RNCM - Fodens Band

Conductors: Bram Tovey, Garry Cutt
Soloists: Rex Richardson, Mark Fewer
2009 RNCM Festival of Brass
RNCM, Manchester
Saturday 31st January

Fewer the better: Violininst Mark Fewer wows the RNCM audience
Photo: Ian Clowes

More pictures at: http://www.pbase.com/troonly/0901_rncm_festival

The factors that come together to create a truly memorable concert can be an elusive combination. 

Something very special

The quality of the music itself, the musicians playing it and a suitable sense of occasion can often be heard individually but it is comparatively rare that all three unite to create something very special.

Saturday night at the RNCM Festival of Brass was one such occasion, with Fodens under the inspired direction of Garry Cutt and Bramwell Tovey, giving a grateful audience a concert to both relish and remember for a long time to come.

To begin with, the programme was one of the most intriguing of the weekend with no less than two world premieres, a UK premiere, a foretaste of the All England Masters in Bruce Broughton’s 'Masters of Space and Time' and two familiar favourites framing proceedings in the shape of 'Variations on a Ninth' and Philip Wilby’s 'Paganini Variations'.  
 
Add to that a world class trumpet player in Rex Richardson and a violin soloist (yes, a violin soloist) in Mark Fewer and the ingredients were appetising to say the least.

Apt start

With Gilbert Vinter’s son, Dr Andrew Vinter in the audience along with his family, 'Variations on a Ninth' proved to be an apt way to start the concert and with Garry Cutt taking charge of the first half, the attention to detail given to the score by both conductor and players was immediately apparent in the transparency of the music from the very opening bars. 

Top form

We all have our personal favourites amongst Gilbert Vinter’s music but whether 'Variations on a Ninth' is at the top of your list or not, it was impossible not to be won over by the band’s performance. Soloists were on top form throughout with Glyn Williams and Mark Wilkinson particularly outstanding whilst the overall musicality of the phrasing and the shaping of the melodic lines was of the very highest stature. 

Ultimately one could only sit back and admire a band at the very top of its form.  

Very special performance

At the other end of the evening, 'Paganini Variations', again in the hands of Garry Cutt, possessed all the hallmarks of a very special performance indeed; so much so that a clearly emotional Philip Wilby could be seen at the conclusion applauding his heart out at the side of the stage. 

In full flight, Fodens has a sound that hardly any other band can match at present; huge, yet controlled and wonderfully balanced in a way that can only come from the quality of the players themselves. 

It was the subtlety and control of the playing that amazed still more though with soloists once again turning in playing of real stature, none more so than Helen Williams, whose flugel playing was exquisite. 

With the audience shouting out for more, it fell to Bram Tovey to calm things down with a moving account of Abide With Me, played in memory of Teddy Gray and Ray Norton, two banding stalwarts who will be sadly missed. 

Meaty

The meat in the sandwich was initially to be had in Peter Meechan’s 'Apophenia for Trumpet and Band'. 

It was the playing of Rex Richardson that inspired the work and in an informative chat with Paul Hindmarsh preceding the performance, the composer enlightened the audience on the inspiration behind the music and the meaning of “apophenia”...a good job as we couldn’t find the word in our Concise Oxford English Dictionary! 

Apophenia relates to the ability to see apparent patterns in random data and more specifically the phenomenon of “viewing the Dark Side of the Rainbow, which refers to the act of listening to the 1973 Pink Floyd album The Dark Side of the Moon whilst watching the film The Wizard of Oz, where moments in the film and the album appear to correspond with each other”.

High energy stuff

How this discovery was made is possibly something better not dwelt on but the music itself proved to be a challenge even for the talents of Rex Richardson who seemed to take a little while to settle into a groove through the fast rhythmic repetitions of the opening movement. 

It was real high energy stuff with a prominent part for kit, only slowing down for a brief eastern sounding calm at the movement’s centre. 

Us and Them

The central movement, inspired by the Pink Floyd song 'Us and Them', saw the soloist initially switch to a silky sounding Flugel, before some fantastic high big band style trumpet, whilst the dance rhythms of the finale were interrupted by a highly virtuosic cadenza, initially with kit.

This was one of those pieces that immediately left the feeling of wanting to hear it again and is further evidence of a composer who is likely to have much to offer in the coming years. 

Impression

Andy Scott made quite an impression at last year’s Festival with his Tuba Concerto “Salt of the Earth”, a work that subsequently resulted in him taking up the position of composer in residence with Foden’s.     
                                       
If anything the world premiere of 'A World Within' made an even greater impression on this year’s audience in the RNCM Concert Hall, the work being a product of Scott’s jazz saxophonist roots as well as having a personal link to the band in its dedication to Foden’s president Peter Fletcher. 

Terrific piece

In the classical world it’s music that might be labelled post modernist or even post minimalist, although fortunately in the band world we can take at face level; a terrific piece that says something entirely different to any other composer currently working in the medium.

Playing out in a series of episodes, by turns arresting, jazzy and always imaginative, the band were able to give it free reign with stunning sounds and some fantastic solo trombone work from John Barber. Most in the hall seemed to be in little doubt that Andy Scott is a composer the brass band world should hang onto for grim death.  
         
Touch of Hollywood

Bruce Broughton’s 'Masters of Space and Time' brought a touch of Hollywood to proceedings and with Bramwell Tovey now at the helm gave a glimpse of what the competing bands have in store for them at the Masters come May.
As Paul Hindmarsh pointed out beforehand, what that amounts to is an ensemble piece. 

With little in the way of out and out solo work, it is the players themselves who are the masters of space and time in a piece that is going to take some serious putting together for many of the bands involved. It’s certainly exciting stuff, although it has to be said that it isn’t likely to go down as a classic.

Virtuosity

In the hands of Foden’s however, the sheer virtuosity of the performance coupled with Tovey’s charismatic dynamism, made for an edge of the seat experience and on this form, the gauntlet has already been well and truly thrown down for Cambridge.

Revelatory

And so to Bramwell Tovey’s 'Nine Daies Wonder' for violin and brass band, a piece and a performance that can only be described as revelatory, such was its originality and inspirational brilliance. 

Introduced with a winning combination of charm, self deprecating wit and sartorial elegance by the composer (“a piece for violin and brass band...what can he be thinking of I hear you say”) the work tells the story of Will Kemp’s famous nine day dancing journey from London to Norwich with the soloist reciting well known lines from Shakespeare plays along the way; a reference to Kemp’s partnership with Shakespeare in the Globe Theatre.

Terrific ear for colour

It’s impossible to find a comparison in the brass band repertoire for something as different as this, although Tovey himself drew an analogy with Stravinsky...”a Soldier’s Tale without the blood and guts”. 

Aside from the originality of the music, the work is scored with consummate skill, avoiding the possible pitfalls of balance between soloist and band effectively by chamber like scoring in the soloist’s passages allied with a terrific ear for colour and effect.

Tremendous

Newfoundland born violinist Mark Fewer was tremendous both musically and theatrically and it is some measure of how well the performance went down in the hall that Foden’s planned recording of A Night to Sing for the next day was abandoned in favour of committing 'Nine Daies Wonder' to disc instead. It should certainly be one to look out for and you heard it first on 4BR!

Night to remember

A concert then with a Foden’s  Band on inspirational form and three composers in Peter Meechan, Andy Scott and Bramwell Tovey that we hope we will hear much more of over the coming years. 

It might not have been a night to sing but it was certainly a night to remember.  
   
Christopher Thomas

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