Brighouse & Rastrick Band

Conductor: Alan Morrison
Morley Town Hall
Saturday 13th January

There is no better feeling for any performer than to see a full house when you go on stage. And this was the case here with Morley Town Hall packed to capacity at least ten minutes before the concert began. Now it was time for the band to deliver.

Opening with their signature tune ‘West Riding', Brighouse went into the concert march ‘Bandology', producing a nice bright sound and neat ensemble work in this popular march.

One of Berlioz's finest overtures is undoubtedly ‘Le Carnival Romain' and the band gave a fine performance with excellent contributions from Mike Howley on euphonium and Nigel Fielding on soprano. The playing had plenty of vigour and despite it getting slightly rushed towards the end it was exciting stuff.

The bands new principal cornet player Stephen Wilkinson then delighted the audience with an arrangement of ‘Charivari', the soloist producing a lovely warm sound alongside good technique - a fine show. Irvin Berlin's popular ‘Putting on the Ritz'  had a fresh feeling to it and it suited the bands style to a tee. Changing the mood completely we had a lovely performance of Robertson's ‘All in the April Evening', and this music composed for the Scottish Orpheus Choir showed the bands excellent dynamic range with some fine pianissimo playing evident, although there was a little uncertainty at the end. It did not detract from a well controlled performance though.

Music from the big band era with a lively rendering of Hilliard's ‘Zambezi' brought us to the band's next soloist David Moore on flugel horn, who gave a confident performance of the now rather ubiquitous ‘Children Of Sanchez'. For this reviewer this has become a over used piece of music, but that does not detract from the lovely warm sound and firm technique of a soloist with a great future.

The first half ended with what was for me the most exciting playing so far, with Paul Lovatt-Cooper's new composition ‘Where Eagles Sing'. The composer who is a member of the percussion section at Black Dyke got his inspiration after a visit to America and saw the American Bald Eagle. This music is so descriptive and full of life and the band did it justice with a superb performance that provided a great end to an enjoyable first half.

Ray Farr's arrangement of Bach's ‘Toccata in D Minor' got the second half underway with the bands good technique evident if at times it was on the harsh side. Andy Duncan is one of the finest arrangers of band music playing his trade at present  and in his ‘Soul Bossa Nova', somewhere between a samba and jazz, the band gave a lively show with some fine work from the percussion section. Mike Howley on euphonium followed, showing us what a fine exponent of the instrument he is with Hohne's ‘Slavische Fantasy'. This is difficult music to play but the soloist gave an object lesson in phrasing alongside good technique. The band movement as a whole has never been richer in terms of outstanding euphonium players at present and this young man is one of the best.

The band then literally skipped through Richard's ‘Armenian Fire Dance' at a tempo that meant no risk of getting burnt at this tempo – although there were plenty of scorch marks!

A complete change of mood with the beautiful ‘Londonderry Air' was followed by three pieces the band played in their winning programme at the recent Brass in Concert Contest. First up was the march ‘The New Colonial' followed by ‘The Bare Necessities' featuring David Hebb on Eb Bass aided and abetted by other members of the band including Alan Morrison on cornet. This was superbly done by both soloist and band, and very well thought out.

To end with the band gave us a good strong account of Reed's ‘Russian Christmas Music' - the four movements interlinked together with the band excelling with a full sound and plenty of good old Yorkshire stamina on display right to the last few notes.

As an encore the band gave us, [YES you've Guessed it] ‘The Floral Dance' .I know this has been synonymous with the band but surely its time to move on.

Overall this had been a fine concert, well balanced and well played with the audience getting great value for money. The band deserved the rich ovation it was given.

David Tinker

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