Virtuoso

Glyn Williams
Fodens Richardson Band
Conductor: Garry Cutt
Amadeus Recordings: CD091
Total Playing Time: 78.44

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Glyn Williams is musical alchemist – a performer who has turned brass into gold.  For the past decade he has been rightly regarded as one of the leading euphonium players of his generation. Unlike many of his contemporaries however he has not exclusively relied on that singular talent and in the past couple of years he has unlocked the secret to performing with amazing facility on a whole range of instruments as well as developing his fine vocal skills. Virtuoso is such an apt title not only for this CD, but also as a description of his amazing talent.

For a brass player to be able to perform on the whole spectrum of brass band instruments – and we are talking soprano cornet to tuba here, would seemingly be an impossible task. The physical limitations imposed by differences in mouthpiece size, instrument bore and technique are such that only a very select few performers in the world have ever been able to do it.

How he is able to do it is not some freak of nature. He possesses what the teaching manuals would describe as a  ‘perfect embouchure' – the alignment of his top and bottom jaw when playing is perfectly vertical so that the mouthpiece sits at a secure right angle on his lips. Meanwhile the position of the mouthpiece is also perfectly centered so the column of air is projected without hindrance. This may be a very simplistic explanation, but try it the next time you are in the bandroom. Unless your embouchure is nothing less than as perfect as this, after two or three minutes all efforts to play another instrument, be it bigger or smaller, start to disintegrate. It is some talent.

However, what makes this even more remarkable is that not only is he able to master the technicalities of the instruments, but that he also able to produce such a wonderfully true and warm sound on each of them throughout their range. Now that really is a talent. Glyn Williams is a cross between James Morrison, Harry Connick Junior and Roy Castle.

It all really came together at the 2001 Brass in Concert Contest in Spennymoor where this extraordinary ability won him the ‘Best Soloist' prize, as he astonished the audience with the ‘Courtois Showcase'. Seeing a big bloke (he was bigger then than he is now, he won't mind us saying) play everything from a euph to a tiny soprano with even a xylophone thrown in for good measure was something else – and it literally brought the house down. Since then he has developed what could have been a good party trick into a true art form.

This release showcases this to perfection. The 15 tracks see Glyn take to the baritone, flugel horn, cornet and soprano in dedicated solo items as well as reprise his multi -instrumental ‘Courtois Showcase' once more for good measure. All this and he doesn't forget to show you how good a euphomium player he is as well.

The tracks are shrewdly chosen but nevertheless give ample evidence of his ability to meet the technical demands that each differing instruments poses. If you listen to this CD ‘blind' – not knowing who the performer is on each track, you would soon find yourself nodding sagely and congratulating the artist on their technique and quality of sound.

His soprano playing is true and full bodied, whilst the cornet has a warm and almost delicate timbre. The flugel is dark and amazingly secure whilst the horn has a classic plumpness and no edge. The baritone is wonderfully vibrant and distinctively light whilst the tuba is broad and throaty. His euphomium playing speaks for itself, whilst the only mystery was we couldn't tell how good he was really on the xylophone by the three notes he played!

As we have said the tracks chosen are done so shrewdly – they are the ubiquitous standards for each instrument rather than eye popping tour de forces. They all are very well handled though. The ‘Concerto De Aranjuez' which features a lovely sense of free flowing filigree work is matched by a bravura ‘Solitaire' that really is a diamond and the ‘unofficial' Welsh National Anthem, ‘Myfanwy' (which unfortunately is credited to one J. Barry not Joseph Parry on the sleeve notes) that is played with an authentic ear to the lyrics.  Not to be outdone we also hear some cracking triple tonguing delights on ‘Hailstorm' and the modern lyricism of ‘Demelza' and ‘The Holy Well'. In between we have a neat duet featuring Glyn's older brother Aled on ‘Calon Lan' and of course, that fabulous ‘Courtois Showcase'.

Glyn's fine baritone voice is also featured with a classy rendition of ‘Have You Met Miss Jones', which perhaps sounds a little as if he met her closer to Aberystwyth than Manhatten, whilst Alan Fernie's super arrangement (and very cleverly modulated) ‘Land of Song' rounds things off in superb style.

Our only real disappointment is that he hasn't really gone to town on the euphonium, where his virtuosity is almost unrivalled. The tracks he chooses, ‘Rule Britannia', ‘Napoli' etc are classics, but aged ones which don't do his talents justice. They are easy listening all right, but for a player of this ability they sound more than a little throwaway, however well they are played.

That though cannot detract from a very polished and very talented performer. This is a virtuoso who has taken the opportunity to make the most of a quite outstanding musical talent, and the evidence on show here is that he has made a wonderful job of it. You just wonder what instrument will next take his fancy?

Iwan Fox

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