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On Record – Tredegar Town Band / Ian Porterhouse, Martyn Brabbins – Holst at 150: A Brass Celebration (Doyen)

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Gustav Holst
Suites for Military Band Op.28:
no.1 in E flat major (1909)
no.2 in F major (1911)
The Perfect Fool Op.39 (1918-22) – Ballet Music (all arr. Littlemore).
A Fugal Overture Op.40 no.1 (1922; arr. Wheeler)
Mr Shilkret’s Maggot (1932; arr. Hindmarsh)
A Moorside Suite (1928)
Imogen Holst
The Unfortunate Traveller (1929; ed. Hindmarsh)
Glory of the West (1969)

Tredegar Town Band / Ian Porthouse and Martyn Brabbins (A Moorside Suite)

Doyen DOYCD435 [74’37’’]
Producer Adam Goldsmith Engineer Daniel Lock
Recorded 18-19 May 2024 at Jack Williams VC Hall, The Works, Ebbw Vale

Reviewed by Richard Whitehouse

What’s the story?

The 150th anniversary of his birth, and 50th anniversary of his death, is an ideal opportunity to reassess the legacy of Holst in all its variety; not least with this anthology of his music for brass band that also finds space for her contribution to the medium by his daughter Imogen.

What’s the music like?

Typical and inimitable Holst – but, as he only wrote one work for the medium, much of this release consists of arrangements. The two Suites for Military Band were obvious candidates: the First Suite’s Chaconne emerges with renewed pathos, as too its whimsical Intermezzo or rumbustious March; no less idiomatic is the Second Suite with its recourse to traditional tunes in such as the effervescent initial March, then the final Fantasia with its memorable rendering of the Dargason. Philip Littlemore is an expert arranger here as of the Ballet Music from the opera The Perfect Fool – the sections that evoke ‘earth’ and fire’ lacking a degree of panache, but that of ‘water’ hardly less magical in this guise. Alastair Wheeler proves no less adept in capturing the impetus of A Fugal Overture, while Paul Hindmarsh gives what ought to be a new lease of life to the ‘jazz-band piece’ designated Mr Shilkret’s Maggot praised but never played by its commissioner. Imogen Holst’s 1967 orchestral arrangement as Capriccio rescued it from oblivion, but this new incarnation makes even more of its recalcitrant humour.

Mention of Imogen leads one to her pieces for brass band, both included here. Compact and characterful, her suite The Unfortunate Traveller was initially more successful as transcribed for strings, though Hindmarsh’s edition adds percussion and clarifies the brass texture as was doubtless intended. Its sure highlight is the winsome Interlude, conjuring a discreet though tangible profundity subsequently glimpsed with The Glory of the West – seven variations on said Morris Dance which confirms music written for amateurs need not involve compromise.

This just leaves A Moorside Suite, a work such as transformed the standing of test-pieces for brass band with that understated acuity surely unique to this composer. Whether in its gently satirical Scherzo, wistful Nocturne whose gradual building to a soulful culmination makes for the highlight of this collection, then a March which fuses energy and eloquence to round off the sequence with irresistible elan – this is Holst at his most engaging and communicative. Music, moreover, Martyn Brabbins clearly relished the chance to conduct for this recording.

Does it all work?

Absolutely, both in this piece and elsewhere, as long-standing music director Ian Porthouse puts the Tredegar Town Band exactingly and admirably through its collective paces. At the forefront of the modern brass-band movement, the latter is ideally placed to find this music an audience outside of its customary domain. That it succeeds is clear from the fact that one listens to this programme without thought of the medium or its context; rather, the emphasis is on those qualities of inspiration and substance as are hallmarks of any worthwhile music.

Is it recommended?

Indeed. Recorded with requisite clarity and definition, and featuring informative annotations by Hindmarsh and Littlemore, this is a significant release in Holst’s anniversary year and an evident first choice for acquiring a representative cross-section of his music in this medium.

