Brass in Concert

The Fodens Band
Conductors: Bryan Hurdley and Bramwell Tovey
Soloists: Sergei Nakariakov, Jiggs Whigham, Alan Wycherley, Glyn Williams, Helen Fox, Robert Fulcher.
Doyen Recordings: CD139
Total Playing Time: 65.55 mins

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How most bands would love to be able to field a line up of star players like Fodens are able to do in one of their concerts - It must be a conductors dream to able to have resources such as these at their disposal. However, having brilliant players is one thing - how they are used is quite another.

This latest CD release from the newly crowned "All England Masters Champions" sees them provide the listener with 16 tracks, of which no less than seven feature solo items (you could really say this could be upped to 13 if you take into account the amazing efforts of Glyn Williams who plays more instruments than even Roy Castle could manage in a whole series of "Record Breakers" all those years ago). All are class acts, and all perform here quite superbly, but the problem is that the end result is a CD that is more a showcase of very talented individuals rather than a genuine complete concert package. Sometimes the whole sum is not greater than it's constituent parts.

That is not to say that this overall package is a disappointment, but you can sometimes have too much of a good thing, and by the end of "Brass in Concert" you get the feeling of just digesting a feast based on 16 courses of exotica, when a few courses less and a bit more substance is really what you needed.

Things start well with a traditional march, "Cross of Honour" by Rimmer - a man who is inextricably linked to the Sandbach band, and this is followed by a spankingly good rip through "Russlan and Ludmilla" in the arrangement by the "Wee Professor" himself, Walter Hargreaves. These are just entrées for what is to come though and next up we get to hear the prodigiously gifted Russian trumpet player Sergei Nakariakov.

You are always a bit wary of people who's name cannot be mentioned without an epithet in front of them (all except heavyweight boxers that is), but Nakariakov - or "The Paganini of the trumpet" or "the young magician from Russia" as the PR blurb gushes is pretty good value for money as he displays a technical brilliance especially in his tonguing technique that would make a chameleon green with envy. "Carnival of Venice " is a bit old hat, but on this outing it's a hat worth seeing worn a few more times by this 25 year old - more New York Yankees baseball cap than Russian soldiers muffler.

We then get Alan Wycherley (someone who has also had a few epithets to describe his talents over the years) give a nice rendition of "Meditation" from "Thais" in a version by Darrol Barry that is oddly disappointing. We're sure he used to play a version arranged by Geoffrey Brand a few years ago which was so much better a showcase for his undoubted musicianship - this ones a bit of a lame duck in comparison and doesn't give the player the material to shine as we know he can.

This cannot be said of the next player to take to the soloist rostrum as Glyn Williams displays an absolute mind boggling capacity to play no less than 8 different instruments in Alan Fernie's clever "Air Varie" - a piece that was first used by the band and player at the "Brass in Concert" contest at Spennymoor last year. There he deservedly took the soloist prize and you can hear why as he gives sparkling cameo performances on the euphonium (as you would expect), baritone, horn, cornet, flugel, trombone, soprano (I kid you not) and finally, four notes on the xylophone. It is quite breathtaking - but there is a huge disappointment to it as well.

Given that it was written as part of the bands entertainment programme for the Spennymoor contest, a major part of its appeal was its visual content of actually seeing Glyn Williams amazing performance and with this missing some of the effect - especially to those who don't know what the piece is all about, is lost. This is a performance that deserves to be kept for posterity on video as well as CD - it is that unique.

Helen Fox then takes over and performs with a lovely tone in "My Ain Folk" before Mr Nakariakov gets his six shooter tongue into overdrive for a whip through "Hora Staccato". That's 5 out of the first 7 tracks of the solo variety and it therefore comes as a bit of a relief as the band turn to their Professional Conductor, Bramwell Tovey to direct two items that were recorded some eight months after the rest of the CD in February 2002. Why just the two items we ask? If we were being cynical we could say it smacks a bit of adding a missing ingredient to make the overall feast more palatable - and saleable. But hey, we're not like that are we?

The "Bacchanale" from Samson and Delilah is given a good work out in it's reduced form arranged by Keith Wilkinson, but "David of the White Rock" in the classic Willcocks arrangement is pulled and stretched to disappointing effect - it really is a simple tune, which sounds at its best when simply played.

"From this Moment On" is a pastiche big band arrangement by Goff Richards that never quite comes off (and sounds if it may have been cut in too many places) whilst "The First Circle" is another jazz interlude that doesn't quite hit the mark, but does feature some tremendous trombone work from the appropriately named Jiggs Whitham. Robert Fulcher also gives a neat and controlled swan song on Derek Broadbent's "Skelter" and once again shows the listener what a fine (and underrated) player he was for the band.

"Mission Impossible" sounds like brass band music that should really self-destruct thirty seconds after it finishes - it's not a patch on the original version (a bit like the film really) but Torstein Aagard Nielsen's "Norwegian Dance" is good stuff and "Prelude from the 49th Parallel" is expertly played with lovely rounded sounds. The final item is the popular "Shine as the Light" by Peter Graham, which ends the CD in fine fashion.

It may sound a bit churlish of us to suggest that at the end of 65 minutes of top notch playing you may still be less than fully satisfied, but as we said - you sometimes can have too much of a good thing, and this for us was possibly one of those occasions. There is no denying the quality of the individuals on show here, but sometimes even that's not enough. Sometimes less is more - and as we said, "Brass in Concert" is a CD that leaves you with the feeling of being served a meal of amazing small exotic dishes when you could have done with a little bit less of them and a bit more meat and two veg.

That said, it's not a bad way to feed your brass band appetite, so why not indulge yourself?

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