Flowers Band

Conductor: Paul Holland
Featuring: The Octaves & Thornbury Benefice Choir
Conductors: Kate Phillipson-Masters & Philip Wilby
Saturday 2nd July
St Mary's Church, Thornbury

A number of lucky people were very fortunate to be in Gloucester over last weekend and able to attend this event.

Although church pews never get any more comfortable, even though they now have padded cushions, the audience put up with the discomfort to enjoy a musical treat.

Effective

The evening commenced with Flowers performing their first set of  ‘Enter the Galaxies’, the Overture ‘Ruslan and Lyudmila’, and the cornet solo ‘Rusalka’s Song to the Moon’.

The items were enjoyed by a knowledgeable capacity audience, and after the effective opening,‘Ruslan and Lyudmila’ was played at a terrific pace, but with Paul Holland in full control allowing the precision and clarity to be herd in full.

The lovely cornet solo played by Andy Smith, who demonstrated his lyrical qualities to great advantage, followed.

Wonderful arrangements

Next up were the Junior Choir, The Octaves, whilst Philip Wilby conducted the band in accompaniment with two of his own wonderful arrangements, ‘As the Deer Pants for the Water’ and ‘Let’s go fly a Kite’.

Philip then directed both the band and Senior Choir in the wonderful dup of ‘Thine be the Glory’ and ‘Siyahamba’.

Classy

The first half of the concert concluded with Paul Holland returning to direct a classy performance of ‘Paganini Variations’.

The audience, although not full of brass band aficionados, realised the quality of what they were hearing.

The second half commenced with the combined band and choir performing superb Philip Wilby superb arrangement of ‘Guide me O thy Great Redeemer’, which started with the whole cornet section playing an introductory fanfare from the rear of the church.

Old fav

This led into an old concert favourite, Alfred Ketelbey’s ‘In a Monastery Garden’.

Old it may be, but performed in this lovely setting and accompanied by the organ it, it emerged fresh, atmospheric and cleverly enhanced by the bird calls produced by the Lee Downie.

The band then continued with their second solo spot with ‘Dance to thi’ Daddy’ followed by a baritone solo ‘Donegal Bay’,

This was delivered with such quality by Ben Stratford, despite having to change instruments prior to taking the podium, due to valve problems.

The lovely ‘O Magnum Mysterium’ by Morten Lauridson, was the prelude to the final soloist of the evening, with Robert Marsh producing a sparkling technical display of ‘Brasilia’.

Kazoo highlight

Then we came to the undoubted musical highlight of the evening - the Bufumbo Kazoo Challenge!!

During the evening kazoos had been sold to raise monies to be used in the Parish of Bufumbo (St Marys twin parish in Eastern Uganda), and whilst the band were playing Eric Coates ‘Dambusters March’, the audience were encouraged to accompany the band with kazoos, highlighting the timpani finish.

It was wonderfully enjoyable, and not altogether unmusical!

The finale of the evening was the Saint-Saens 'Organ Symphony', accompanied by Nigel Davies at the belting church organ itself. 

It provided a terrific musical evening in fine style and after prolonged applause an encore of the ‘Dambusters’ with Kazoo accompaniment brought the evening to a close.

Brian Eggleshaw

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