Hepworth (Cookson Homes) Band

Conductor: David Hirst
Stroud Brass Band Festival
Saturday 18th October

There is no better feeling for any performer than to play to a full house, and as is invariably the case at Stroud, Hepworth opened their concert with the march ‘Celebration’ by Leslie Condon, with a packed auditorium facing back at them. 

Heartening

The heartening applause that rang out signalled that this was promising to be an enjoyable evening of brass entertainment, and the band responded in fine style with the overture to ‘Russlan and Ludmilla’.  A bright tempo, wide dynamic contrasts and a sense of brio kept both band and audience on their toes.
 
Rob Westacott the bands principal cornet, then chose music from the Salvation Army in ‘Share My Yoke’, and gave a fine account of this lovely melody. The band then went into upbeat mode with a swaggering whip through ‘Valero’ with some good work from the percussion section a real feature.                                                                       
 
Fine performance

Two pieces from the pens of Salvation Army composers followed. First the lovely ‘In Perfect Peace’ led into the euphonium solo ‘A Better World’. This was composed for Derek Kane of the International Staff Band, and James Fieldhouse gave a fine performance of this demanding solo that Derek himself would have been proud of – and the applause confirmed the audience’s thoughts too.
 
James was then joined by fellow euphonium Tom Buckley in ‘Deep Inside the Sacred Temple’, which well delivered, although the accompaniments needed more restraint at times.
 
The first half ended with music from Peter Graham in his very descriptive ‘Shine as the Light’, in which the conductor induced some lovely warm sounds from the band, all cemented with a solid bass section.                                                       

Second Praise
 
The march ‘Praise Him’ opened the second half followed by film music in ‘Indiana Jones’, which was full of vigour and drama, even if the film itself is not exactly the latest ‘blockbuster’ anymore.
 
Carole Crompton has long been recognised as one of the leading solo baritones in the band movement and her clear sound and excellent control was evident in ‘Close Every Door’.

Finale
 
Music by Shostakovich in the exciting ‘Folk Festival’ brought us to more repertoire from the film world in ‘For the Love of a Princess’, before Rebecca Landon, the bands solo horn player, gave a blistering performance of ‘Capriccio Brillante’ with fine accompaniments from the band.
 
‘Victory’ from ‘Lord of the Dance’ lead to the bands finale, music by Tchaikovsky  and ‘The Little Russian’, in which Hepworth finished with panache.  As an encore the band played the ‘Gallop’ from ‘William Tell’.
 
Overall this was a well balanced and played programme, which the capacity audience certainly enjoyed if the warmth and length of the applause was anything to go by at the end of an enjoyable night.  
 
David Tinker

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