It was at the mini Gala Concert at the National Final in 2005 that Mnozil came to the wider attention of the brass band public and no one in attendance that day is likely to have forgotten it. After a day of high quality band playing, a small group of quirkily-dressed brass players came on stage and, in about 30 seconds flat, made an incredible impact. I was in a box with friends and we all sat ‘slack-jawed’ in sheer amazement at the power, range, stamina and sheer quality of the playing, let alone the delight shown in entertaining an audience.

Thus started a following that has seen the Mnozil Brass travel the world and become a firm favourite of brass band audiences everywhere. In a quick five-minute chat with Leonhard Paul before the ensemble’s most recent concert, he confirmed that this kicked things forward for the group and opened doors worldwide. I have now seen Mnozil about
a dozen times since and still wonder how its players do it. I never fail to leave a Mnozil concert without a feeling of elation and depression - elation at what I have heard and depression at how far away from mine their abilities remain. My cornet has survived, but the temptation to throw it out of a first floor window remains.

I saw the group’s latest show, Yes Yes Yes, last June in Birmingham Town Hall, at a time when Mnozil had just started performing it. It is a show that, as member and last month’s BBW Castaway, Thomas Gansch, observes, “relies on kitsch a lot less - it is all about the music.” This is certainly the case and Mnozil’s performance on this occasion showed that the show is now fully honed and refined from that heard last year. From the moment Mnozil’s members start with a Korngold film score fanfare, seguing into Tom Jones and on through a DJ-lead programme, the playing and choreography is right on the button.

I remain unconvinced that the DJ element of it fully works, but the playing is just glorious. To hear the power at the culmination of the Adagio from Spartacus and Phrygia is mind-blowing - there are massed bands that make less noise than this, yet the quality never falters.

In the last few months, Mnozil has swapped tuba players - Albert Wieder has taken over from Wilfried Brandstotter for a year or so. He manages to play the whole show on an enormous Bb side valve tuba and musically adds an extra dimension. His sound is of titanic proportions, yet his mobility, range and technique so astounding that he copes with everything that the former Eb player did. He does not have the comic character of Wilfried perhaps, but who does?

It was a pity that the hall was only about half full for this evening. Other than it being most bands’ regular rehearsal night, I could not fathom this, albeit that the ensemble appeared here just over a year ago and also in Birmingham just last June. Musically, this show is about as good as anything that I have heard anywhere. It is shorter on laughs than usual perhaps, but Thomas Gansch’s Spanish introductions are a work of genius. You don’t need to understand a word of it to be helpless.

It is difficult to single out any one player for especial mention because they all are superb and each brings different things to the group. Thomas Gansch is a phenomenon who sounds equally at home in classical style, whilst his jazz improvisation is so relaxed and just plain right. Robert Rother (trumpet) has endless range, power and a beautiful purity of sound, and Roman Rindberger (trumpet) switches effortless between trumpet and flugel. Leonhard Paul does a lot of the arranging, as well as the deadpan contortionist routine; to see him get wrapped up in his trombone for five minutes brings Chaplin or Keaton to mind, whilst Zoltan Kiss does things on a trombone that seem impossible - I have never heard playing like it! He threw in a super G at the end of the very last piece just for fun. Finally, Gerhard Fussl has a fabulously expressive face and is also a quite superb trombone player. If there is a weakness in this group, I don’t know what it is.

Notwithstanding the slightly smaller crowd, Mnozil was called back for two encores - the first an inspired Stevie Wonder medley played by Thomas Gansch, Leonhard Paul and Albert Wieder and, to finish, my favourite piece of the night. After almost two hours of blowing, the players of Mnozil delivered a faultless gentle arrangement of the Gilbert O’Sullivan classic, Alone Again, Naturally.

A fantastic night, which only served to make me go straight onto Mnozil’s website to plan my next visit to hear the group. If you haven’t heard Mnozil before, I urge you to do so at the first opportunity.

JEREMY WISE Conductor

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