KNDS Fairey Band; RNCM Brass Ensemble; Paramount Brass
Conductors: Mark Heron, Andre Chan, Juan Jose Borja
Royal Northern College of Music, Manchester 
Friday 25th April

The death of Elgar Howarth in January 2025 broke the last brass link to the group of composers and performers who studied at the then Royal Manchester College of Music in the early 1950s who significantly shaped the landscape of British classical music in the last quarter of the 20th century.

His association with fellow New Music Manchester colleague Harrison Birtwistle (1934-2022) in particular had long left a seminal imprint embedded by his principled, multi-faceted approach.  His legacy, marked by this notably directed concert homage was a timely reminder of a remarkable musical polymath.

Characteristics

His youthful talent flowered both as a player and composer – the short ‘Mosaic’  (a competition work written to mark the death of Fred Mortimer in 1953) still retaining the small leitmotif characteristics that were to be heard in his later works for the brass band medium. Andre Chan’s concise direction balanced its melancholic lyricism and questioning language with mature insight. 

Further interest came with the quixotic fingerprints displayed by Derek Bourgeois ‘Concerto for Brass Band and Brass Quintet’,  with the band joined by the student Paramount Brass ensemble. Mark Heron’s intuitive shaping ensured clarity as well as wit.

Both ‘One Day’,  with its absorbing repetitive motifs, and Gen’s ‘Ink Colours’,  with its spectrum imagery, spoke of inventive compositional thought processes. 

The RNCM Brass Ensemble’s contribution was enhanced by abstract works by composition students Harry Baines and Ruoyu Gen.  Both ‘One Day’,  with its absorbing repetitive motifs, and Gen’s ‘Ink Colours’,  with its spectrum imagery, spoke of inventive compositional thought processes. 

The first half closed with Juan Jose Borja drawing mournful depth from Wagner’s  ‘Funeral Music’. 

Exhilarating

The second half saw the combined forces of KNDS Fairey and the RNCM Brass Ensemble provide an exhilarating performance of Mussorgsky’s ‘Pictures at an Exhibition’. 

Mark Heron gave the music breadth and atmosphere in both its ensemble and full band elements, accompanied by the evocative multi-media imagery

As he did all night, Mark Heron gave the music breadth and atmosphere in both its ensemble and full band elements, accompanied by the evocative multi-media imagery created by the USC School of Cinematic Arts in Los Angeles, originally commissioned by conductor Michael Tilson Thomas for the opening of the New World Symphony Hall in Miami in 2011.

His recent passing was not lost on those present, although it was the legacy of Howarth at the end of the evening that remained firmly alive in the mind.

Malcolm Wood