Hendon Highlights

Hendon Band (Dr Stephen Cobb), Boscombe Songsters (Darren Bartlett)
Soloist: Richard Marshall (cornet/trumpet)
Cadogan Hall, London
Saturday 15th March

The Hendon Highlights festival has been going for more than twenty years, and for the last three has been held at the picturesque Cadogan Hall just off Sloane Square in Chelsea, home of the Royal Philharmonic Orchestra. Each year the band is featured together with special guests, and this year they shared the somewhat crowded platform with Boscombe Songsters from Bournemouth and Richard Marshall, Principal Cornet with the Black Dyke Band. 

Opening item

After the band and songsters had taken their seats there was a little delay before Stephen Cobb came on to conduct the opening item, Stephen Bulla’s setting “Praise Him”, featuring the song “Praise Him, Praise Him, Jesus our blessed redeemer”. It made for a fine start to the evening, with scintillating runs on the cornets and a flowing melody that could have been tailor made for the seven-strong horn section.

David Catherwood’s “Spirit of Life” was originally written as a vocal piece, but has been effectively transcribed for brass, with tasteful decorative figures and delicate arpeggios, and it served as an effective prelude to the opening prayer, which looked forward to not only musical but also spiritual highlights.

The band continued with Kenneth Downie’s “Praise Tribute”, with its references to Wilfred Heaton’s march “Praise”, not only via direct quotation but in his general approach and schematic outline. Featuring the old gospel song “The Good Old Way” the surges of sound from the band were most effective, as were the sudden diminuendos.

Alpha & Omega

Lt Colonel Ray Steadman-Allen was for many years the compere of Hendon Highlights, but decided in 2007 that he should step down. In his absence, Stephen Cobb took over the introductions, giving a warm welcome to Boscombe Songsters, under their Songster Leader Darren Bartlett. Their first contribution, “Alpha & Omega” (Robbie Trice, arr Russell Maudlin), opened with the songsters singing in unison with an almost breathy sense of anticipation. 

As the music developed, the brigade produced a full, well-balanced sound from both men’s and ladies’ voices. The a capella passages came across particularly well, with the singing full-throated but always under control.

They followed this with the exquisite “The Quiet Place” (Ralph Carmichael, arr Tom Fettke). Sung entirely unaccompanied, they made the most of the lush harmonies and sustained chords, with a striking fortepiano at one point on the word “Quiet” that was most effective.

Striking changes

For their third item, “Doxology” (Rick Vale & Sandi Patti, arr Robert Sterling), their accompanying group of keyboard, bass guitar and drums was supplemented by brass and percussion from Hendon, with glockenspiel joining with the keyboard at the start, and trumpets, trombones and timpani making a considerable impact at the entry of “The Old 100th”. With striking changes of key and expansive vocal writing exploiting the full range it made for a spectacular paean of praise.

Delicate

Richard Marshall opened his first group with “Concertpiece for cornet” by Jim Curnow, with Stephen Cobb explaining for the uninitiated his links with both the Salvation Army and the wider world of wind and brass groups. Both soloist and band had extended passages of double-tonguing to negotiate, and the at times tricky accompaniment was difficult for such a large band to bring off effectively. On the whole they coped well, but the textures were a little dense at times, and the tuttis seemed rather over-powering and out of context. 

As for the soloist, he displayed both a fluent technique in the faster sections and a smooth, mellow tone in the central section, the playing very delicate and under-stated. With lip-trills towards the end the piece seemed to finish all too quickly.

A loose cymbal led into the introduction to “People” from the musical “Funny Girl” (Bob Marryl & Jule Style, arr Stanley Black), for which Richard switched to trumpet. The transcription for band was by Alan Catherall and featured considerable interplay with the band’s soloists, with soprano followed by horn answering the opening phrases, and obligato passages later on. The music rose to a forceful climax, before ending with a quiet, reflective coda.

Prolific

Darren Bartlett is a prolific composer of choral music, often in collaboration with his brother Wayne, and they were the co-writers of “Easter Dawn”, a powerful reflection on the death and resurrection of Christ with a vibrant Celtic feel to it. With three soloists at the front of the stage, modal melodies and the distinctive Celtic rhythms in the accompaniment, the music was very atmospheric, one striking a capella passage featuring descending scales running through all the parts. 

A cymbal roll heralded a change of key, with the rhythms growing even stronger. The words were clearly enunciated throughout, with telling rises and falls in volume. The song concluded with a brief coda on keyboard and a soft suspended cymbal.

On Ratcliffe High

It is now thirty years since the premiere of Ray Steadman-Allen’s “Victorian Snapshots: On Ratcliffe Highway”. It was written for the International Congress in 1978, together with “Daystar” and a vocal setting of the Salvation Army Doctrines, entitled “We Believe”, and created quite a stir at the time, with its juxtaposition of street calls, popular songs and hymn tunes, much in the style of Charles Ives. Having featured it in recent years with the International Staff Band, Stephen Cobb had chosen it to conclude the first half of the programme, complete with illustrative scenes projected onto the screen above the band. The images were well chosen, with hazy London skylines, impressionistic river scenes, flower sellers and pictures of the early Salvationists and their opponents. 

As mentioned previously, Hendon are a large band, and this may have contributed to the performance seeming a little muddy at times, with a few intonation issues, particularly in some of the sustained passages. 

