CONTEST RESULTS

Besson Swiss Open

Date: 21 Sep 2024
Venue: Concert Hall, Culture and Congress Centre, Lucerne
Adjudicator(s): Carlo Balmelli, Dr Robert Childs, Pascal Eicher, Blaise Héritier, Howard Lorriman
Test piece: Masquerade (Philip Wilby)

Pos Band Conductor Test Piece Own Choice Total
Draw Points Pos Draw Points Pos points
1 Valaisia Brass Band Arsène Duc 10 178 1 1 169 5 347
The Torchbearer - Symphonic Variations on a theme by Eric Ball (Peter Graham)
2 Brass Band Bürgermusik Luzern Michael Bach 2 167 5 10 175 1 342
English Heritage (George Lloyd)
3 Brass Band Fribourg A Florent Didier 8 175 2 4 164 6 339
Harmony Music (Philip Sparke)
4 Liberty Brass Band Ostschweiz Stefan Roth 7 171 3 5 163 7 334
Blitz (Derek Bourgeois)
5 Ensemble de Cuivres Valaisan Jean-François Bobillier 4 161 7 8 172 2 333
Extreme Make-over (Johan de Meij)
6 Wallberg Band Ivan Meylemans 3 162 6 7 170 3 332
Partita (Philip Sparke)
7 Brass Band Berner Oberland Véronique Gyger-Pitteloud 1 158 8 6 170 3 328
Montage (Peter Graham)
8 Ensemble de Cuivres Jurassien Russell Gray 6 168 4 3 155 9 323
Dances and Arias (Edward Gregson)
9 Oberaargauer Brass Band A Hervé Grélat 5 154 10 9 156 8 310
The Essence of Time (Peter Graham)
10 Brass Band Luzerner Hinterland Sandro Blank 9 158 8 2 151 10 309
The Year of the Dragon (Philip Sparke)

Best euphonium in set piece: Glenn Van Looy (Valaisia Brass Band)

Best performance of own-choice test: Brass Band Bürgermusik Luzern (playing English Heritage)

For their own-choice piece, bands were required to play an original work from a prescribed list.

Links to videos of set test and own-choice performances as follows:

Valaisia Brass Band

Brass Band Bürgermusik Luzern

Brass Band Fribourg A

Liberty Brass Band Ostschweiz

Ensemble de Cuivres Valaisan

Wallberg Band

Brass Band Berner Oberland

Ensemble de Cuivres Jurassien

Oberaargauer Brass Band A

Brass Band Luzerner Hinterland


The adjudicators were in separate boxes and each awarded placings for each band for both the set test piece and the orchestral transcription.  1st place is then converted to 60 points, 2nd place 59 points, and so on.  The highest and lowest marks awarded to each band were discarded and hence a maximum of 360 points (2 x 180) were available.  Points scored for the own choice march were not included in the overall mark and were for the purpose of deciding the special march prize only.