Fodens (Richardson) Band

2007 Festival of Brass
Conductor: Bramwell Tovey
Saturday 27th January

One of the real delights of this Festival in recent years has been the performances of Fodens (Richardson) Band under Bramwell Tovey. 

In 2004 and 2005 the Fodens/Tovey combination performed concerts that were totally awe inspiring and having had commitments in the diary that prevented him from the conducting the band in 2006, Mr Tovey returned once again whilst Professional MD, Garry Cutt was able to sit back and listen.

There is no doubt that Bramwell Tovey is touched by genius (at times an over-used term but not in this case) when he has a conductors baton and set of musicians in front of him.  Prior to the concert, he'd given a talk on conducting that was full of insight and practical advice and his relaxed demeanour here had the audience eating out of the palm of his hand.  His wit and humour was a mere enhancement to the evening but his thoughts on the music played was a real joy to behold and whetted the appetite before a note was played.  Once again during the concert, he demonstrated that he is a real master of his art.

The first half contained three contrasting works; Eric Ball's ‘Song of Courage', Dominic Muldowney's ‘Rote Fahne Musik' and Simpson's Symphonic Study, ‘Energy'.

Ball's ‘Song of Courage' is a fine work but this performance took a little time to settle. When it did however it contained some fine ensemble and solo work from Mark Wilkinson, Glyn Williams and Alan Wycherley in particular.

I've always been a believer that you shouldn't judge a piece of music just on one hearing and having heard ‘Rote Fahne Musik', which translated correlates to ‘Red Flag Music', it left you wanting to it again before really making your mind up about it – even though the subject matter would have been right up the political street of the 4BR Editor!

Based around songs composed by the Austro-German composer and Marxist, Hans Eisler it was commissioned by the National Youth Brass Band of Great Britain, receiving its debut performance back in 2005. Much of the music has a strident communist feel about it (all a touch East German national anthem) that would have delighted Eric Honecker and his cronies no end, but left you a touch underwhelmed at its darkness at times.  The music is very serious in its construction, quite loud, tense and hostile but it certainly paints an evocative picture of the USSR in years gone by. (Today it would most probably need to have the theme tune to MacDonalds in it)

‘Energy' by Robert Simpson was the composer's first work for brass band written for the World Championships in 1971 and again in1991 at the Nationals.  The work is made up of five sections with each one seemingly increasing in speed, although the basic meter remains the same. Like ‘Song of Courage' it too took time settle, with some obvious lapses in concentration evident, before it resolved itself with real increasing drive and momentum.

One of the anticipated highlights of the festival was the World Premiere of Bramwell Tovey's ‘Pictures in the Smoke'.  The composer had been formulating ideas in his mind for some time for a composition (finished on the Thursday night prior to the performance) to feature band and piano, and the title derives from a witty Dorothy Parker verse about her love life.

Something of a cross between ‘West Side Story' and ‘Rhapsody in Blue', it revealed itself to be a lovely work, making for compelling listening, not too mention, watching the MD multi-tasking, conducting the band whilst sat at the piano.  It's a real virtuosi piece for both band and piano enhanced on this occasion by the level of performance from the band, soloist, and Mark Landon on the drum kit who really added a subtle touch of classy backdrop to the piece with his work. The viperish old girl would have enjoyed the music and the performance immensely – She may be long gone but the spirit lives on here – She wanted here epitaph to read ‘Mind my dust' – perhaps she should have inserted the word musical to it too.

George Benjamin was invited by Elgar Howarth to compose a work for Grimethorpe and the result was a work that depicts flight in different guises and given the title, ‘Altitude'.  A powerfully descriptive short work it lifted us up briefly to another place with some ease.

Bramwell Tovey and Fodens opted for another brass band classic to conclude their programme, with Elgar's ‘Severn Suite'.  After a lip-sapping programme, the Cheshire based band really dug deep to pull out all the stops with some excellent playing that really captured the eloquence of Elgar's writing.

For the encore, that little touch of genius from Tovey in ‘Nimrod' from 'Enigma Variations'.  One suspects this is music that conductor has performed many times and his insight into how he wanted to structure the phrases and dynamic contrasts were pure class. Subtle but emotive it rounded off a fine programme of music which although uneven at times still touched the very highest spots.

Malcolm Wood

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