A Christmas Farewell

Cory Band
Conductor: Dr Robert Childs
Honley Male Voice Choir
Conductors: Alan Jenkins, Vernon Briggs
Huddersfield Town Hall
Saturday 13th December

The clue to the significance of this Christmas Concert was in the title – A Christmas Farewell - as Honley MVC said farewell to two of their most respected members, accompanist John Oldfield and their conductor, Alan Jenkins.  

John Oldfield has held his role since 1968, whilst Alan first joined Honley in 1988, and after a spell as MD of the Huddersfield Choral Society Youth Choir between September 1997 and May 2000, he finally brought the curtain down on his distinguished career as MD at this concert.

Joining Honley on stage this year were the reigning European and Brass in Concert Champions, Cory, who for the fourth year in succession made the journey North to participate in the night's proceedings.

Farewell

The packed hall wanted to join in the farewell as well as hear 4BR’s number 1 ranked band, and they were coerced into the Christmas spirit with a three-hour feast of high quality music making.  They got the usual mix of individual items from both ensembles and the obligatory opportunity to air their lungs and enjoy some comical moments along the way.  Nobody could have asked for anything more.

Cory set out to entertain with an excellent programme that included Seasonal fayre, four soloists and the core of their winning Brass in Concert repertoire.

Under the direction of Dr Robert Childs, the band set their benchmark for the evening in its opening set.

Leroy Anderson’s ‘Christmas Festival Overture’ was slick and vibrant whilst the popular ‘Christmas Song’ featuring the delightful sound of Ian Williams on principal cornet changed the mood somewhat.  Ian then stepped forward as the first soloist of the evening in ‘The Paragon’ – which really was delivered as a  ‘model of excellence’ as the title implied.

Premiere

Two further solos bridged the band’s first offerings.  Owen Farr maintained the standard set by Ian in the world premiere of Philip Sparke’s ‘Capricorno’. 

This new work is typical of the composer - lyrical yet energetic and showcasing the soloist to fine effect.   Not to be outdone, Joanne Childs’ interpretation of the Shirley Bassey hit, ‘Big Spender’, was a cracker too, with even her father-in-law getting into the spirit of Miss Bassey by giving the audience a little wriggle.

Key component

Key components to the success of the band’s victory at Brass in Concert were the compositions by Dan Price.  Dan was present to hear the atmospheric ‘Sunrise over Blue Ridge’ and ‘An American Tale’, which pays homage to the American Civil War in the 1860’s.  Both pieces were delivered with the level of professionalism that you’d expect from the band ranked number one in the World.

In the second half, the standard continued with Paul Lovatt-Cooper’s ‘Enter the Galaxies’ paving way to the lyrical sound of the band’s principal trombone, Chris Thomas in ‘Georgia on My Mind’. 

Mean task

The final Brass in Concert contribution was another Dan Price arrangement of Louis Prima’s, ‘Sing, Sing, Sing’, complete with the percussion section demonstrating their versatility by making wooden bar stools sound musical – a  pretty mean task!. 

No concert such as this would have been complete without a performance by David Childs, and there was a hushed silence in the hall as everybody was captivated by the beautiful, ‘O Holy Night’.

To conclude their solo contributions the band had plenty of fun in ‘Mr Lear’s Carnival’, before signing off with another polished performance of Paul Lovatt-Cooper’s ‘Vitae Aeturnum’.

Terrific form

Not to be outdone, the choir were in terrific form.

Their selection predominantly reflected the time of year including, ‘The Very Time of Year’, ‘Silent Night’ and ‘When a Child is Born’.  The choir also demonstrated its fine selection of soloists with Danny Bullett and Philip Hardcastle (tenors) and Brian Winterbottom (baritone) amongst those featured. 

George Marsden sat in front of the hall’s wonderful organ to lead the choir in the ‘Last Chord’, whilst Vernon Briggs swapped places with Alan in front of the choir to conduct his colleagues and the band in his own arrangement of ‘He is Born for All’.

Dickens classic

Anyone who has listened to the recording of the Black Dyke ‘Christmas Carol’ will be aware that the inspiration for the recording of the abridged version of the Charles Dickens classic came from Alan Jenkins.

Honley’s MD was also the inspiration behind a new version of ‘The Twelve Days of Christmas’, featuring the band, choir and audience.  The idea was everybody sang a verse before Pat Graham told a funny monologue in relation to the day in question whilst elsewhere on stage a couple of dubious characters dressed up in various guises and left gifts on stage. 

On the eleventh day (where the song reaches the pipers playing), the arrival of two people at the top of the stage dressed in kilts (one of which had bagpipe’s in tow) was simply hilarious, and wouldn’t have been out of place if it had been depicted by the ‘Two Ronnies’ in their heyday. 

Rousing

If that wasn’t enough, the band, choir and four tenors gave a rousing performance of ‘Nessum Dorma’ followed by the choir bringing the evening to a close.

Everything comes to an end at some point and the Honley Male Voice Choir now begins a new era.

Hard acts to follows

John Greenwood and Alan Jenkins will be hard acts to follow and both have left their permanent imprint on the organisation.  Both men have been honoured as life members in addition to enjoying a luncheon and the presentation of inscribed decanters.  The majority of the choir’s selections at this concert were either composed or arranged by Alan, and he like John will be sorely missed.

For a number of years Alan Jenkins has been a familiar face on the brass band scene through his involvement with Brass Band World magazine. 

He is an engaging man in both speech and the written word and it’s testament to the respect that is given to him by Dr Childs and the Cory Band that they have accepted the invitation to participate in what is undoubtedly one of the highlights of Honley’s year on four consecutive occasions. 

Future

In an appraisal of his life in music, Alan Jenkins made the point that he will continue to work even though he is stepping down from the choir and hopefully, he will still be a familiar face at numerous musical events in the future. 

Honley Male Voice Choir and The Cory Band gave Alan and John Greenwood a fabulous send-off and it’s night they won’t forget.  It goes without saying that everybody present wishes John and Alan all the very best in the future.

Malcolm Wood

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