Over the past few years Paul Hindmarsh’s balanced artistic programming at the RNCM Festival has given Tredegar ample opportunity to reinforce their reputation as one of the world’s finest performers of contemporary brass band repertoire.

It has also allowed the event to build up a growing audience to hear works that are invariably found on the medium’s margins; those that break traditional conventions of inventiveness and innovation, asking listeners to open minds and loosen preconceptions.

Pushing boundaries

On this occasion Tredegar featured works by Heaton, Leidzen, Broughton, Wilby, Higgins and Dorothy Gates - not all revolutionary output, but each in their way pushing boundaries of compositional ambition.
 
They opened with ‘Celestial Prospect’ - a work turned down for publication by The Salvation Army after it was first performed in 1986, but which has since been wonderfully resurrected; Heaton’s quirky conventionality played with stylistic freedom and understanding.

So too with principal cornet Dewi Griffiths on Leidzen’s demanding ‘Songs in the Heart’, in a performance that flowed with rich, lyrical energy allied to the crisp clarity of an imposing technique.

Controlled energy

The welcome reprise of Broughton’s rather neglected ‘Masters of Space and Time’, abjectly dismissed in 2001 by the British Open Championship, was also given a performance worthy of its overdue rehabilitation - the broad symphonic structure ultimately bringing together fragmentary themes and motifs in a score that pulsates with controlled energy. 
 
The concert’s centrepiece however came with Wilby’s ‘The Pilgrim’s Progress’ - complete with narration, organ and student forces. A concise retelling of John Bunyon’s allegorical tale, it was a triumph of ingenuity and understanding; an everyman story of the dangers of doubt and temptation, splendidly enhanced by all the performers (with a notable fanfare lead by RNCM student Kathleen Gaspoz).

Microcosm

Two engrossing works closed the afternoon: The immersive ‘Ivory Ghosts’ by Gavin Higgins followed by the equally enigmatic, deeply evocative ‘Hope’ by Dorothy Gates - a microcosm exploration of the horrors and tragedies of modern day conflict, summed up by the pathetic awfulness of the mindless deaths of seven young Palestinian children.  

Its power to focus the musical intellect in such a commanding performance left you breathless, spent and questioning.

Malcolm Wood