RCM Festival of Woodwind and Brass
Conductor: Ian Porthouse 
Soloist: Jamie Tweed (trombone)
Amaryllis Fleming Concert Hall
Royal College of Music
London
Sunday 16th June

The Royal College of Music sits as a magnificent adjunct to the Royal Albert Hall in London.

It too has a long association with brass bands. On the laying of its foundation stone in 1890 Leeds Forge Brass Band performed, and according to reports, “nearly blew the marquee away”. 

Numerous students have since made their mark on the orchestral as well as banding worlds, including those who formed the current London & SC Area champions Zone One Brass, and composer, Philip Sparke, who wrote his first piece for the medium here exactly 50 years ago. 

Sparke return

He returned to hear Tredegar reprise his latest European Championship test-piece, ‘A Road Less Travelled By’,  as well as a wide-ranging arc of seriously considered repertoire in a compact concert that rounded off an ‘open day festival’ led by Head of Brass and Woodwind departments, Amos Miller and Marie Lloyd.   

The featured soloist on Gordon Langford’s ‘Rhapsody for Trombone’  (just a year shy of its half century) was Jamie Tweed. He has just completed his RCM masters and has already made his name as a sought after freelance performer. His accomplished rendition, played with cultured fluidity was a reminder of the work’s timeless, stylistic genius.

In its way Sparke’s expertly conceived European work shares a DNA lineage in the way its deceptive melodicism hides the most stringent of musical challenges.

In its way Sparke’s expertly conceived European work shares a DNA lineage in the way its deceptive melodicism hides the most stringent of musical challenges.

Optimism as well as reflection nestle comfortably to each other yet remain distinctive in their character – very difficult attributes that were melded together by Ian Porthouse with solo and ensemble assuredness. 

Deceptive structuring

Louise Trewartha’s ‘Flight’  had earlier provided an energised take-off inspired by aviatrix Lores Bonney’s solo journey from Australia to the UK in 1933. Tredegar’s fruitful association with composer Gavin Higgins is well known, although ‘Fanfares and Love Songs’  was written for the National Childrens’ Band of Great Britain in 2009.   

Although not as overtly ambitious in its musical language as his other major brass band works it still demands a great deal of understanding of its deceptive structuring; Ian Porthouse drawing clarity and precision in the fanfares and a languid sense of emotional expression to the melancholic love songs. 

Although not as overtly ambitious in its musical language as his other major brass band works it still demands a great deal of understanding of its deceptive structuring; Ian Porthouse drawing clarity and precision in the fanfares and a languid sense of emotional expression to the melancholic love songs. 

The inclusion of Holst’s ‘Moorside Suite’  paid homage to the former RCM alumnus (with the band joined by 10 current RCM students), but also allowed the band to reprise a work recently recorded for their forthcoming CD release of his music.  The sprightly ‘Scherzo’  skipped to the haunting ‘Nocturne’  before a taut ‘March’  brought things to a close. 

The encore ‘Ar Lan Y Mor’,  was dedicated to Sir Ian Stoutzker, another former RCM student who made a hugely significant mark on the wider musical world.

Iwan Fox