YBS Band

Conductor: Professor David King
Morley Town Hall
Leeds City Council: Best of Brass
Compere: Mike Meadmore

The YBS Band  - the new name for the former Yorkshire Building Society Band has for the last decade been probably the most successful of all concert and contesting bands. It has also been amongst the most innovative with highly acclaimed CDs and concert projects, created through close collaboration between conductor and various composers. It was therefore with much expectation that a full house anticipated their performance here as part of the excellent Best of Brass series of concerts sponsored by Leeds City Council.

The concert opened with the march ‘Spiritoso' from Kenneth Downies ‘St Austell Suite'. This was a lively opener to the evening and a welcome choice. The bands principal cornet player Stuart Lingard was the first featured soloist and he chose ‘Virtuosity' by Kenny Baker and gave a most convincing performance of this showpiece tour de force with excellent technique and control and enhanced by superb backing from the band.

Music from the film ‘Far & Away' by John Williams arranged by Philip Harper which starred Nicole Kidman and Tom Cruise was next up, and to put it bluntly was a pretty awful film redeemed by some pretty good music. The band responded in kind with playing of the highest quality in a great piece to grace any concert. The band followed up with Gordon Langford's arrangement of the traditional tune ‘The Girl I Left Behind Me' - a real crowd pleaser if the audience reaction was any thing to go by and nice to hear something from this now sadly neglected master of accessible brass band arrangements.

Sheona White, the bands solo horn player is without doubt one of the finest, if not the finest tenor horn player in the band movement at present. This young lady captured the audience's attention with a beautiful performance of ‘Demelza' which takes its inspiration from the heroine of the 1970's television series Poldark'. This lovely music, beautifully played and was an example of how to shape and build a performance with the soloist always in control and with sensitive backing from the band.
 
William Himes arrangement of ‘Three Kings Swing', four, if you include the conductor, moved the concert along with some fine work from the cornet section and percussion and once again revealed YBS in the comfort zone, confident and secure in style and precision.

The baritone is one of the unsung instruments in the brass band but in the capable hands of Robert Richardson who gave a well controlled performance of the old pot boiler ‘Napoli' in the neat Geoffrey Brand arrangement it came to the fore. This well loved solo gives the soloist the chance to showcase his talent and apart from a little tiredness towards the end it was a very good account indeed.

Professor King made sure that any younger members of the audience (unfortunately there were not many on the night) were not forgotten with a selection from ‘Harry Potter and the Philosopher's Stone' that brought the first half to a close with the band capturing the music perfectly with some fine ensemble playing and a lovely lightness of touch to capture the almost magical sense of the fantastic that the music (unlike the books) creates.

Peter Graham's ‘Prelude on Tallis'   based on the hymn ‘Glory to thee my God' got the second half underway followed by in my opinion the finest flugel horn player in the band movement, Iwan Williams who gave a superb performance of  ‘Ave Maria' by Caccini arranged by Thomas Wyss .The soloist produced a liquid gold sound alongside excellent phrasing, an object lesson to any soloist on how to project a solo. The accompaniment from the band was, as usual, well in the background - also a lesson many bands would do well to observe.

Ray Farr's clever arrangement of ‘Midnight Sleighride' by Prokofiev added a little Christmas flavour to the evening (and made you wonder if the light hearted Xmas classic has ever been bettered) and was then followed by Brodsky's moving music ‘I'll Walk With God'. The emotion the conductor drew from his players was a joy to hear and the balance and warmth of tone was quite outstanding.

Music from the pen of Goff Richards in a piece entitled ‘Silver Mountain'  reflects the scenery in a Norwegian Village .The music has a lovely melody and the band produced a lively compact sound as well as some excellent dynamics in a master class of controlled playing.

The last soloist was Steven Walsh the bands recently appointed principal euphonium player and he gave what was at times a breathtaking performance of Rimmer's classic ‘Jenny Jones'. All the variations were well executed with good control throughout the audience reaction spoke for its self. Sometimes a real old bot boiler can work wonders – and this one did.
 
The evening ended with yet another arrangement of Wagner's ‘Procession to the Cathedral' and I say this with all respect to the Himes and Snell arrangements, but for this listener, this arrangement by Peter Graham is the best of all. Needless to say the band gave both a sensitive and powerful performance of this great music.

The YBS Band and Professor David King had treated the large audience to a concert of the highest standard, although one point of concern though was the lack of young people in the audience. Ninety nine per cent would be over the age of fifty. Why this was so, we don't know, but any young player would have done well to come and listen and learn from some of the top bands in the world on top class form.
 
David Tinker

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