Bravo, Foden’s! You’re top brass
Newbury Spring Festival: Foden’s Band
at the Corn Exchange
on Sunday, May 18
Review by JOHN HERITAGE
NEWBURY Spring Festival was delighted to welcome the world’s number one ranked brass band, Foden’s, to the Corn Exchange. Dressed in both black waistcoats and their signature red band jackets, the musicians appeared as cool as 28 cucumbers as they launched into Valasia Variants by Welsh composer Tom Davoren and we were stunned by the magnitude of their sound.
There followed an audio-visual presentation entitled Cassius – the Rumble in the Jungle, based on the life story of boxer Mohammed Ali, a wide-ranging feature for many of the band’s talented soloists, arranged by solo horn player Jonathan Bates.
The highlight was a setting of Bob Dylan’s Blowin’ in the Wind, performed by star soprano cornet Richard Poole.
The first half ended with a novel set of variations and theme (usually the other way round) on O! Worship the King.
After a much-needed ice cream, the second half kicked off with The Beautiful Galatea overture by Franz von Suppé which was followed by Malcolm Arnold’s Little Suite for Brass. This was an opportunity to show off the band’s marvellous principal cornet player Mark Wilkinson and his innate talent for phrasing music in the most wonderful way.
It was then time for solo euphonium Gary Curtin to take centre stage and his performance of Philip Sparke’s Harlequin was nothing short of technical and musical wizardry.
I congratulated him on his playing afterwards and he laughed as he said ‘It wasn’t that fast in rehearsal…’
As a complete contrast, we then heard a piece featured at the wedding of William and Kate, entitled Ubi Caritas. Originally composed for choir, this brass band arrangement gave us a moment of tranquility and I feel sure the band’s president and composer of the piece, Paul Mealor, would have relished hearing it played so beautifully.
The March from The Pines of Rome by Italian composer Ottorino Respighi closed the concert and the menacing, rhythmical footsteps of the returning legion of soldiers is a sound I’ll remember for a long time.
Bravo, Foden’s!
A triumph!
