Works that connected people and communities geographically, emotionally and politically formed the historical core of Tredegar’s engrossing concert performance under Ian Porthouse.

They opened with Ray Steadman-Allen’s ‘The Silver Star’ - a little gem of a celebratory march in honour of the mothers who provided the Salvation Army with its next generation of Officer Training School cadets. 

Even if there was something almost Stalinist about the award of badges for progeny, the neat fusing of songs by Arch R. Wiggins and pioneering SA composer George Marshall still gave it an uplifting sense of joyfulness.

Disfigured hero

19th century Gothic fiction provided the backdrop for Daniel Hall’s ‘Sanctuary!’ - a colourfully compact retelling of unrequited love, political intrigue and a disfigured hero for all our times. 

Victor Hugo’s tale of Quasimodo and his adored Esmerelda was one of vertiginous campanology - the rising tension and passion played out in the belfry of Notre Dame Cathedral, the drama unfolding bar by bar. It was a thrillingly played page-turner that ended in hope rather than harrowing despair.

Technology permitting

There will also be a cautionary tale to tell for future performers of Ludovic Neurohr’s lyrically touching ‘BECH' Euphonium Concerto.  The vagaries of modern day technology meant that the spatial element of the opening movement (the soloist should have played in a different hall to the band) was lost due to the RNCM’s flaky wi-fi - despite three unsuccessful attempts by staff to connect it. 

It was such a pity the physical metaphor of the lonely pursuit of excellence was missing, although it did not detract from the quality of Glenn Van Looy’s remarkable playing, which deliberately grew in intensity, range and power (helped by excellent accompaniment from his Swiss quartet of friends and the band) to close with an even greater spectrum of future musical possibilities opening up before him (technology permitting of course). 

Political ideology

A new suite of re-worked portions of the remarkable Gavin Higgins score to the ballet ‘Dark Arteries’ provided the substantial focal core of the concert. 

A work of deep, brooding intensity and vicious conflict, even in concise form it still reeked of the ‘blood, sweat and dirt’ that was the unromantic reality of coal mining life in communities that were to be left devastated by the political ideology that underpinned the 1984 Miners’ Strike.

A work of deep emotion, brooding intensity and vicious conflict, even in concise form it still reeked of the ‘blood, sweat and dirt’ that was the unromantic reality of coal mining life in communities that were to be left devastated by the political ideology that underpinned the 1984 Miners’ Strike. 

This was music of visceral emotion, evoked with insight and immense powers of concentrated brilliance by an MD and band that seemingly has coal dust running through its veins.  

Gilbert Vinter’s idiosyncratic portrait of 'James Cook - Circumnavigator' (certainly a complex figure of ideological imperialism) provided a vivid close – richly coloured and characterised; from the lapping Pacific waves and stirring endeavours of on-board life to the final misplaced triumphalism that led to his vicious demise. 

It was a thrilling climax to a concert of substantial excellence.

Jason Banwell