Besses o' th' Barn

Yeadon Town Hall
Conductor: Jonathan W. Corry
Saturday 21st February

Being 184 years old, that familiar named band, Besses o ' th' Barn is known as one of the oldest and most established names in the history of brass bands. The early work of Alexander Owen and his great input to the band movement came through his association with the band and many people will be aware of the mammoth grand selections that were made during his time as conductor and which some have recently been released into public domain via Jagrins music publications.

The band has had associations famous over the years with many well known names such as Ifor James, John Fletcher, Edward Gregson, Dr Roy Newsome, Derek Broadbent and Paul Hindmarsh.

On chatting briefly to band manager David Aston, he tells me that 2003 became a milestone in the bands history, by appointing possibly the youngest ever conductor in its illustrious history, the 21 year old Jonathan Corry. Jonathan comes from Belfast, Northern Ireland and has a strong SA background; he has played with many top bands and was formerly principal trumpet of the National Youth Orchestra of Great Britain before embarking on a four year course of study at the Royal Northern College of Music. Since the autumn season the band has changed personnel for the approaching contest season and has now finally settled with a new solo euphonium Kim Thorp, Solo Horn Lucy Pankhurst and various other additions throughout the band.

A packed out Yeadon town hall greeted Besses as they opened the concert with Martin Ellerby's celebratory prelude "Ovation" which was written in 2000 and includes fanfare and beautiful lyrical melodies. Besses and charismatic young conductor Corry then gave a lively and grand performance of Dmitri Shostakovich's "Festive Overture" arranged by Peter Kitson where the band displayed control in allowing the relevant textures to come to the fore. A cornet solo came next in the program displaying the talents of the much admired principal cornet, Merete Vollan. Merete who hails from Norway and is currently studying at Salford University gave a beautiful performance of Sinding's "Summer Evening" (Sommerkveld) which left the audience in no doubt as to why she sits on the principal cornet chair of this well established band.

For the back row cornets and some front row cornets who get offended at not getting any limelight, MD Corry let them loose to perform Leroy Anderson's "Bugler's Holiday" which kept them happy at least until the interval! Alan Fernie's wonderful arrangement of Maschwitz & Sherwin's "A Nightingale Sang on Berkeley Square" provided a suitable contrast to the business of "Bugler's Holiday", before yet another fine soloist of the band's came to the fore in the guise of Michael Ascroft. Michael joined Besses on flugel prior to the Scottish Open where he displayed his talents aptly with Wilby's "Paganini Variations", this evening he performed Ivor Bosanko's beautiful and now well known arrangement f Joy Webb's Salvation Army song "Share my Yoke".

MD Jonathan Corry who was brought up in the SA and is still an active member brought together with Michael Ascroft an extra dimension to this well favoured melody. Wilby's sensitive arrangement of hymn tune "St. Clements", titled "The Day thou Gavest" was most welcome in the programme and I only wish that more bands would include such items. The final piece for the first half of the concert was Sir Dean Goffin's large scale SA work, "Rhapsodic Variations – My Strength, my Tower". Published in 1963 this work has many of the hallmarks associated with Sir Dean's earlier contest work, "Rhapsody in Brass" and is based on the composer's own theme with the words being "thee will I love, my strength, my tower". The theme is initially introduced then Goffin proceeds with five variations including a very taxing variation featuring exposed solo work from the principal cornet Merete Vollan and solo euph Kim Thorp in some fiendish arabesques and arpeggi. The work finished with a brisk section of sudden variations. A fantastic first half finisher which I'm sure the majority of brass band audiences wouldn't have heard before.

After a quick cup of tea and a biscuit, the band brought the second half of the concert to a rousing opening with "Fest Musik der Stadt Wien" by Richard Strauss, cornets and trombones were placed standing behind the band to create the sound and visual impact of fanfare trumpeters. Lucy Pankhurst, a 4th year student studying tenor horn at the RNCM is a recent welcomed signing to the ranks of Besses. Lucy is taught by the country's top tenor hornists including Owen Farr and Lesley Howie, principal horns in Fairey and Black Dyke bands respectively. Lucy chose to perform Goff Richards popular arrangement of Arlen & Harburg's "Over the Rainbow", which displayed her silky smooth and lyrical playing to the full.

2003 heralded the bi-centenary of the birth of Hector Berlioz and the centenary of the birth of Eric Ball. Many tributes up and down the country have been made to both these wonderful composers and it was rather fitting that Jonathan Corry chose to perform one of Eric Ball's lesser known contest works, "Tournament for Brass". Published in 1954 this piece is the only work of Eric Ball's (with the exception of his transcriptions and arrangements) where there is no direct religious/spiritual connection.

As the title suggests, this work is literally a tournament for brass and is therefore ideally suited to display the composition of any band. Solo euph Kim Thorp, Solo horn Lucy Pankhurst, solo cornet Merete Vollan, flugel horn Michael Ascroft, supported by fine solo work of principal trombone, solo baritone and Eb/Bb basses made easy work of the highly demanding second movement. It has been many years since I last heard this work performed in a concert and I realised listening tonight how elegant and graceful it is. As the title suggests, this work is literally a tournament for brass and is therefore ideally suited to display the composition of any band.

Audiences seem to revel in the occasional arrangement of well known film music, "Tara's Theme" from the film "Gone with the wind" provided a moment of light relief after Ball's "Tournament for Brass", and led us into our final featured soloist, solo euphonium Kim Thorp. 17 year-old Kim joined Besses in January and is destined to become a big name in euphonium stars. In September 2004 she intends to embark on an undergraduate course of study at the Royal Northern College of Music where she will be tutored by the world renowned euphonium virtuoso Steven Mead. Kim brought to us a dazzling rendition of George Doughty's famous theme and variations solo, "Grandfather's Clock".

Well known for his big band style concert piece "Light-Walk", the Australian Barrie Gott's marvellous "Swingtime Religion" is written in a similar fashion and was highly enjoyed by both band and audience including the rather un-orthodox clapping!!

The finale for this concert was Ralph Vaughan Williams's fantastic overture "Henry the Fifth", composed around 1933/34, Vaughan- Williams suggested to Sir William Walton to use certain extracts from this overture when composing music for the film "Henry V". This work required the band to have lips of cast iron and a style of playing more similar to large orchestral brass ensembles. The band fitted well into this style and the audience were left wanting more, what else could be a great encore but Scotsman James Anderson's foot-tapping SA march "Goldcrest".

The audience were left with the memories of a great programme of brass band music and a most enjoyable evening, well compered by Mike Meadmore. Well done MD Jonathan Corry and Besses!

Peter Williams

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