Artistic Director Paul Hindmarsh’s admirable willingness to feature compositions from the outer boundaries of banding repertoire at the RNCM Festival in recent years has given the event a much broader sense of musical inclusion. 

He has also been fortunate to find an outstanding exponent in Tredegar Band - an ensemble that continues to explore artistic limits itself; most notably with the acclaimed ‘Dark Arteries’ collaboration with the Rambert Dance company.

Understanding

Once again they displayed a comprehensive understanding of peripheral repertoire - from the arid vistas of McCabe’s ‘Desert II: Horizon’ to the psychological explorations of musical character that formed ‘Diversions after Benjamin Britten’ by Lucy Pankhurst, Simon Dobson, Paul McGhee and Gavin Higgins.

They were complemented by the remarkable talents of Scottish tuba star Ross Knight in the Horovitz 'Concerto', as well as an expertly rendered ‘Occasional Overture’ and an efflorescent take on Michael Ball’s reflections of the Wicklow Mountains.

Bubbling

Britten’s quirky ‘Overture’ (expertly arranged by Hindmarsh himself) was performed with bubbling energy and sharp edged wit; although neatly tempered with a controlled restraint in tastefully managed solo motifs.

Meanwhile, McCabe’s fascination with both the mammoth and the minute of the deserts of the world was a shimmering Middle Eastern landscape of shifting sands and incessant heat; the score delicately textured, mysterious, barren. It was played with an evocative emptiness.    

Elegant maturity

Not so the Horovitz ‘Tuba Concerto’ - performed with rich, elegant maturity by Ross Knight; each of the three movements giving ample scope to showcase his malleable tonality and subtle variances of articulation: The congratulations given to him by the composer where heartfelt and richly deserved.

Michael Ball’s rather neglected ‘...all the flowers of the mountain’ remains a poetic curiosity though - a work difficult to interpret. It is a very personal musical landscape; questioning without giving up its answers, the serene ending almost a prelude to further exploration. 

Mature creativity

Questions also in ‘Diversions after Benjamin Britten’ - which was given a welcome reprise following its premiere here a couple of years ago. It is a wonderfully inventive tribute from four composers who are now very much established voices of mature creativity - each delving into the complex psyche of a composer who himself remained very much an outsider. 

How the banding movement integrates these original compositional voices into the mainstream will be both interesting and informative in the years to come. The efforts of Paul Hindmarsh, Ian Porthouse and Tredegar Band in doing so have already proved invaluable. 

On the evidence of this outstanding concert we can only hope they succeed.

Chris Davies