Winner: Bliss: Works for Brass
Black Dyke Band
Conductor: John Wilson
Chandos Recordings: CHSA 5344
Review: https://4barsrest.com/reviews/products/cd774.asp
2. George Lloyd — The Works for Brass
John Foster Black Dyke Mills Band
Conductor: David King
Equale Brass Quintet
John Wallace, John Miller, Michael Thompson, Peter Bassano, John Jenkins
Lyrita Recordings: LYRITA SRCD 425
Review: https://www.4barsrest.com/reviews/products/cd770.asp
3. Malcolm Arnold: Music for brass band
Foden's Band
Conductor: Michael Fowles
Choir of Chetham's School of Music
Choir Director: Marcus Farnsworth
Beckus: MAF 003
Review: https://www.4barsrest.com/reviews/products/cd773.asp
Five of the 10 long list nominees gained at least one first choice preference from the panel.
The winner though was still clear cut, with 7 first choices and six others for the exceptional Bliss release on the Chandos label with Black Dyke Band conducted by John Wilson.
This was music making of vibrancy and character that simply seeped through each of the seven featured works.
The amended re-release featuring David King, vintage Black Dyke and the Equale Brass Quintet also found favour with the majority of the panel with 3 first choice nominations and five others to come runner-up.
Foden's cultured authority certain shone though on their appreciation of the brass band music of Malcolm Arnold, as it gained 2 first choice nominations plus four others from the panel to come third overall.
Panel:
The Awards Panel consisted of: Iwan Fox (4BR Editor); Malcolm Wood (4BR); Chris Thomas (4BR & BBW); Gordon Simpson (brass band statistician); Anne Crookston (conductor/adjudicator); Sarah Groarke-Booth (conductor/adjudicator); Alexander Zwann (conductor/journalist); Jess Tredrea (conductor/musician); Tim Mutum (brass band historian); Tom Davoren (conductor/composer); Michael Franz (Editor Brass Band News Switzerland); Henk Van Loon (Editor CU Brass); Stein Skorpholm (broadcaster/musician); Camila Soderstrom Tveit (musician/adjudicator); Philippa Edwards AOM (conductor/performing arts producer)
This was music making of vibrancy and character that simply seeped through each of the seven featured works4BR
Past Winners:
2023: Force of Nature (Black Dyke Band)
2022: Vaughan Williams on Brass (Tredegar Band)
2021: Festmusik — A Legacy (Onyx Brass)
2020: Gregson: Music of the Angels (London Brass)
2019: The Music of Bliss & Howells (Brighouse & Rastrick Band)
2018: Metropolis (Black Dyke Band)
2017: Dances & Arias (Black Dyke Band)
2016: War Memorials (Cory Band & Tredegar Band)
2015: Dark Arteries (Tredegar Band)
2014: Gaia Symphony (Eikanger Bjorsvik Musikklag)
2013: When Worlds Collide: The Music of Nigel Clarke (Brass Band Buizingen)
2012: Masquerade (Foden's Band)
2011: Only for You: The Music of Paul Lovatt-Cooper (Black Dyke Band)
2010: Romeo & Juliet (Eikanger Bjorsvik Musikklag)
2009: Maestro (Foden's Band)
2008: New Music for Brass Band (Foden's Band)
2007: Vienna Nights (Black Dyke Band)
2006: Heaton: Volume 4 (Black Dyke Band)
2005: Tales and Stories (Eikanger Bjorsvik Musikklag)
2004: Music of the Spheres (Yorkshire Building Society Band)
2003: Bourgeois in Brass (Yorkshire Building Society Band)
2002: The Heaton Collection (Black Dyke Band and the ISB)
2001: Butterworth (Black Dyke Band)
