Wingates Band

Guest Soloist: Glyn Williams
Soloists: Andrew McDonald, Peter Moore, Mick Morris
Conductor: Andrew Berryman
2008 Great Northern Brass Arts Festival
Bridgewater Hall, Manchester
Saturday 6th September

It's been two years since Wingates made its debut at the GNBAF, but since that time they've continued to make impressive strides on the concert and contesting platforms under the direction of Andrew Berryman.

Good form

The hard work has been paying dividends with the high profile connection with Michael Nyman allied to encouraging contest performances. They've not been overly worried about making the necessary changes around the stand either, as seen by the recent appointment of John Doyle as their Associate. Here in Manchester they were on particularly good form too.

Shostakovich's ‘Festive Overture’ brimmed with joy from the opening bars with the MD paying particular attention to the lyrical melodies with tempo’s that were sensibly paced to allow the music come through.

Principal cornet Andy McDonald then became the first soloist of the day in William Himes' ‘Jubliance’. Sometimes you can hear a performance where the soloist really does let go and the moments of real gentle playing get lost in some of the louder sections, but there could be no complaints here as the bands long-standing top man gave a rendition full of character.

Lived up to its name

Lucy Pankhurst is the band's Composer-in-Residence and she is building a fine reputation for herself through some excellent compositions. ‘Wicked’, complete with modern day sounds and rhythms took the prize for Best New Composition at last year's US Open and on this outing you could hear why. It lived up to its name.

Peter Moore now needs no introduction and the audience got the opportunity to sit back and listen to what is clearly an outstanding talent as he tackled the opening movement of Nino Rota's ‘Trombone Concerto’ overcoming all the tricky obstacles with consummate ease.

Andrew Duncan's arrangement of ‘Reunion and Finale from Gettysburg’ has proved to be a popular concert item in recent years and Wingates gave a persuasive interpretation with soprano Andrew Lofthouse (who was impressive throughout) making his presence felt.

Versatility

Glyn Williams demonstrated his immense versatility later in the day with Fodens, but here the soloist he was in lyrical mood as he paid homage to his native Wales with the delightfully sounding ‘Land of Song’ that includes all those familiar melodies that you'll hear in any church or at the Millennium Stadium.

Meanwhile, Mick Morris, the bands Eb tuba player followed Glyn on stage to play what seems to be the 'must have' solo for bass players at the moment, Oystein Baadsvik's ‘Fnugg’, leading into a total change of mood in Neil Heftie's ‘Cute’.

Extreme

Finally, one of the best test pieces of recent years (that surprisingly hasn't been selected in the UK yet for a major contest) Jan de Meij's 'Extreme Makeover'.

Wingates really dug deep to pull out a fine performance, and they got off to a fine start with the quartet that was steady in tempo and the MD made sure that the detail came through despite the intensity of the dynamics.

It concluded 75 minutes of excellent playing from the band who although have no further contesting commitments in 2008 have plenty to build upon and look forward to in 2009.

Malcolm Wood

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