A Serious Treat
Brass band works
in memoriam -
heard by
PAUL SARCICH'... the bands are the best of Wales and play demanding music with utter professionalism.'
|
|
One does not normally associate brass bands with concept albums but here we have a double concept — pieces in memoriam to both World Wars and to Benjamin Britten, whose pacificism is stated in the booklet notes as the link. A somewhat tenuous link perhaps, especially as Britten was never a brass band composer, but it has produced a thoughtful program, carried out by the Tredegar Town Band under Ian Porthouse and the Cory Band under Philip Harper and Robert Childs.
An effective transcription by Paul Hindmarsh of Britten's Occasional Overture is the curtain-raiser, a piece Britten wrote for the launching of the BBC Third Program in 1946, without seemingly devoting much time to it, nor being happy with the first performance. It contains a lot of heraldings and rushing around, sudden changes of mood and texture, and many unsettled ideas...
Copyright © 16 November 2016
Paul Sarcich,
London UK
|
