Enfield Citadel Band

Conductor: James Williams MBE

Hadleigh Salvation Aarmy Citadel
1st March 2003

The first concert in the new Salvation Army Citadel in Hadleigh was given on Saturday 1st March by the Enfield Citadel Band, under their bandmaster James Williams, MBE. It was the band's first major concert of the year and, following the departure of David Dawes, Ralph Brill was appearing as Guest Principal Cornet.

The programme opened in style with William Himes' fine march Rolling Along. This gave the band a good opportunity to demonstrate some fine, crisp playing, with much made of the dynamic contrasts. They followed this with John Meredith's arrangement of John Rutter's A Gaelic Blessing, where some of the quieter dynamics did not come off quite so well. To mark Eric Ball's centenary they presented the old favourite Air Varie: Sound Out The Proclamation, giving the middle of the band a chance to show a good full sound. Three soloists were featured at this point: Andy Hicks, formerly of Aveley and First City, negotiated the very tricky Euphony by Robert Redhead; Andrew Justice maintained his usual high standards in Ray Steadman-Allen's Fantasy on Spirituals for Trombone; and Hilton Patterson brought some
contrast with a thoughtful rendition of James Curnow's devotional horn solo The Depths of His Love.

With the recent relaxation of the restrictions on the music available for use by Salvation Army bands, a number of works from the contest stage are beginning to appear on programmes, and Enfield were to give their first public performance of Philip Sparke's Tallis Variations. Lt Col Lincoln Parkhouse, who proved a capable compere throughout, explained a little of the background to the piece, and of Thomas Tallis himself, and pointed out how the extracts from the melody could be picked out at various points.

Despite a few moments of uncertainty, and a couple of occasions when the lower parts did not fully come through, it was a more than competent and powerful reading, with some particularly fine xylophone playing.

During the interval there was the usual opportunity to mingle and purchase the band's recordings. They were also taking orders for a forthcoming recording featuring Sheona White and Steven Sykes as guest soloists. Suddenly, a small ensemble started up Barry Gott's Light Walk, and as the rest of the band returned to the platform and joined in, so the audience took their seats for the second half. Malcolm Hynd showed his skill on the flugel with a fluent reading of William Himes' So Glad, and then Simon Jenkins brought James Curnow's rarely heard xylophone solo A Victor's Palm.

William Himes' setting of Amazing Grace led into the scripture presentation before the programme closed with another Eric Ball masterpiece: Journey Into Freedom. Whilst not written for Salvation Army use, its spiritual message is nevertheless very prominent, and it proved a fitting finale, before, of
course, the traditional encore of Red Shield.

An almost capacity audience had enjoyed a good evening's music-making. For a number of people it was their first attendance at a band programme, and many expressed a desire to return. As for the band themselves, they have a very fine tradition and set themselves a very high standard to follow. If the ensemble was a little loose at times then it may be due to a number of guest players being present, and any band will be hard-pressed to maintain such a standard week-in, week-out.

Thank you, Enfield, and thank you, Bandmaster Williams!

Peter M Bale

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