Fodens Richardson

Conductor: Russell Gray

The Hawth, Crawley
24 November 2002

The current form of Fodens under musical director Russell Gray is exemplary, first in 4BarsRest world rankings. It is a pity that misguided programming spoilt their recent concert at The Hawth, Crawley. They started in cracking style with the march Wellington followed by the seldom played Beethoven overture Egmond arranged by Eric Ball. Alan Wycherly then played "Deep Bond", a recent addition to the soprano cornet repertoire based on a tune composed by Alan's son, David. The band showed their virtuosity in Howard Snell's arrangement of Moto Perpetuo. From here the concert went into decline. While the band remained on stage, the audience were subjected to repetitious noise by four percussionists, Back Beat. I fail to understand how bouncing basket balls, hitting various parts of the body and repeatedly striking an automobile brake drum with a stick can be classified as music. The band attempted to retrieve the situation by robust performances of two pieces, new to me, Rev Archie Beaton and Reel Music, both arranged by Frode Ryland. The band's own percussion section made a significant contribution.

After the interval we were "treated" to the World Premiere of "Filling Airtime" a piece for Percussion and Band written by Damien Harron. Was this someone's misguided attempt to be avant-garde? The highlights of the piece seemed to be stroking the keys of a Marimba with the bow, striking a gong and then immersing it in a bucket of water and twanging a coil spring. The contribution by the band was a series of discordant notes and blowing through their instruments, producing a rasping sound that summarised my opinion of the piece.

The band continued their programme with competent playing of Mumbo Jumbo, Children of Sanchez and Tea for Two. The concert then deviated from the published programme, with the trombone solo "Autumn Leaves" the end cadenza seeming to surprise even the soloist. The band's rendition of the Howard Snell arrangement of "Winter" from Vivaldi's Four Seasons clearly demonstrated the strength of every department with the horn section outstanding. I do not know why Back Beat returned to slap each other. My only regret was that they did not inflict any damage.

The concert concluded with for me was the highlight of the afternoon, the William Gordon arrangement of Tchaikovsky's "Little Russian". This is a fantastic piece of music with excellent ensemble and solo playing. One suspects that there is an orchestral version but this brass band version is terrific. The band played two encores which was some compensation for the waste of time earlier in the programme.

The Hawth at Crawley is an excellent, modern venue and the leisure services are to be commended for presenting its annual series of concerts of brass and military bands. Reacting to his appointment to the new Music Panel, Richard Evans commented: "We have to return to being audience-friendly. A test-piece that is audience-friendly is band-friendly too, so we need to choose pieces with tunes in them." (4BarsRest 20 November 2002) Crawley Leisure Services and band programmers need to listen to this advice. Whenever I see the words "World Premiere" I, for one, will stay away.

With thanks to David Coleman

^back to top