Regionals 2005

Mount Charles, Buy As You View, Grimethorpe Colliery (UK Coal), Black Dyke
Conductors: Dr. Nicholas Childs, Dr. Robert Childs, Elgar Howarth
Doyen Recordings: DOY CD181
Total Playing Time: 60.13

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Here's the dilemma. Do you buy the 2005 Regional CD to hear five fine performances of the set works for the forthcoming regional competitions, or do you buy it as a means to try and give yourself a definitive idea of how these pieces should be played at the contests themselves?

If you buy it for the former reason, it will give you hours of enjoyment for sure, but if you if you chose the latter, you will be wasting your money. The dilemma is accentuated by the fact that the vast majority of people will, although not possibly deliberately, buy it for the latter reason; to give them some idea of what to expect, either as players, conductors or listeners -  even if what they hear will surely be beyond the expectations and aspirations of nearly all of those possible attendees at the Area venues.

In terms of being a pure CD of five performances of test pieces it is an excellent release: Black Dyke are on fine form on both the Championship Section test piece, the ‘Overture to Rienzi', and on Ralph Vaughan Williams (or should that be the late tuba player, Phillip Catelinet, who had a very important input into its transcription) ‘Variations for Brass Band', whilst Grimethorpe and Elgar Howarth produce a superbly authentic reading of John Ireland's quirky  ‘Comedy Overture'.

Meanwhile, Buy As You View and Dr Robert Childs enjoy themselves to the full (perhaps they were taking the composers score notes a little too literally) on ‘Tam O'Shanter's Ride', and Mount Charles provide a very muscular rendition of  ‘Divertimento' by Bryan Kelly. It is a CD release that has been well produced and very well performed.

The dilemma again though: Will you hear a performance (with the exception of the top section) of any of these pieces at the Regionals that will be like, (or as good) as any of these? The Fourth, Third and Second Sections – definitely not. The First, perhaps – but only from a very good First Section band; the Championship – wait and see.

In fact it has been the performance of Black Dyke on the Championship piece that has caused the tongues to wag the most. Do they play the turns the wrong way round? Yes and No. The turns are in fact written as inverted on the Lorriman arrangement, which does correspond by all accounts to the seminal orchestral interpretations by the likes of Hans Von Bulow - but by all accounts Wagner wrote his turns for the piece the other way round (and this how they are played by Dyke here). 

Does it matter? Not really, (the instruction to the bands is to play the turns as written) as this arrangement is a pretty tame affair – colourless and prosaic and just like much of Hitler's favourite composer, full of bombast and bravado and lacking any kind of subtlety. ‘Rienzi' ends with the whole caboodle falling down on the main character and killing him (much like Herr Hitler), and to tell you the truth, much the same could happen to many a pre contest favourite on this one, if some adjudicators reward loud and strident playing, rather than broad and sonorous performances.   This has been a backward step in test piece selection at the highest level.     

‘Comedy' on the other hand is a fine choice; a piece that has a detailed musicality that requires insight and thought from players and conductor alike if it is really to capture the musical picture of pre war London. It is a period piece for sure, but one whose patina of age has enhanced rather detracted from its musical appearance.  It will still take some playing though.

The same could also be said of ‘Variations for Brass Band' and ‘Tam O'Shanter': So why did the Music Panel think they could be played by bands in the Second and Third Sections? They are simply too difficult for the bands at these levels to give performances that will do the pieces justice. Playing them is one thing – making musical sense of them, another. 

The broad sonorous middle of the band sounds of Black Dyke give a huge false impression to the difficulty of the Vaughan Williams, whilst the facile technical brilliance brought by BAYV to the of the Denis Wright symphonic poem quite simply is on a different planet to what you will hear around the Regionals in a months time. 

As we have said in our Editorial for February: There are going to be some horrid performances of these pieces, but it will not be the fault of the MDs or the performers.  These were terribly misjudged decisions, which could have lasting effects upon many a bands morale and enthusiasm for contesting. 

Finally, Bryan Kelly's lovely ‘Divertimento' which although a very stern test, is a piece that is written in such accessible styles that it lends itself to musical enjoyment for performers and audiences alike. It will require a great deal of preparation to overcome, but unlike the pieces for the sections immediately above, the bands can realistically make something of it.  Their dilemma though is why should they, if all they have then to look forward to are pieces in a higher section that they have no hope of playing?

The Regionals 2005 CD is an excellently produced and performed release; over the next two months though, we shall see if the same can be said of the actual choices of test pieces on it. 

Iwan Fox.

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