Yorkshire Building Society Band

Conductor: Stan Lippeatt

Walthamstow Assembly Hall
February 2nd 2002

Not often you get the European and British Open Champions in town, and so when you do, you may as well make the effort to go and listen to them. Such is their current reputation and such was the interest in the current ever changing squad of players that a smaller than expected, but still very enthusiastic audience turned up in aid of the Hadleigh Temple building scheme. How would they sound? How would the new players gell? The eager souls had a little wait as Peter Roberts forgot his glasses and someone had to go back to the bus to get them, but this just wetted the appetite and the expectation was high.

From the opening bars of the "Florentine March" it was clear there wasn't much to worry about, although there was a very uncharacteristic blob or two from the solo cornets (nice to know they are human after all!). Things soon settled down however and the clarity of sound, precise articulation and attention to dynamics were apparent and set the standard for the rest of the concert. The overture to "Candide" followed and there was plenty of fine playing in a somewhat steady account of Howard Snell's tremendous arrangement, before a real gem of a piece made a very welcome appearance.

Ernest Tomlinson is more famous for his exceptionally hard "Cornet Concerto" and his "Little Serenade" is a gentle walk in the park by comparison, but it's a beautifully constructed little piece of work – an Audi TT sports car of a piece and demands a lot of respect. Stan Lippeatt (who was guest conductor for the night in the absence of Dr King, and who did a very nice job) just let the music speak for itself and as a result a simple work sounded quite sublime.

Stuart Lingard has started to develop into a very fine Principal Cornet and his performance of "Virtuosity" was top drawer stuff, even though he didn't go for the top F above top C finish. Still a cast iron technique, especially when he soared above the band and bags of style. The band accompaniment was also bob on. "I got Rhythm" was neatly done, whilst Stan Lippeatt started to build up a good rapport with the audience, despite the first couple of rows being empty (perhaps they were afraid of being overpowered!).

The centre piece of the first half was a powerful performance of Eric Ball's "Resurgam" which featured some fine solo line playing from Sheona White on horn and Michael Howley on solo euph (who impressed all night) and the sense of meaning of the music was never lost in a fine reading.

Peter Roberts then did his business in the way only Peter Roberts can and gave a superb performance (without music and glasses) which very nearly brought the house down, before the band finished off the first half with a stylish run through "Crown Imperial" that had plenty of breadth of style and warm sounds from a bass end that you would sell your granny to conduct.

The second half got off to a bumpy start though (perhaps the band weren't used to London cups of teas or something) and "French Military March" was a bit of a mess in places with splits galore and loose ensemble work. Stan Lippeat gave them a bit of an old fashioned "turn to stone stare" or two and it seemed to work wonders, with Goff Richard's "Silver Mountain" beautifully played and then Iwan Williams on flugel horn giving a simply stunning account of "Share My Yoke" which had added significance as Major Diaper of the Hadleigh Temple Corps spoke to the audience of the scriptural basis of the music.

"Morning" from "Peer Gynt" sounded a little unsettled though before there was a whip through "Perpetuum Mobile" to get the blood rushing again in time for a cracking run out of "Gaelforce" that featured the excellent percussion team (unobtrusive all night until asked to do their bit) and some simply magical flugel horn playing in the quiet central section.

Simon Cowen gave a very fine rendition of "Dance Sequence" before the band turned up the volume knobs and gave a ripper of a show on "March from the Pines of Rome". Again the bass end led the way, without ever overblowing and sounding hard. A great end to a very fine night out and further evidence (if any was needed) that this is one heck of a band.

With thanks to both Peter Bale and Cliff Pask.

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