The wind instrument in everyone's ears at the moment is the vuvuzela (pictured) a South African horn which comes in various lengths and pitches but is of unvarying volume: very loud. You'll be hearing a lot more of it during the World Cup, as it is the noise-polluter of choice for fans of Bafana-Bafana, the South African football team. If you're after a more euphonious blast of wind, however, there is an alternative.
Early last year I sat in thunderous proximity to the LSO Brass Ensemble as they performed the iconically scary "Dance of the Knights" theme from Prokofiev's Romeo and Juliet. My bones have just about ceased shaking. There is a chance to enjoy comparably mighty sounds when the LSO Brass Ensemble convenes on the stage of Barbican Hall on Sunday evening.
The programme includes a suitably brassy selection of fun fanfares and slidey suites from, among others, Walton and Ives. The composition most likely to shiver your timbers would seem to be a new offering from Mark-Anthony Turnage entitled Out of Black Dust, which will be having its UK premiere. It is inspired, so the promotional literature has it, by Led Zeppelin. Take your hard hats.
- LSO Brass Ensemble, Barbican Hall, 7.30pm Sunday 13 June
- See what's on at the Barbican this season
- Latest review of the LSO on theartsdesk