Canadian Brass and YBS Band

Conductor: Professor David King
Bridgewater Hall
Manchester
Wednesday 9th November

This was day four of Canadian Brass's whistle-stop concert tour of the UK, and by all accounts, if their performance here has been replicated elsewhere (and from what we understand it has) anyone whose had the opportunity to listen to them, has been royally entertained by some fabulous musicians.

Bridgewater Hall in Manchester had numerous students from the RNCM/Salford University in attendance, as well as some well known banding folk who were looking forward to the boys from Canada. Sharing the stage with them on the night were YBS with Professor David King at the helm, whose programme featured a number of items that were performed on the eve of the Nationals in Regent Hall.  Overall though, YBS' performance on the night didn't sparkle the way they did in London.

Having opened with the ‘Cinematographic Overture - Festive Impressions' by Oliver Waespi, Stuart Lingard was in fine form with a performance of ‘Homecoming' – a romantic solo by Goff Richards.

Next up was the familiar music from Harry Potter with ‘Hedwig's Theme' with some nice soprano player from (deputising) Peter Roberts; whilst ‘I'll Walk With God' maximised the acoustic of the hall.  Percy Grainger's ‘Molly on the Shore' featured the band's new baritone player, Rob Richardson, and the band seemed to have taken a real shine to the ‘Flight of the Wild Geese'; music that comes from the pen of Robin Dewhurst and forms part of his ‘Celtic Fusion' that YBS premiered in Glasgow at the 2004 European Gala Concert.

Iwan Williams' performance of Rodney Newton's ‘Dimitri' just oozed class from the first note to the last – the very last note in particular being milked for all it was worth. This was a performance of real musical quality and finesse.  Professor King quite often refers to Iwan as the ‘Voice of the Flugel' and his performance here, certainly reinforced that accolade bestowed on him.

YBS finished off its spot with the popular ‘Shine as the Light' before the audience took a breather and then sat back and listen to what became the stars of the night.

Most people had their eyes firmly fixed on the stage, and were perhaps a little taken aback (certainly in the stalls) when they came in at the back of the hall performing ‘Just A Closer Walk With Thee'.  Immediately everybody was transfixed on the players who were intent on having fun; they make music for sure, but they brought a real sense of fun to the proceedings, enhanced by the compering that came from Charles Daellenbach, who wasn't concerned about humouring his fellow artistes one little bit.

"Toccata" (Frescobaldi arr Mills), featuring Justin Emerich on piccolo trumpet was just magnificently executed and very quickly, they tuned their ears not just to one another, but making the most of the hall's acoustic.  Justin's sound was so refined and it was noticeable not just in this item, but in the rest of the programme, how much respect was given to the performer taking the solo lines; never once were those lines intruded upon, whilst maintaining a level of precision in the accompaniment that was at times, mind-blowing stuff.

Bernhard Scully was then featured in a delightful performance of ‘Rondo' from Mozart's ‘Quintet for Horn and Strings'.  Bernhard's execution and delivery was made to sound so infuriatingly easy – this was one of those night's when you knew people were thinking ‘how on earth does he get that sound, produce that projection?'

The name of Bram Tovey needed no introduction to the audience and his composition ‘Santa Barbara Sonata' is clearly music that means an awful lot to the group having spent time together at the Music Academy of the West, Santa Barbara, California.  From this performance alone, it's clear that the composition and friendship between Tovey and the ensemble is special. In Santa Barbara itself is a pier the ‘Preacher on the Pier' movement featuring piccolo trumpet performing ‘Now Thank We all our God', was performed with finesse.

The printed part of the programme concluded with a change in style with a tribute to Fats Waller complete with comical choreography.  ‘Lookin' Good, but Feelin' Bad', ‘Loungin' at the Waldarf' and ‘Handful of Keys' left the audience calling for more; the group duly obliging with a spoof version of ‘Carmen'  that was hilariously portrayed in a musical and visual manner; ‘Saints Hallelujah' was a combination of ‘When the Saints' met the ‘Hallelujah Chorus'  - will Handel ever sound the same again?  Some great playing bringing to the end a set way to short for many, but hopefully Canadian Brass will back soon. 

Malcolm Wood

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