the grave) is riveting. And now, what does he do in his latest piece, Inertial Frames, a brass quintet? Oh, he stops Time. More precisely, he disrupts the pulse and flow of chronological time. He sets a relentless metronomic pulse going and pits instrumental lines and chords against it, trying to break free of its remorseless grip. It tries to speed up. It tries to free itself of the inexorable thump of the pulse. Nothing goes anywhere because there is nowhere to go. Speed doesn't work. They're stuck. They try charm by getting expressive. It doesn't work. It's teeth-grinding. It's a classic study in tension from Capperauld the magician. He has his first major orchestral commission in the pipeline, from the BBC SSO: heads up for a fresh voice.