Black Dyke

Conductor: Dr Nicholas Childs
St David's Hall
Cardiff
Saturday 24th January

It seems that Black Dyke enjoy their bi-annual Rotary Club supporting trips to the Principality. 

This year they produced a slick and enjoyable programme at St David’s Hall, which was expertly tailored by returning musical missionary Dr Nicholas Childs (Welshmen never leave the Land of their Fathers permanently, they are ‘exported’ temporarily) to meet the demands and expectations of a sizeable local audience.

Fine effort

Not that ever seat in the house was sold out however. The Credit Crunch has hit Wales harder than most, but getting the former venue for the European Brass Band Championships more than two thirds full was a fine effort, despite ticket prices that made your wallet wince.

Well pleased

However, after two hours of high class playing, featuring no less than five soloists, a British Open test piece, two obligatory Paul Lovatt-Cooper works and a brace of encores, the good folk who made the trip to Cardiff for the night left to wander into the dark streets of the capitol well pleased with what they got for their money.

The tone was set from the off, with a cracking whip through ‘Queensbury’ (although a few traditionalists will have questioned the enormous foot on the brakes and final acceleration to the finish that Dr Childs brings to the final stanza).

Howard Lorriman’s purposeful take on Suppe’s intriguing overture ‘Morning, Noon and Night in Vienna’ followed, and saw David Thornton enjoy himself enormously with a display of lyricism not even Bryn Terfel could better.

With Richard Marshall delivering an authentic piece of traditional cornet playing exhibitionism on ‘Willow Echoes’ the band then slipped into three items from the ‘Rat Pack’ school of dry martini inspired laid back cool.  

Rhythmic idiom

Helped enormously by having a kit player in Lee Skipsey who fully understood the rhythmic idiom, ‘The Lady is a Tramp’, ‘That’s Amore’ (featuring Alex Kerwin and Danny Sinclair as starry eyed wannabe romantics) and ‘Luck be a Lady’ were as polished in delivery as a Dean Martin one liner.

Serious bit

With the audience appreciating the command of genres, it was time for the serious bit of the night and a fine run out of ‘Rococo Variations’ ahead of the RNCM Festival of Brass next weekend.

Here it was given a broadly spaced account, perhaps just in need of the tightening of a few loose ends in places, but still colourful and balanced. It was a very artistic reading of a piece that grows in stature on each hearing.

With the Black Dyke stall in the foyer doing brisk business the audience returned for a second half that was unashamedly populist in content.

Sparkling start

’Walking with Heroes’ and ‘Capriccio Espagnol’ got things off to a sparkling start before the trio of Brett Baker, Sandy Smith and David Thornton provided an enjoyable ‘Soloist Showcase’. 

Brett and David were on fine form with Arthur Pryor’s ‘Fantastic Polka’ and ‘Neath the Dublin Skies’ respectively (which seemed to written in the programme to look like it was a homage to the rugby playing Welsh valley town). Both were delivered with lucid facility.  

Gem

The gem though was Sandy Smith on ‘Evergreen’ – a performance that had the stamp of sheer class on it from the first three notes that emanated from the bell of the instrument. It was a luscious corker.

That just left enough time for a colourful rendition of Peter Graham’s ‘homage’ to the Bernstein/ Mancini school of cool jazz in ‘Cats Tales’ (again, helped by Lee Skipsey’s intuitive kit work) before Philip Wilby’s arrangement of the ‘Finale’ from the Saint Saens ‘Organ Symphony’, which may not quite be in the same league of potential lip destroying destructiveness as the Frank Renton version, but does come close enough.

Groupies

With the audience just wanting a bit more for their money (especially the small group of ‘groupies’ who seemed to have eyes only for the talented Paul Duffy on soprano – lucky boy) there was an express delivery of  Widow’s ‘Toccata’ and the ‘Finale’ from 'William Tell’ to leave everyone breathless.

It rounded off a high class evenings work from Nicholas Childs and his band. Everything from the MDs controlled direction and breathless introductions (he does a great impression of an excitable ‘Whispering’ Ted Lowe on some of the intros) to the professional stage choreography and of course, the playing.

Despite the tightening of purse strings in Wales at the moment, on Saturday night Black Dyke still provided ample evidence of money well spent by those wishing to enjoy a top class night’s brass band entertainment.

Iwan Fox

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