Listen & Buy

You can listen to samples and explore purchase options on the World of Brass website Click on the names for more on conductors Ian Porthouse and Martyn Brabbins, the Tredegar Town Band, and for more on the composers Gustav Holst and daughter Imogen Holst

Published post no.2,307 – Friday 20 September 2024

On Record: David Childs, Jonathan Scott, Black Dyke Band / Nicholas J. Childs – The World Rejoicing: The Music of Edward Gregson Volume VII

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Gregson
Concertante for Piano and Brass (1966)
Variations on ‘Laudate Dominum’ (1976, rev. 2007)
Fanfare for a New Era (2000, rev. 2017)
Euphonium Concerto (2018)
The World Rejoicing – Symphonic Variations on a Lutheran Chorale (2020)

David Childs (euphonium), Jonathan Scott (piano), Black Dyke Band / Nicholas J. Childs

Doyen DOYCD414 [78’14”]

Producer Adam Goldsmith, Engineer Melissa Dee

Recorded 2021, 2022, Town Hall, Morley and Conservatoire, Leeds

reviewed by Richard Whitehouse

What’s the story?

Doyen releases its seventh volume devoted to the music for brass band by Edward Gregson, featuring two of his numerous concertante works and two sets of variations that confirm his all-round versatility in a medium which has not always been synonymous with innovation.

What’s the music like?

The programme begins with Fanfare for a New Era, written to mark the opening of Stoller Hall at Chetham’s School and filling the sound-space through its antiphonal exchanges. The Concertante for Piano and Band remained unheard for 50 years following its premiere, but the deftness of this combination amply justifies its revival. The Prelude suggests a passing acquaintance with Rachmaninov’s Fourth Concerto, the Nocturne makes affecting use of the hymn Escher and the Rondo alludes to a more famous such tune before its lively close.

Jonathan Scott despatches the solo part with no mean panache, as does David Childs that of the Euphonium Concerto. Among the latest in Gregson’s more than a dozen concertos, this denotes the more angular style of his recent music with its eventful interplay of soloist and ensemble in the initial Dialogues. The B-A-C-H motif underpins a wide-ranging cadenza which makes way for a Song Without Words, whose ruminations are not of an unalloyed tranquillity, before A Celtic Bacchanal sweeps all before it in its unbridled effervescence.

In between these concertos, Variations on ‘Laudate Dominum’ confirms Gregson’s always imaginative approach to this too often predictable form. Merely hinted at in the introduction, Parry’s theme is invoked to varying degrees and from different perspectives during those six variations which follow (the third and fourth were added over three decades later) – taking in an eloquent hymn then a virtuosic fugue whose accrued energy makes possible the return of the underlying theme, for a peroration that rounds off the sequence with fervent affirmation.

Even more impressive is the closing work. Commissioned by a consortium of bands to mark the composer’s 75th birthday, The World Rejoicing is subtitled Symphonic Variations on a Lutheran Chorale which duly confirms its highly integrated structure. A subdued Prelude precedes five continuous sections that play fast and loose with the chorale Nun danket alle Gott, while encompassing the spectrum of compositional devices and technical ingenuity. This is intoned as a powerful apotheosis and subsequently rendered as a decisive Postlude.

Does it all work?

Very much so. Gregson has enjoyed a long association with the brass band movement, such as is evident in the expertise and absence of inhibition of his writing. Nor is there any risk of routine or predictability in music which is almost always as gratifying to listen to as it must be to play. It helps that the performers are so demonstrably attuned to his idiom – the Black Dyke Band, which is evidently on a roll some 167 years after its inauguration, here giving   its collective all in this music under the expert and attentive direction of Nicholas J. Childs.

Is it recommended?

Indeed. The sound could not be bettered for detail and overall presence within a sympathetic ambience, and Paul Hindmarsh has contributed informative notes. Whether or not this is the best of Doyen’s releases devoted to Gregson, it is an ideal place to begin exploring his music.

Listen & Buy

You can listen to clips and get purchase options from the Chandos website