Regionals 2009

2008 is behind us now - so all eyes and ears on 2009. Five choices for Nationals qualification, but are they great tests or great music?

~ Buy with 4barsrest shopping

Featuring: Williams Fairey; Fodens Richardson; Black Dyke; Cory
Conductors: Peter Parkes; Michael Fowles; Nicholas Childs; Robert Childs
Doyen Recordings: CD 246
Total Playing Time: 58.29 

Somehow it seemed a bit inappropriate to cast our thoughts forward too far to the Regionals 2009, when the Finals of the 2008 National Championships were still eliciting warm memories in the back of our musical minds.

Still, time waits for no band, and with just a few more contests to go before the 2008 season comes to an end, the thought process gears itself to the delights of the competitive stages of Swansea, Stevenage, Blackpool and Bradford with all stops in between.

Eagerly awaited

As always the Regional CD is perhaps the most eagerly awaited release of the year – although for no real intrinsic musical reason.

All people really want to know is what they will be slaving over in the confines of bandrooms the length and breadth of the country over the next five months or so. Whether or not they will actually enjoy playing the pieces is a different matter all together.

It sells, and sells well, because most bandsmen and women (and conductors for that matter) want to know what to expect. That what makes the hours of home practice and band rehearsals all the more bearable.

Horrid memories

They also want to know whether the National Music Panel has made some decent decisions too – a very pertinent question given their track record of late (there are some pretty horrid memories still washing around the grey cells from Harrogate).

With the current contesting structure one that is questionably unsustainable in its present form (are there really 80 or so true championship bands out there in the UK?), actual playing standards around the country are becoming increasingly variable. 

The Regionals provide not only qualifiers for the National Finals, but also the litmus test to gauge the movement’s general health and well being – both numerically and musically. Both are not in too grand a state at the present time.

What's in store?

What then does 2009 have in store for us?

Making decisions on test pieces on the basis of a quick glance through the births and deaths columns of Groves Dictionary of Music is always an easy option. This time around its Gilbert Vinter’s turn.

2009 is likely to become a ‘Vinterfest’ – welcome and long overdue without doubt, but still lacking originality of thought. The choice of ‘Salute to Youth’, perhaps the one test piece of his that time hasn’t eroded to such an extent that it no longer poses a stern test to the very best bands, should make for some interesting scraps up and down the country.

Class

Listening to Williams Fairey under Peter Parkes of a decade ago, is a reminder that class is permanent, form, always temporary. Whether or not that will be reflected when the variable field of top section bands and their MDs get their hands on it next year we will have to wait and see.

It will surely be Graham Cole’s ‘Pentacle’ that will provide us with further evidence that a top heavy Championship Section is having a long term detrimental effect on banding at all other levels. 

Exciting

This exciting, colourful, intelligent and testing work will be a severe test for First Section bands. Having heard the best and the rest at Harrogate and Pontins lately, the odds are that not too many will be able to play it, and play it well. 

It is a piece however that should be played and played well by true First Section outfits with realistic ambitions to step up to the premiere division of banding. The problem is there aren’t that many of them around at the moment.

There could be some truly horrid performances, and if you don’t believe it, just listen closely to how hard Fodens have to work to master it in their recording. It’s a fine piece that could be in for a mauling. 

Good o'l USA

Meanwhile, Dan Price certainly made a fine impression with ‘An Elgar Portrait’ at Pontins, and once more he shows a mastery of the art of intelligent pastiche in the Second Section work, ‘New World Sketches’.

Think of the ‘good ‘ol US of A’ and think of the music that it evokes – and that is what this is with knobs on.

Gershwin, Ellington and Copland; swing, jazz and Negro spirituals. All you need is Paul Robeson, Liberache and a bit of Ella Fitzgerald and it would be a mini musical tour of all 50 states in just over 12 minutes.

It’s an enjoyable, accessible and stylish piece of work, and should bring the best out of bands and conductors with febrile imaginations and an interest in all things American.

Homage

Andrew Baker’s ‘One and Future King’ has a more mythical inspiration, even though the music itself pays certain homage to established English musical stereotypes. 

Although not overtly taxing it is a piece that should quite clearly sought out those bands who can add colour, balance and atmosphere to their performances, from those who merely meet the basic requirements of playing the notes on the score.

Much harder

Finally, ‘The Talisman’ by Frank Hughes, a very straightforward quintet work that has been expanded, and as a result, made much harder, for full band.

You do wonder what the original actually sounded like, because this plumped up version is full of ambiguous rhythms, high solo lines and opaque internal ensemble balance.

It is a much more difficult work than its Third Section counterpart and with a desperate need to encourage more bands to compete on the first rung of the National ladder, this very testing examination could well see quite a few bands reconsider if they need the hassle of a piece that seems all together too taxing for the majority of them.

Five pieces then, and five that poses different questions. Not great musical choices perhaps, but them again, the Regional are all about winning and losing. Playing music never comes into it. 

Iwan Fox

~ Buy with 4barsrest shopping

^back to top