Brass and Voices
4-Oct-2006Hepworth Lanson Homes Band
Conductor: Mark Bentham
The Trusts Waitakere Band New Zealand
Conductor: Simon Kerwin
Colne Valley Male Voice Choir
Huddersfield Town Hall
Saturday 30th September
Hepworth opened what was to be a quite memorable concert with a rousing performance of Edward German's march ‘The President'. Conducted by Mark Bentham the band followed on with the Overture to ‘II Seraglio' by Mozart. This music is light in texture and overall the band captured the mood well with some lovely touches from soprano and solo cornet.The choir opened their offering with ‘Funiculi, Funicula' arranged by Noble, the sixty three members producing a well balanced sound under the leadership of Thomas Meredith and followed up with four more items the pick of which was ‘When The Saints Go Marching In' arranged by Rutter .
Hepworth returned with a real tour de force in Howard Snell's arrangement of the ‘March From Tchaikovsky's 6th Symphony' in which the trombone section and basses excelled. The audience certainly enjoyed it and gave the performance a warm reception for what had been stirring stuff indeed.
It was now time for the concerts special guests The Trusts Waitakere Brass Band from New Zealand to make their first contribution to the evening. Conducted by Simon Kerwin they opened in a light mood with ‘It's a long way to Tipperary' that was neatly presented even if it was an even longer way for them back home to New Zealand! This was followed by a moving performance of Edward Elgar's ‘Nimrod' in which the playing really captured the emotion of the music.
They ended the first half of the concert with Phillip Sparke's superb ‘Land Of The Long White Cloud'. This music was a most appropriate choice and the band gave a spirited performance with some well balanced sounds especially from the middle of the ensemble.
Waitakere opened the second half with the famous music from ‘Zadok The Priest' and whilst this suffered from noticeable tuning problems in the quiet opening sections it settled down to some fine playing all round the band. This was followed by Matthew Van Emmerik on euphonium playing ‘Benedictus from The Armed Man' by Karl Jenkins .The soloist gave a warm and convincing performance of this superb music with good accompaniment from the band. It was a high class performance indeed both from soslois and band. Waitakere ended their contribution to the evening with ‘Vita Lux' with some fine contributions from the percussion section and some vibrant cornet and soprano work.The Choir returned next with five items, the highlights being ‘Alexander's Rag Time Band' and a stunning rendering of ‘My Way'. This was male voice singing at its best.
Hosts, Hepworth then returned to the stage with a delightful performance of Vaughn Williams ‘English Folk Song Suite' with all three movements carried of with aplomb. James Fieldhouse then gave a scintillating performance on euphonium of Peter Graham's ‘Brillante' showing great technique and sound. The contrast between the two fine exponents of the instrument was made even more enjoyable by both being on top form on the night.
The concert came to a close with Parry's ‘Jerusalem' and Elgar's ‘Pomp and Circumstance' with the audience singing and waving there flags in good old Last Night at the Proms fashion.
This had been a good all round concert with excellent contributions from all three ensembles. Simon Kirwin told 4BR that he was delighted at the way the band had been received both on this evening and their two previous concerts with the Fairy Band in Buxton and in Glasgow with the Scottish Co-op Band. The players themselves said it had been a great experience and were overwhelmed by the reception they received at this evening's concert in particular. Well done to Gilbert Symes for his compering and an audience of around eight hundred certainly went home very happy and entertained by what they had heard.
David Tinker
