Black Dyke opened the 2017 RNCM Festival bristling with focused intent - and with a programme that suited their particular talents in full. 

With the event celebrating the ‘special relationship’ between the UK and the USA (musically if not politically at present), Bruce Broughton’s ‘Young Sherlock Holmes’ suite, expertly packaged into a concise highlights trailer by Peter Graham, was a sprightly opener that cleverly brought to life the hero’s capricious teenage investigation techniques - very much a youthful Indiana Jones in a deerstalker hat.

Elegiac

It was also an enjoyable prelude to the substantive reflections of Edward Gregson’s elegiac ‘Cornet Concerto’.

A triptych of miasmic recall, nuance and elegant fortitude, it was delivered with a masterful combination of energy and expression by Richard Marshall - the soloist and band in thoughtful musical balance throughout.        

With the festival also playing a retrospective tribute to composer Martin Ellerby on what will be his 60th birthday later this year, the first half closed with ‘Elgar Variations’ - rich in character and personality, seeping with imperial bombast and suppressed romance, as well as hearty wit and excitement.

Evocative

More Ellerby followed after the break: Percussionist Andrea Price eliciting a kaleidoscopic array of colour and textures in 'Canticles of the Sun for Percussion and Brass Band' to bring an evocative interpretation to life of the famous theological hymn of praise of St Francis of Assisi.

Edward Gregson’s latest collaboration with the Queensbury band (stretching back to the early 1970s) was marked by the composer taking the lead to direct the world premiere of ‘Four Etudes’ - a trio of superbly realised miniatures from piano study originals, plus a very personal addendum touching on the incomprehensible inhumanity of the tragedy of ‘Aleppo’. It was a deeply resonant musical chronology.

Uplifting

Peter Graham’s ‘Triumph of Time’ was therefore a persuasive counter balance to close - uplifting and positive in celebratory reminiscence, packed to the gunnels with virtuosic verve and intensity. The final chords sucked you back into your seats.  

It also rounded off an opening concert that very deliberately by Artistic Director Paul Hindmarsh, and also very persuasively by Black Dyke, set the musical tone of the entire festival.

Iwan Fox