Derwent Brass
26-Oct-2006Annual Concert
Landau Forte College Theatre
Conductor: Keith Leonard
Saturday October 7th
Derwent Brass chalked up yet another successful concert when they returned to the Landau Forte College Theatre for the 11th successive year - the first annual concert to be held at this ideal venue was in 1996, and the band have been back every year since.
Before the start the reception area was filled with a queue of eager concert goers buying tickets, programmes, raffle tickets, CDs and the bar was busy as usual!. The event was supported by all the band's patrons - Lady Hilton, Mrs Nancy Bird and Mr Roy Poole and their parties. The Band were also pleased to welcome youngsters from the Derby Schools Music Centers. This follows the recent appointment of 14 year old percussionist Sam Jowett.
All the usual Derwent Brass ingredients were in place for another great evening's entertainment as the band under resident conductor Keith Leonard launched into Howard Snell's arrangement of the Shostakovich 'Folk Festival' as an exciting opener chosen to celebrate the centenary of the Russian composer. The band were obviously on sparkling form and kept up the excitement by launching into Sandy Smith's fast and furious 'Comedy Tonight' – taken from 'A Funny Thing Happened on the Way to the Forum".
By way of a complete contrast the audience was introduced to Jamie Cooper, standing in for principal cornet Dave Neville who was absent for the night. Jamie, himself a former principal of Derwent Brass, is currently studying at the Royal Northern College of Music in Manchester and is a solo cornet player with The Brighouse & Rastrick Band and was delighted to help out his old band. He delighted the audience with a beautiful rendition of 'The Meditation from Thais 'by Massenet.
After a quick romp through a 'Czardas 'by Strauss, it was time for Principal Euphonium Adam Rutter to wow and stun the audience with his staggering performance of ‘Brillante' - the fantasy on Rule Britannia by Peter Graham.
As a tribute to Sir Malcolm Arnold following his recent death, the band included his popular March, 'The Padstow Lifeboat' before changing for the ever popular 'Big Band' set.
As usual this had the audience swinging along and included '42nd Street' (with some great solo work by soprano Dai Roberts) followed by 'Mack the Knife', the ever popular 'South Rampart St Parade', Lennon & McCartney's 'Eleanor Rigby' and finally 'Sparkling Diamonds' taken from the Oscar winning movie Moulin Rouge.
After the interval the band reverted to traditional set up and uniform and kick-started the last sector of the concert with the theme music from the old sixties Gerry Anderson Puppet Show - 'Stingray', before settling down to some more serious music.
To acknowledge the 250th anniversary of Mozart the overture to 'The Magic Flute 'was next on the programme. However as the bands MD, Keith Leonard explained to the audience, this was also a tribute to the band's friend Carl Richardson who died just a couple of months ago. As well as being a great tuba player, Carl also often conducted the band and always included The Magic Flute in his programmes. As he said ‘Real Music'.
The atmosphere was retained when the band went on to play Philip Wilby's wonderful setting of 'St Clements' - 'The Day Thou Gavest'.
The finale to the 2006 Annual Concert was 'Cry of the Celts', Peter Graham's arrangement of Ronald Hardiman's Celtic dance music. Set in 5 movements the piece provided the audience with a thundering finish with the whole band on their feet; but not before they had been delighted with some nimble playing from the cornet section, fantastic effects and plenty of style from the percussion team and impressive solo work from; Dai Roberts - soprano, Adrian Beresford - cornet , Graham Johnson - horn, Adam Rutter - euphonium and Rob Stew – euphonium
With a very appreciative audience demanding more, it goes without saying that the evening was rounded off by the usual rendition of the bands signature piece, Montreal Citadel – A great night had by all.
