Black Dyke Mills Band

Conductor: Nicholas Childs
Harrogate International Festival

Royal Hall, Harrogate
Saturday 28th July 2001

The Harrogate Festival in Yorkshire has for nearly 40 years been one the UK's premier avant garde contemporary art festivals. A series of high class performers such as Michael Nyman and the CBSO are engaged to provide the Festival with a cutting edge of contemporary artistic music, with the Royal Hall usually sold out in advance at some pretty steep prices as the well to do, and definitely well off come in their droves of BMW's and top of the range Mercedes. Cheap it ain't.

Nicholas Childs had chosen a fearsome programme for his charges that included a first half that featured Malcolm Arnold's "Four Cornish Dances", and Philip Wilby's "Jazz". The main work of interest in the first half however was the World Premier of Arthur Butterworth's "Sinfonia Concertante" for Horn and Baritone.

Butterworth has written well for brass over the years, but has fallen into being perceived as an unfashionable composer. His works are usually dark in musical hue, technically challenging, but possessing wit to go with the power. The "Concertante" in four movements possessed all of his trademark musical signatures and demanded a substantial virtuosity from its performers, Robert Blackburn and Leslie Howie. Both were on top class form throughout.

The opening "Pastorale" sets out the work and delivers it's main themes through the soloists and band whilst the "Scherzo" marked vivacissimo contained the substantive technical challenges. "Night Music" contained the musical heart of the piece and revealed some superb duet writing, whilst the last movement "Rondo – alla Caccia" was a light romp of technical vividness. Overall it's a piece that demands further performances and Dyke and the soloists in particular did it great credit.

Arthur Butterworth's music is due a revival and Dyke will be performing his "Variations on a theme of Brahms" later in the year – a piece rumour has it that was seriously considered for the British Open this year until you know what happened. His music is well worth another listen to.

A slightly less severe second half (these things are relative) started with "Grand March from Aida", "Prelude from La Traviata" and a scorcher of a rip through "La Forza Del Destino".

Roger Webster displayed awesome technique, tone and lip with the Harry James "Trumpet Concerto" and the band gave a short "Big Band" set with "Chicago" and "Ol' Man River". All this and a cracker of the full set of "West Side Story" from the transcription of Eric Crees that featured some fine playing on trumpet by Chris Turner, the bands second man down and the obligatory encore.

We've followed Dyke around a bit of late to see if the rumours of better times were not just, well, rumours. Dyke on this display (and this was a very serious display) have settled the argument and will approach the coming Open and National with a band that plays very much as a musical unit. It's not just the corner men that catch the ear, but it's the backroom boys who seem to have given the band an inner core of confidence and resolve.

With the return of all their players to full strength, Dyke will surely be one of the favourites come September and the Symphony Hall. You heard it first here.

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