The Welsh Brass Arts Festival

The Leyland Band conducted by Robert Childs with the Parc and Dare Band conducted by Dr Roy Newsome.

The Parc and Dare Theatre, Treorchy.
Sunday 10th June 2001

The Welsh Brass Arts Festival 2001 was the first of a series of festival weekends at the famous Parc and Dare theatre that will take place over the next three years that aims to encourage and develop the repertoire of brass band writing and performance through a series of concerts, master classes, new compositions and solo performances.

The first weekend of the series, which incidentally has attracted over £93,000 worth of lottery funding was only a partial success – not it must be added due to the commitment and professionalism of the artists, but the fairly paltry turnout of a Welsh audience for the concerts on the Friday, Saturday and Sunday. You wonder what the Welsh really want. This is a brave venture that should be supported to the rafters.

For the Sunday concert, Robert Childs took the helm of the Leyland Band and proceeded to direct them in a quality first half performance when the band and conductor enjoyed themselves with a solo programme that highlighted their qualities.

Recent good form has returned to the band both on the contest and now concert platform and it is clear that Leyland is very much on the up slope of form. The use of some very clever arrangements from the pen of player, Gary Westwood, and three excellent soloists in the shape of Rob Westacott on cornet, Shelly Ball on flugel and Jocelyn Robinson on xylophone gave the audience a welcome light starter before a second half that was to feature two exceptional works from the pens of Howard Snell and Carl Orff by the way of Roy Newsome. Leyland were good value for money on their own, and certainly earned their crust the hard way in the second half.

This saw Leyland joined by the Parc and Dare band to perform Howard Snell's superb "Images of the Millennium". Robert Childs had obviously taken the score to heart and directed the massed bands with clear and direct purposefulness – every entry was clearly defined and the band, led by Leyland responded to his clear and precise intentions. It's a demanding work of seven movements that's worth more than an occasional airing and explores colours, timbre and balance in a way that is distinctly Snell. It's a superb piece of writing that was well served by Robert Childs and the massed band. Let's hope we hear it again.

The second major work was Dr Roy Newsome's masterly arrangement (not transcription as he pointed out) of Carl Orff's "Carmina Burana". This performance gave us 12 of the 25 or so overall movements and each has the hallmark of a skilled brass arranger. There was no pretentious writing or attempts to try and mimic colours and timbres that only the orchestral version can supply - it was therefore so much more enjoyable.

Dr Newsome controlled proceedings with his beautiful command of the baton that has not lost anything in style or clarity over the years, and although some of the ensemble playing was patchy in places, the overall musical picture was superbly realised. This is a major brass work that demands further performances. What about the series of concerts after this year's British Open?

So a good start to a three-year series that on the quality of the programmes on offer, deserves to be more of a success. Lets hope the Welsh public can get off their backsides and make more of an effort in response.

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