Hepworth [Persimmon Homes] Band
14-Dec-2004Musical Director: Mark Bentham
Stroud Brass Band Festival
Subscription Rooms, Stroud
Saturday December 11th
The Stroud Band Festival is celebrating forty seasons of concerts this year and it is a great compliment to the organisers that this wonderful series is still pulling in capacity audiences in today's age of so many other attractions. It was therefore with great anticipation that the recently crowned Scottish Open Champions arrived to play to a full house on what was the Hepworth (Persimmon Homes) bands first visit to Stroud.
The concert opened with the ‘National Anthem' followed by ‘A Christmas Prelude' by the American composer James Curnow which gave a nice relaxed opening to the evening. The mood then changed with the exciting ‘Folk Festival' by Shostakovich taken at a lively tempo with some excellent work all round the band and with the cornet section especially prominent. This music by arranged by Howard Snell certainly gets the feet tapping and the audience reaction spoke for itself.
The Scottish Overture ‘The Land Of The Mountain And The Flood' arranged Bragg has some lovely lilting melodies all through the music, and although there were some uncertain entries at times the overall picture remained in place with the euphoniums and baritones on fine form. The finale to the piece was quite stunning.
Robert Westacott, the bands principal cornet is one of the most consistent players in the band movement and in ‘The Children Of Sanchez' by Chuck Mangione he thrilled the audience with his versatility, which was well supported by the rest of the band. His excellent control especially in the high register was a feature of the performance.
John Rutter has composed some lovely melodies and in his ‘Candlelight Carol' it gave the band a chance to show off it rich warm sound., Plenty of contrast and some lovely dynamics all sat on top of a good solid bass foundation and gave the piece a finely shaped balance. The long ovation showed what the audience thought.
Allen's march ‘The Wizard‘ has been very rewarding for the band over the last few years and they gave it the full treatment with some fine cornet, soprano, and euphonium playing . This is a great march and one that would test any band to the full.
The band then introduced their solo horn player Rebecca Landon, who chose ‘Capriccio Brillante' –Bellstedt arranged by Sandy Smith and this young lady gave a virtuoso performance of this difficult music. With an excellent technique and nice clear sound she has the ability to let the music speak for itself and is a player who I am sure we will hear much more of. To end the first half the band chose music by Rimsky Korsakov arranged by Keith Wilkinson in the ‘Capriccio Espagnol'. A good steady tempo was set so the detail could be heard and the band responded with some fine playing notably from the soprano and the trombone section and this was a confident show of this exciting music and the band left the stage to loud applause.
The exiting ‘Troika' by Prokofiev arranged by Ray Farr got the second half of to a lively start with the band inviting the audience to join in the whistling, before Mark Smedley, the bands soprano cornet gave us music from the pen of Ennio Morricone arranged by Mark Bentham in ‘La Califfa'. This young man plays with great feeling, and is a player who like the other young soloists in the band, providing they keep there feet firmly on the ground, will continue to progress into top class performers.
Music from the film world came next in the great Western film ‘The Big Country' –Moross arranged by Mark Bentham. The band then changed style to play the well known Big Band number ‘Cute' by Hefti in a arrangement by Philip Sparke. This featured John Pullin on Eb Bass, Alex Heulier on kit and Graham Bates on xylophone and the band responded in kind with a nice lightness of touch in this enjoyable music.
The audience then joined the band in the carol ‘Hark the Herald Angels Sing' before the last soloist of the evening gave a rather amusing account of ‘Frosty The Snowman'. Graham Starr, the bands bass trombone player had some lets say, unhelpful interruptions from soprano and solo cornet, but in this arrangement by Sandy Smith he battled on to the end to great applause.
Music from 'Moulin Rouge' followed arranged by Mark Bentham with the audience asked to name the ten tunes in this number. This was a most enjoyable arrangement and some fine playing as well. For their finale the band played Leroy Anderson's ‘Christmas Festival' and it was a good ending to what had been a first class concert. The encore was ‘Jingle Bells' with the audience joining in once again.
The Hepworth Band were thanked for an excellent concert and duly invited back for the next series 2005-6. The capacity audience had heard a band playing full of confidence and the band themselves would make the long journey home to Yorkshire safe in the knowledge of a job well done.
David Tinker
