Brass Band Classics – Volume 1

Buy As You View Cory Band
Conductor: Robert Childs
Doyen Recordings: CD 140

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If you had the chance to select for a CD, the very best works ever to be written or arranged for a brass band, how many of you would have come up with a list of "The Corsair", "Tam O'Shanter's Ride", "Resurgam", Le Carnival Romain", "Labour and Love" and "Force of Destiny"? It's the beauty of making personal lists that everyone ends up with a different one, but just like Rob Fleming, the hero of Nick Hornby's "High Fidelity" best selling book, it makes for a great way of whiling away the time of day.

Therefore this release from BAYV Cory and Robert Childs (and his fellow list makers, Bernard Jones and Gerald Coleman) is not so much a collection of "Classic" brass band music, but as Robert Childs himself states, "the first of three planned volumes…to exploit the very best loved works in the brass band repertory." This is a much more accurate assessment of what we have here – six of the most popular, and well loved test pieces ever to be played off a contest stage in the history of the movement. This is the trios first choice of a "Top Six", and even though you may agree or disagree with their selections (and it will be even more interesting to see what makes the cut for the next two releases) you've got to hand it to them – it makes you want to sit down with pen and paper and make up your own list doesn't it?

The choice of using the term "Classic" should also raise a few eyebrows, as it has been much abused and misused over the years. Both sporting and cultural commentators liberally opinion that the latest tennis match, sports car, Millennium building or television programme achieves "Classic" status even though they have no idea of how this is identified or even measured. Being popular doesn't automatically give something "Classic" status – as the Collins English Dictionary states, "classic" means of first rank, or highest rank generally, but especially of art, refined, typical, famous, a work of recognised excellence. Given that lazy critics have described Benny Hill or the Citroen 2CV, the Borg/McEnroe tie break or the Lloyds Building as fully fledged icons of the "Classic" it makes you wonder a little when brass band repertoire gets in on the act.

In many ways then, Robert Childs has given us a rhetorical title and one that cleverly and possibly mischievously will get us arguing down the pub after band about our personal selections. Even over a pint of "Classic" beer perhaps?

The six selections cover a period that starts as far back as 1913, with Percy Fletcher's pastiche operatic construction of "Labour and Love" and incorporate five works that have been used as either the test pieces for the National Finals or the British Open (all except one just the once however) with Geoffrey Brand's arrangement of "The Corsair" the only one that hasn't had the honour. (it was used as the set work for the Regional Championships of 1970).

Strangely, "Labour and Love" is also the only work featured on the release that has a direct link to the fabulous photograph of the famous Crystal Palace trophy, which splendidly adorns the CD cover, as the five other works were either written or arranged in the post war period when the Pugin inspired mock Victorian baroque trophy criminally became "lost", only to surface somewhat mysteriously at the St. Fagans Museum of Welsh Life, just outside Cardiff. Wouldn't it be nice though to see it on display at this year's National Finals?

Unlike the trophy, age has wearied many of the works and like Oscar Wilde's "Dorian Gray", the ravages of time have taken their toll on their musical portraits – the originals more so than the arrangements.

Robert Childs also encourages the listener to make their own mind up about the merits of each piece as he has intelligently chosen interpretations that are neither "contest" nor "concert" in their approach. This "neutrality" makes each piece clear and concise and lays open the bare bones of the music for the listener to appreciate and understand for themselves. The precise programme notes follow this direction as well. Everything is in the place the composer or arranger so wished, and we get the chance to hear the detail and style, without recourse to bombast or affliction. This is very welcome, with even the formidable bass end peddling less than if they were on the Tour de France and the soloists displaying fine musicianship.

The three "originals" are faithfully and skilfully performed, with a playful intoxicated zest to Dennis Wright's "Tam O'Shanter's Ride" and a respectful understated performance of "Labour and Love". "Resurgam" is a piece that would in probably 90% of cases make anyone's wish list – and on this account you can see why. Again, it is simply presented, and this adds rather than detracts from its sincerity.

The arrangements just about hold their own, but in retrospect they are fairly monochrome in colour and texture – again a reflection of their time and the resources available to the Frank Wright of the bands of the 1950's and 1960's. It would be interesting to see how Howard Snell, or Ray Farr for instance would approach them today, whilst Geoffrey Brand's arrangement of "The Corsair" is as good as his "Carnival Overture" and reveals a man with possibly a more intuitive approach to arranging orchestral works for brass bands than the Australian. Again, each is laid out so that the listener to make their own mind up, and this makes the pieces much more satisfying to the ear.

This is one of those CD's that automatically gets you debating, arguing, ruminating, but ultimately loving every minute of each work. Six fine selections make for hours of fun with lists, tables, scraps of paper, fag packets and ripped beer mats. Wouldn't you like to be a fly on the wall when the conductor and his friends meet to decide what will get the nod for the next release in the series?

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