The Gregson Collection
16-Dec-2010
The best pick & mix selection of Gregson's music? The composer's choice will take some beating...
The Gregson Collection
Various bands & conductors
Doyen Double CD: DOYCD252
Total Playing Time: 1 hour 30 mins plus
There have been occasions in the past when Doyen’s re-packaging of previously released material has been of somewhat questionable motive.
However, if ever there was a valid and celebratory reason to re-release a collection of music, the recent 65th birthday of Edward Gregson was undoubtedly it.
Critical
With the music chosen by the composer himself and playing out chronologically over two CD’s, the feeling is very much of a journey through Gregson’s creative output – an output that has enriched the brass band repertoire with some of the most finely crafted and exciting works for both contest and concert stages of the last five decades.
And that last point is a particularly crucial.
Gregson wrote his first acknowledged piece for brass band, the march, ‘Dalarö’, when he was just 19 years of age. 46 years on, and despite the increased sophistication of his mature output, it still sounds amazingly fresh – more so as it is not one of pieces on the two discs that wasn’t reprised from any of the four volumes of his work Doyen previously released.
Definitive
Desford’s recordings of ‘Dances and Arias’ and the ‘Horn Concerto’ are drawn from the first of those volumes recorded in 1992; the only one of the four that can be regarded as definitive - conducted by Gregson himself.
In part due to the comparatively recessed sound of the recording, Desford’s contribution has dated in comparison to the more recent releases of Cory, Black Dyke and Foden’s, although Frank Lloyd is a soloist of consummate artistry in the ‘Horn Concerto’.
Whether the 2007 revised version of ‘Variations on Laudate Dominum’ (originally released on Essential Dyke Volume 8) adds gravitas to the original is debateable, but it is certainly one of the highlights of the first disc in a performance of ebullient spirit.
It’s also good to hear the piece alongside such works such as ‘Essay’ (a somewhat neglected gem from the composer’s early major works for brass) and ‘Partita’, still a deservedly popular work amongst lower section bands, thirty-eight years after its composition.
Overall though, the greater musical weight is carried by the second disc, which surveys the major output of Gregson’s brass band music from 1984 onwards - beginning with ‘Dances and Arias’.
Grandeur
Cory’s reading of ‘Of Men and Mountains’ is imbued with grandeur and a sense of atmospheric mystery that marks it out as something special, whilst Foden’s perform ‘Rococo Variations’ with warmth and elegance, directed by Garry Cutt with a consummate sense of style.
For sheer aural spectacle however, it’s impossible to beat Black Dyke’s breathtakingly powerful rendition of ‘The Trumpets of the Angels’, undoubtedly Gregson’s most ambitious, stylistically advanced (not to mention extravagantly scored) brass band work to date.
Haunting
The austerity of the language during the early stages of the work is at times both striking and haunting, the scoring crushingly powerful in its use of the organ, which adds an extra dimension to the band sound, whilst being entirely appropriate given the work’s dedication to the French composer and master organist, Olivier Messiaen.
In contrast, the ‘Meditation: Before the Cross’, provides calm and repose along with a flashback to the composer’s Salvationist roots. The meditation based on a setting of ‘Before the Cross, in Penitence now Bending’ written when the composer was just 18.
Philip Cobb’s sensitive rendition is marked by lyrical and emotional warmth that entirely befits his status as principal trumpet of the London Symphony Orchestra.
Extensive
With several important pieces, including the Concertos for Tuba and Horn and ‘An Age of Kings’, being truncated to single movements in this collection, it might well be more musically satisfying for the informed listener to take the more expensive route of buying the earlier discs whilst conversely, anyone that already owns the original collection is unlikely to need this new double disc offering.
As a an enjoyable retrospective and insight into Edward Gregson’s output however, this is a well put together, attractively presented and comprehensive release that serves as a timely celebration of the significance of his contribution to the medium over what will soon be a 50 year period.
What is even more intriguing however is that you sense there is so much more to come.
Christopher Thomas
What's on this CD?
Disc 1
1. Dalarˆ, Edward Gregson, Black Dyke, 3.30
2. Voices of Youth — 2nd Movement: Sadness and Tenderness, Edward Gregson, Williams Fairey Band, 2.38
3. March Prelude, Edward Gregson, Williams Fairey Band, 3.38
4. Essay, Edward Gregson, Black Dyke Mills Band, 12.38
5. Concerto for French Horn and Brass Band — 1st Movement, Edward Gregson, Frank Lloyd (French Horn) with Desford Colliery Caterpillar Band, 5.02
6. Partita, Edward Gregson, Black Dyke Mills Band, 10.54
7. Chalk Farm No. 2, Edward Gregson, Williams Fairey Band, 5.06
8. Variations on Laudate Dominum (revised), Edward Gregson, Black Dyke Band, 14.27
9. Tuba Concerto — 2nd Movement�����Edward Gregson, James Gourlay (Tuba) with Britannia Building Society Band, 6.07
10. Connotations, Edward Gregson, Grimethorpe Colliery Band, 12.39
Disc 2
1. Dances and Arias, Edward Gregson, Desford Colliery Caterpiller Band, 13.54
2. Of Men and Mountains, Edward Gregson, Cory Band, 17.47
3. The Trumpets of the Angels, Edward Gregson, Black Dyke Band, 19.53
4. Before The Cross, Edward Gregson, Philip Cobb (Cornet) with Cory Band, 3.45
5. An Age of Kings — 3rd Movement: Battle Music and Hymn of Thanksgiving, Edward Gregson, Black Dyke Band, 5.00
6. Rococo Variations, Edward Gregson, Foden's Band, 18.11
