The concert schedule of Black Dyke Band is the busiest in the banding world.

After a hectic round of Christmas events the players had enjoyed a little time off to welcome in the New Year before they were back on the road once more – starting in Morley the week before this return appearance at Symphony Hall.

Familiar mix

Although the programme was a familiar mix of listener friendly features and solos, there was also something a little unexpected too – all delivered with a swaggering confidence and polish ahead of their appearance at the RNCM Brass Band Festival in Manchester. 

Elgar’s ‘Pomp & Circumstance March No. 4’  set the template of quality to open, but it was the razor sharp clarity displayed in Philip Wilby’s ‘Beethoven’  that really caught the ear.  

Something of a guidebook of variations on the famous choral finale to ‘Symphony No. 9’,  complete with choreographed movement, it was played with just the right balance of joyfulness and serious intent, the ending resplendent and glorious in the way only Philip Wilby can write.   

Something of a guidebook of variations on the famous choral finale to ‘Symphony No. 9’,  complete with choreographed movement, it was played with just the right balance of joyfulness and serious intent, the ending resplendent and glorious in the way only Philip Wilby can write.   

So too the excerpts from ‘Music from the Elizabethan Court’,  stylish and light, whilst the solos from Richard Marshall and Stephanie Binns were just as classy. Paul Lovatt-Cooper’s ‘Above and Beyond’  and ‘Enter the Galaxies’  set the adrenaline flowing to end the first and open the second half.

Wonderfully elegant

A wonderfully elegant Brett Baker and virtuosic Gavin Saynor and Daniel Thomas delighted the audience in the ‘Soloist Showcase’ feature, before it was dancing shoes at the ready for the cleverly balanced ‘Strictly Black Dyke’ trio of ‘Let’s Face the Music’,  'Libertango’ and ‘Bolero’. 

By the time the Roman legions marched down Birmingham Broadway to the sound of Respighi’s ‘Pines of Rome’  (great to hear the 'Pines of the Villa Borghese'  to set the scene) the audience were ready to demand an encore.

‘Riverdance’ – complete with Richard Marshall in Michael Flatley mode rounded a great afternoon of entertainment.

Thomas Day