The trombone section came across well when required, and there was a wide dynamic range, with some fine quiet playing from the BBb bass, cornets and euphonium, but as a whole it just seemed to lack some of the necessary vigour and incisiveness. As the familiar tunes “We’ll be heroes”, “Champagne Charlie” and “Hold the forts” rang out, the images displayed the early Salvation Army flags, with the sun in the centre, later to be replaced with the star, and the Salvationists under a hail of stones, before the up-to-date picture of a modern band marching down The Mall, and the final image of a cross, silhouetted against the dawn sky. Without doubt it was a fine presentation, but possibly not ideally suited to the band.

Pathway of duty

A number of arrangements have featured the Salvation Army song “By the pathway of duty”, but few in such lively a manner as Paul Sharman’s “On duty” which opened the second half. Written in a bright swing style, the trombone section was featured early on, with a clear, bright sound, although the walking bass was a little on the heavy side. Philip Cobb took the cornet solo, complete with lip trills, and the build up from percussion and soprano through to the full band worked well. When the band reached the laid-back finish, one could almost imagine it was the finale of a Broadway show.

Following the enthusiastic singing of “O Boundless Salvation”, sung to William Himes rousing setting, Richard Marshall returned to the stage to present Stephen Bulla’s “Blessed Assurance”. Written for Philip Smith, it opens with the soloist on flugel, and Richard seemed much more comfortable on this occasion than in Birmingham when he had to come in cold. His warm-toned sound was supported effectively by the pared-down accompaniment, and when he switched to trumpet for the final section he simply soared over the band, building up to a spectacular finish.

David and Goliath

Boscombe Songsters’ next contribution was Wayne and Darren Bartlett’s take on the story of David and Goliath, entitled “Come on David”. A favourite with the International Staff Songsters a few years ago, it was enhanced by choreography and drama, with an imposing Goliath entering down the aisle of the hall, resplendent in a red-crested helmet, and a suitably diminutive David, if of the wrong gender and generation! The arrangement places considerable demands on the singers, particularly the high-lying soprano line, and the songsters came up trumps, including Michele Bowman who took the solo part.

Paul Lovatt-Cooper’s “Where Eagles Sing” really seems to have caught the imagination of bands and audiences in the past year or so, and it was given a vivid performance, with an incisive opening from the cornets, excellent work from the back-row and deft fingering from the euphoniums. The percussion team were kept fully occupied, not least the third player co-opted from the cornet bench, and there was some excellent soprano playing adding that extra brightness. The final chord did seem a little too enthusiastic for the hall, though.

Promise

For their final solo items, Boscombe Songsters presented “Promise” (Don Dorsey & Gavin Greenaway) and “Christ’s Part” (Robert Herrick and James Curnow). The former had been arranged by the Songster Leader, and opened forcefully with brass and percussion and a range of colours in the keyboard accompaniment. The words reflected on the promise of God’s constant presence, with God and man going forward together, arm in arm.

“Christ’s Part”, one of a select few vocal items from the pen of James Curnow and setting a 17th Century text by Robert Herrick, usually comes across as being rather austere and mystical. On this occasion the impact was rather different, with the sustained accompaniment from the keyboard and liberal use of vibrato and tremolo effects making for a rather ethereal effect, the chords often still resonating once the vocal line had ended.

Sustained

Richard Marshall had chosen Ray Farr’s arrangement of the “Adagio from Symphony No 2” (Rachmaninov) to lead into the scripture reading. It brought some beautifully sustained playing, with the subtle use of vibrato warming the main tune when it appeared. Richard allowed the final note simply to die away then left the stage quietly, seemingly an odd way to end his solo appearance on such an occasion. The scripture reading, by Hendon’s Commanding Officer Paul Hilditch, made use of various references to rocks and stones, culminating in the stone being rolled away on Easter Sunday.

The fitting finale for the evening, with Easter only a couple of weeks away, featured Darren Bartlett, backed by the band and songsters, in Andrew Lloyd Webber’s powerful depiction of Jesus in “Gethsemane”, coming to terms with the approaching crucifixion. Darren vividly portrayed the anguish and agony of that ultimate surrender to God’s will, an emotionally draining experience, made all the more emphatic as he strove to rise above the accompaniment.

Echoes

Following the Benediction, there were echoes of the duet by Roger Webster and David Daws as Richard Marshall and Philip Cobb indulged in a little friendly rivalry in an extract from Peter Graham’s “Call of the Cossacks”. Both starting off on trumpet, one at either side of the stage, Philip took up the cornet for the middle section. Their duet – or was it duel? – produced some spectacular musical fireworks, and it would be no great surprise to find the same item featuring in the forth-coming Epic Brass II. It certainly left everyone smiling, and gave the audience the opportunity to demonstrate their appreciation of Richard’s talent.

Proud

Once again, Hendon had done themselves proud, drawing a good crowd to an excellent evening of music and praise and with some first class guests. A special word of appreciation is due to the accompaniment team with Boscombe Songsters, whose use of a variety of styles and tone colours added much to the interpretations, and who were also partly unsighted, situated as they were behind the brigade. As for Richard Marshall, he demonstrated what a gifted performer he is, able to move successfully between cornet and trumpet without compromise in terms of tone or style, and communicating so effectively with the audience.

Peter Bale

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