David King’s tenure as professional conductor of Black Dyke lasted just three years.

Hailed on his appointment in 1989 as ‘one of the most daring’ in the band’s history, it ended in somewhat sour acrimony just a few weeks before the 1992 Yorkshire Area Championships. 

Sweeter

However, the European title was captured twice (1990 & 1991), and the Yorkshire Regional crown claimed in 1990.

Although the Open and National eluded him, for many, the Australian’s Queensbury interregnum, although short, was certainly a lot sweeter in terms of success than many gave him credit for at the time.  

Thrilling

This recording from 1991 is a case in point. 

Fresh from winning the European title in Rotterdam, a young band (the average age had plummeted in the two years from his arrival) produce thrilling accounts of George Lloyd’s still relatively unfamiliar works (‘Royal Parks’ was the first of his brass band cannon to appear in 1985).

Sublime

There is an exuberance about the playing that at times teeters flashily, yet at its core sits a sublime performance of  the composer’s substantive ‘Evening Song’, which is considered, textured brass band ensemble playing the like we hear so rarely today.

It’s a remarkably malleable, viscous piece – with echoes of Smetana’s ‘Vlatava’ (and even ‘Scheherazade’) softly bubbling to the surface of a beautifully crafted operatic carol; played with an acute appreciation of balanced dovetailing.

It is David King and George Lloyd at their very best.         

Informed

The complex thought processes that imbue ‘Royal Parks' are also captured with informed insight. 

’Dawn Flight’ with its engaging possibilities, turns darkly emotional with ‘In Memoriam’, before the startlingly breezy ‘Holidays’ displays an enjoyment of an almost carefree existence.  

Loss

The same (but earlier) emotional context is also distilled into the march ‘HMS Trinidad’' - the bold, bravura optimism of the writing, almost but not quite hiding a deep sense of personal loss (32 of Lloyd’s fellow crew were killed when it was hit by one of its own torpedoes).

‘Diversions on a Bass Theme’ and ‘English Heritage’ are works of glorious musicality – crafted with innate attention to detail and purpose; test pieces of refinement and elegance that ask the very same questions of the conductor and players. 

Mirror

King delivers bold interpretations that generate an energy that at times strains with youthful vigour to break free of the leash: Breathless, exciting, passionate and above all, engrossing – they rather mirror his all too brief period of musical control at the helm of the most famous band in the world.

It leaves you feeling of what could have been: It was not the Australian who lost his way at Queensbury but the Black Dyke management who lost their nerve.

Iwan Fox

Contents

1. Royal Parks — Dawn Flight, 4.18
2. Royal Parks — In Memoriam, 5.46
3. Royal Parks — Holidays, 3.54
4. Diversions on a Bass Theme, 11.22
5. Evening Song, 11.41
6. H.M.S. Trinidad March, 5.34
7. English Heritage, 16.55