Fuoco Brass

Conductor: Jonathan W. Corry
Bristol Easton Salvation Army
Saturday June 4th

The opening Festival March 'Celebration' by Leslie Condon set the tone for an evening of high class brass band playing. Although perhaps the dynamic range could have been greater, the band had only two hours rehearsal time together as the group is made up of Salvationists from all corners of the United Kingdom.

After the applause had died down and without hesitation, the principle cornet player of the band David Purkiss stood and played the cornet solo ‘I'd rather have Jesus'. This delightful melody and the feeling put through the instrument set the scene for a moment's reflection and prayer.

The Shostakovich ‘Festive Overture' then set the large audience buzzing as the Musical Director of the band, Jonathan W. Corry certainly whipped the band along. In particular there was excellent interchange from the solo cornets and flugel played by Martin Ramsay, who the previous week had played at the All England Masters in Cambridge with the Kirkintilloch Band. The bass section certainly found their dynamic range and produced an excellent quality sound.

As part of the concert, the Easton Songster Brigade contributed four items, three of them written by John Rutter – ‘Steal Away', ‘I've Got a Robe' and ‘Distant Land'. The first two featured soloist Denise Mitchell and ‘The Distant Land' featured ISS Leader, Dorothy Nancekievill. The other piece chosen was ‘Good Soldiers Never Look Back'.  All items were well received by the audience and added variety to the programme.

There then followed two solos from the band. Firstly a Soprano cornet solo entitled ‘Tambourin'. Originally written for a baroque recorder in the 18th century by the French composer Francois-Joseph Gossec, the soloist Christopher Deacon certainly made light work of the solo with his own apt style and charisma.

The second solo was presented by the solo euphonium of the band, Marc Harry from Portsmouth Citadel. Marc chose to play Norman Bearcroft's ‘The Better World'. And play it he did! Perhaps a little quick in places, but this was expertly played by a very fine euphonium player and was much appreciated by the audience.

An arrangement of the Graham Kendrick song ‘Such Love' by the Principle Tuba player of the band, Paul Drury again changed the evening into a more reflective mood. It also showed the musical ability of yet another member of the band portraying his talents in this beautiful arrangement.

Jonathan Corry decided to end the first half of the concert with Leslie Condon's Tone Poem ‘Song of the Eternal'. This is one of the classic Salvation Army pieces of music. Leslie Condon took his inspiration from the biblical passage John 1: 1-14 – Creation-Fall-Incarnation-Atonement-Resurrection.

This particular choice of music showed the band for what they were; musicians of the highest standard. The principle of each section had their part to play, not only in exercising their fingers but also tuning. The solo euphonium again excelled in what is a very demanding solo line, depicting the agony of Christ in Gethsemane. This led into the hymn  ‘From that Sacred Hill' which transformed the audience into a more thoughtful and devotion atmosphere.

The finale shows the ‘urgency to preach the word' with the tune ‘Lobe den Herren' and preach it they did. This produced the best sounds of the evening; well balanced in all quarters with the power being led from an excellent bass section.

The second half opened with Peter Graham's ‘Prelude on "Tallis', and then by contrast into Barrie Gott's big band number  ‘The Lord's Prayer' in which the band could show off there big band talents.

A time for reflection as the band played Dean Goffin's ‘Wonderful Healer'. This is a companion piece of music to the much loved  ‘The Light of the World'. Used in this particular setting are the tunes ‘Angelus & Wonderful Healer'.

The final item for the evening was Kenneth Downie's ‘Music of Thanksgiving', a very technical piece of music for all players within the band.  This particular piece of music is based around the hymn tune ‘Whitechapel', which concludes with the quality sounds of the band. Special praise must go to the soprano cornet who after a extremely "hard night's work" still maintained the quality of sound throughout the soprano solo prior the finale.

This was a very entertaining evening giving by some of the best musicians in the Salvation Army brass band movement. A special thank you must be given to Jonathan Corry and Secretary Nathan Cole (percussion) to organise and achieve the best out of these very fine musicians.

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