RNCM - Black Dyke

RNCM Festival of Brass
Conductor: Dr Nicholas Childs
Soloists: David Thornton, Richard Marshall
RNCM, Manchester
Friday 30th January

Extraordinary Gentleman: David Thornton on top form
Photo: Ian Clowes

More pictures at: http://www.pbase.com/troonly/0901_rncm_festival

Perhaps our expectations are too high at times?

Just a week before, Black Dyke was on sparkling form in Cardiff and at Symphony Hall in Birmingham (where they had the biggest afternoon concert audience in years according to the hall management). Here we expected more of the same - but didn’t quite get it.

Touch jaded

This was Black Dyke slightly off colour, a touch jaded and perhaps in need of an early season break to recharge the batteries before the Area championship in Bradford in March. They won’t get it of course, because no band is as busy week in week out. By all accounts this was their sixth major concert of the year and we hadn’t even got to the end of January.

That said, even a Black Dyke not quite on the top of their form is better than most bands that are.  It is still a touch disappointing though.

Spectacular

They started in spectacular world premiere fashion. Philip Wilby’s ‘A Breathless Alleluia’ was performed in its full version – complete with the composer on the organ and a returning John Doyle sat at the piano. It turned out that it would be the third instrument Master Doyle would play on during the night – for the most part on repiano, but also putting in a few bars of flugel work too. No wonder he looked whacked by the end.

It was a thunderous start – an opener right out of the top drawer, and a reminder to those composers employing the Emperor’s new clothes technique of musical obfuscation that the 60 year old is still very much at the top of his game.

Top notch

Further top notch playing followed with David Thornton on sublime form in the brass band world premiere of Peter Graham’s homage to remarkable Victorian heroes, ‘In League with Extraordinary Gentlemen’.

HG Wells, Conan Doyle and Jules Verne couldn’t have asked for anything more from this particular extraordinary performer. It was a corker.

2D

To end the first half, Dyke presented Vinter’s ‘Spectrum’ – perhaps his most famous, and contentious work. This though was a performance that never came alive. It was a strangely monochrome – two dimensional in pace and dynamic; loud or quiet, fast or slow. There seemed to be nothing in between, and as a result the wit and the reflective melancholy never materialised.  It was ‘Spectrum’ in 2D.

After a quick break, the second half allowed us the first opportunity to hear Paul Lovatt-Cooper’s ‘Antarctica’, premiered at the Swiss Nationals last year.

Much like Black Dyke, perhaps our expectations of PLC are too high after the breathtaking impact he has made so far with his compositions – this was also a below par contribution to his growing catalogue of output.

Geography

You tend to raise an eyebrow at a piece when it is inspired by the ice bound desolation of the most inhospitable place on earth, only to find that it starts with an Amazonian rain stick effect. We take it Paul doesn’t teach geography in school.

After that it was the usual brilliantly tasty morsels of ear catching tunes and film score inspired effects, but the piece seem to lack structure. Perhaps that was the point – Antarctica isn’t dotted with tourist attractions is it now, but too often the piece meandered before setting off towards a new destination. It was also a score that seemed to have too much exotic colour too - the desolate vistas were sprayed painted with a rainbow palette  - it almost sounded like a nice place to spend two weeks holiday.

Dyke found it hard work  to work through too – on a couple of occasions there were ‘Captain Oates’ moments – players losing their bearings, and you got the feeling that the MD was having to work hard to keep things on track.

No probelms

No problems however with Richard Marshall, and a fine rendition of Curnow’s ‘Concert Piece for Cornet and Band’ that was slick, precise and expertly delivered. It also jolted Dyke back into top gear too.

That was evident with their understated accompaniment to Philip Wilby’s beautiful, ‘Memory from a Bronte Mass’, sung by the baritone Phil Gault. 

Lovely interlude

This was a lovely interlude - although it would have been even better if we heard more of it. It is genuinely beautiful music. 

Powerful

That just left a powerful rendition of Edward Gregson’s ‘Rococo Variations’ – and one that was on a par with the outing of a week previous at St David’s Hall. 

Even after such a heavy programme, the stamina reserves were impressively maintained right through to the end, and whilst there were the occasional moments of unease, this was a first class performance to round off their Festival contribution.

That should have been it – a real high note to finish, but the demand for an encore meant a scruffy old wiz through Widow’s ‘Toccata’.

A night of high great expectations hadn’t quite materialised as we would have hoped.

Iwan Fox

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