SOMERSET COUNTY YOUTH CONCERT BAND
7th July 2006 7.30pm St John's Church Code: 0703 Author: Alan Burgess
Having decided on Celebrating Somerset as its theme for this year, the Festival gave centre stage to the Somerset County Youth Concert Band for its opening concert at St John's Church . The occasion proved to be the perfect overture to any Festival.
Earlier in the day the Band had thrilled over 150 children from local schools and in the evening their predominantly adult audience was equally enthralled by the widely varied programme as well as by the high standard of performance.
The concert opened with Copland's ‘Fanfare for the Common Man'. Trumpets rose to the challenge of the demanding strident phrases and the battery of flashy percussion stamped their authority on the evening with aplomb.
Susato's ‘Renaissance Suite' had taut, precise and exceedingly well-disciplined playing but this did not prevent a wave of youthful exhuberance which characterised the music throughout the evening. The following ‘Trumpet Blues and Cantabile' by H James and J Mathias transported us to America where two more aspects of the Band's strength emerged: their innate feel for swing and the ability to conjour a dream world in the lazy middle section.
Part of the success of the evening lay in the choice of some very fine arrangements. Smith's ‘Greensleeves' gave soloists across the whole woodwind section a chance to shine while S Roberts' ‘Pastime with Good Company', based on a Renaissance piece, suddenly launched into a hard rock section which brought on not only foot tapping but also smiles from the audience.
The first half ended with thrilling close harmonies and neat syncopations in Barker's arrangement of ‘Swing's the thing'.
The second half of the programme was no less engaging. Osterling's ‘Bandology' showed off the different timbres of the ensemble and Holst's ‘First Suite', in a simple folk-song idiom, was at the same time a complex and challenging piece with delicate, detailed orchestration.
It was particularly appropriate that the one soloist featured in the concert was Frome's own Tom Roberts who launched into Gedard's arrangement of ‘In the Hall of the Mountain King' with tremendous assurance on his bass trombone. His performance was totally uninhibited and technically strong with impressive articulation and considerable showmanship. The rousing applause was richly deserved.
The concert concluded with Weill's distinctive ‘Mack the Knife' and Giacchino's ‘The Incredibles', a flash, brash showstopper.
This was an evening of high quality and its success was due in no small part to the enthusiastic and inspirational direction of Keith Thomas. Bravo!
Alan Burgess
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