Rothwell Temperance Band

Conductor: David Roberts

Yeadon Town Hall
27th September 2003

Over the last few years Leeds City Council, through their Leisure Services, have been running a very successful "Brass in Concert" series bringing some of the top bands in Britain to their concert venues in Yeadon, Morley and Leeds Town Halls.

Opening the 2003-2004 series were Rothwell Temperance, a band that has risen through the sections to become a well-established Championship Section Band.

They opened the concert with William Rimmers's "Honest Toil", a March well loved in the band movement. Walton's "Spitfire Prelude and Fugue followed during which the band captured the mood of the music well, never more so than in the Fugue where they produced some lovely warm sounds, an excellent choice of music.

Although not the most demanding solo, Principal Cornet Thomas Hutchinson, gave a good account of the solo "Charivari" by Iveson. This solo needs good control by both soloist and band and both were achieved in a nice
performance.

Music by the American Salvationist William Himes was the bands next choice in with a piece entitled "To Know Thee". This meditation is based on the Welsh hymn tune Blaenwern and they produced some excellent all round playing
where some fine sounds were heard all through the band in a performance of high quality.

Philip Sparke is well known for his excellent music for bands and his "Capriccio" was the chosen solo of Paul Argyle the bands Soprano Player. This is not an easy piece to bring off with its many rhythm changes and at times there was a slight unease between soloist and accompaniments, but a good performance nevertheless.

'Spanish Dance' by Faure arr Snell followed which led us to the next soloist. The bands solo Horn player Catherine Roberts gave a most musical performance of Goff Richards "Demelza" with excellent band accompaniment. The first half of the concert closed with the overture "Comedy" by John
Ireland. This overture is still a test for the best bands today and David Roberts produced a good and well controlled performance from his band in which the bass section excelled. Well done for including this excellent music in the programme.

'Amazonia' and 'Earth Song' from Peter Graham's wonderful "Windows of the World" opened the second half of the programme followed by "Sting Ray" written by Gray arr Smith, a lively start to get the audience settled and focused after the break. The bands principal Eb Bass player Edward Hopkin
then played "Impromptu For Tuba" by Barry in which the full range of the instrument was covered. A lovely sound to his excellent technique combined to give an outstanding performance.

Elgar's "Chanson De Matin" gave the band a chance to produce a nice rich sounding performance, for me the best playing of the concert, all under control with no over blowing.

Music from the film "Meet Me in St Louis" in the Trolley Song was given the Big Band treatment with some good work from the Trombone Section. More music from Peter Graham in his "Time for Peace" taken from "The Essence of Time" featured John Ward the bands Flugel Horn player. This music is
outstanding and I felt the soloist, although safe, could have played with a little more feeling and projected the sound better, but a good choice of solo to play.

The Finale from Elgar's Enigma Variations brought the concert to its close with the band, as it had been all evening, on good form. The MD, kept good control of tempi in a very exciting end.As an encore the popular "New York, New York" ended what had been a very good concert indeed.

Good programme choice and a band whose overall playing was of a very high standard were well appreciated by the large audience, an excellent start to the series.

David Tinker

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