YBS Band

Conductor: Professor David King
Regent Hall, London
Friday 14th October

The final pre-contest concert in this Brass Arts Festival organised by Philip Biggs featured YBS under Professor David King who put preparations of ‘Eden' on hold to give a terrific concert that was lapped up by the cosmopolitan audience at Regent's Hall. 

It was the perfect appetizer to contest day itself with the band clearly still on an emotional high after its trip down under and the best this reviewer has heard YBS on the concert platform in recent times.

In quite a lively acoustic, the band opened up with the march ‘Keighley Moor', and this was closely followed by Oliver Waespi's ‘Festive Impressions' which bears the subtitle ‘A Cinematographic Overture'. This provided reminders of being at the movies with some fine playing from around the stand, not forgetting the percussion team who had plenty to do, and did it rather well.

Stuart Lingard was the first featured soloist and he performed a lovely little ‘romantic' solo entitled ‘Homecoming' that won many admirers, not least the band's conductor, Professor David King. Married life sounds very nice for this talented player.

Carl Robrecht's symphonic foxtrot ‘Samum' was eloquently executed by the band, led by the conductor who kept a tight reign on the dynamic and who kept the band sound tight and compact in keeping with the piece's musical genre.

The individual highlight of this concert for your reviewer came next with Brodsky's ‘I'll Walk with God' where the band made something so simple sound so powerful with a wonderful conclusion that just took the breath away. Regents Hall was filled with a huge warm and rounded sound.

Sheona White was the next soloist featured and it was a case of ‘anything my husband (Stuart Lingard) can do, I can do better' with a stunning performance of ‘Cappricio Brilliante'.  Prior to the performance, David King was taking about Sheona's achievements both as a musician and a woman in recent years, reminding the audience that the Scot was selected as a finalist in the ‘Cosmopolitan Women of Achievement' in 1998.  You only have to listen to a talent like this to understand why the MD holds her in such high regard.

Following a brisk performance of ‘Molly on the Shore', YBS concluded its first half with Goff Richards' ‘Voyage of Discovery'.  Music is all about ‘word pictures' of course, and in this piece the listener has the opportunity to visualise any long haul journey and the experiences it creates. This was also an opportunity to listen to the piece with a slightly different slant on it, as since having heard it played by YBS prior to their tour of Australia, it has been selected as the First Section test piece at the Regionals next year.

Without a doubt, this will be a tough ask for the bands, with the opening bars being a key ingredient as to how successful a performance is going to be.  YBS' performance here though was impressive, overcoming the technical demands without any problems, whilst the lyrical sections were beautifully reproduced.

Heaton's quirky march ‘Praise' was taken at an extremely quick tempo, and so just lacked that dislocated wit to open up the second half, before Rodney Newton's ‘Dimitri' was the perfect vehicle for the lovely flugel voice of Iwan Williams.

Music from the pen of John Williams was featured in ‘Hedwig's Theme' enhanced by the soprano playing of Alan Hobbins, whilst Morgan Griffiths performed one of the old standards of the euphonium repertoire, ‘Carnival of Venice' with a respectful aplomb that brought warm applause from the traditionalists in the audience.

Robin Dewhurst's ‘Celtic Fusion' was performed by YBS at the European Gala Concert in Glasgow last year.  The ‘Flight of the Wild Geese' is a lovely part of the whole composition and Alan Hobbins was again prominent with some lovely ‘flighty' touches on soprano.

YBS officially concluded its programme with music appropriate to its surroundings courtesy of ‘Shine as the Light' where at times the detail went astray within the acoustics of the hall. Calmness was restored after a lengthy standing ovation and a delightfully executed rendition of ‘Irish Blessing' rounded things of where they began – stunningly.

YBS may not have quite yet captured the essential ingredient of winning the Nationals just yet, but on this form they won't have to wait too long. This was a cracking concert.

Malcolm Wood

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