Eric Ball – Festival Music

Black Dyke Band
Conductor: Dr. Nicholas Childs
Soloist: Lesley Howie
Doyen Recordings CD147
Total Playing Time: 79.50mins

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Thankfully the brass band movement doesn't always forget its greatest sons. The centenary of the birth of Eric Ball this year has been marked by both the Salvation Army and general brass band movement with concerts, contests and recordings, and although we give thanks for his God given talent there is a need for the fruits of his compositional output to be retrospectively reassessed.

In 2000, Grimethorpe Colliery under the baton of Elgar Howarth recorded seven of his works, including "Resurgam" and "Tournament for Brass", as well as some of his lesser known output, including the rarely heard cornet solo "Conchita". Three years later Black Dyke and Dr. Nicholas Childs take this initial retrospective further and release the second in this linked series with a CD of material that covers for the most part the latter years of the "active" composer's life. As with the first CD, "Festival Music" visits some of the composers most well known output as well as some not so well known pieces, long overdue an airing from the dusty confines of the librarian's cupboard.

There are seven works to be enjoyed here, and unlike the previous "The Undaunted" CD, this recording benefits hugely from two recordings of Eric Ball himself giving explanations of two of his major test pieces used at the National Championships, "High Peak" and "Journey Into Freedom". The great man's voice may be light and pitched in a high baritone allied to a West Country brogue that is quite surprising, but the depth of his masterful explanations gives the resultant performances from Black Dyke great resonance.

Both "High Peak" and "Journey Into Freedom" are given fine renditions by the band, with Nicholas Childs painting the musical picture on a broad canvas, full of nuance and understanding. The acoustic on some of the tracks can take the listener by surprise though – "Festival Music" sounds as if it was recorded in a very "live" venue, but it does not rob the music of any of its conviction.

The opening track, "Torch of Freedom" is played with a lovely lilting swagger with the bass end enjoying themselves thoroughly and producing a real plumby rounded sound that sets a very secure foundation for the excellent top end to sparkle. The sop work from Michelle Ibbotson is playing of a very high quality, not only on this apéritif, but throughout the more demanding test pieces. You can sense Nicholas Childs enjoyed including this track on the recording as well, as he was a member of the Tredegar Junior Band that won the Butlins National Championship of Great Britain way back in 1974, when "Torch of Freedom" was one of the test pieces on the day. It brought back fond memories for this reviewer as well, as I was a very small 9 year old 3rd cornet player with the band on that day – it was a very long time ago though!!

After Eric Ball's short but insightful introduction to "High Peak", Black Dyke produce a very committed performance of the 1969 National Finals test piece that reveals a work of technical challenges and wonderful sweeping tunes. It is a rhapsody, based on four descriptive headings, "Vision", "Aspiration", "Ascent" and "Attainment" and Ball masterfully invokes each in turn – from the opening euphonium declaring the climbers goal to conquer, through to the fantastic storm scene and to the final climax of the summit ascent. It is a work that has been ignored for too long and Dyke bring it thrillingly back to life.

"Festival Music" is certainly a work that has for too long been ignored as a test piece at the very highest level. It was used as the set work at the 1956 Nationals – the tercentenary of Mozarts birth, but since that time it has only re appeared briefly, and never again at this contest or the British Open. In many ways it is something of a "lost" classic, a piece that is as technically demanding of a band as any modern work, whilst with a superbly created sense of Mozartian brilliance in each of its three movements that although pastiche, is as close to what you could have imagined Wolfgang Amadeus creating if brass bands were around and contesting three hundred years before.

The MD once more paints on a broad canvas and the first movement in particular benefits from the time and space as the technical demands for the lower brass sound just as facile as that of the cornet section. The second is played with a warmth of tone and colour whilst the third has just the right feel of devilment and wit. It is a great work, now being given a new lease of life by many admirers (although not to their shame by the National Finals in 2003) and once more it is given a superbly crafted performance.

The composer introduces his 1967 test piece "Journey Into Freedom" in such a way that the subsequent rendition by the band really does sound fresh and challenging. The themes of violence and materialism, protest, renewed violence, uninhibited consumption is brought vividly to life, whilst there is a real sense of tenderness to the human love theme that finally climaxes the work. Once more band and conductor perform to an exceptional level of musicianship and we are left with a deep sense of satisfaction when the final last chord dies away in the reverb.

This is followed by perhaps his most personal work, "A Kensington Concerto" which when written for the National Finals in 1972 was thought in his own mind to be his last test piece work. It is his own personal affectionate recollection of a contest and of the friends he met and enjoyed there, and as such invokes a gentle rather than deep passion for the contesting element of the day. It is a musical memory of friends, some dead, some alive but scattered far from home and so it is a piece that works best when the MD treats it as such. Thankfully Nicholas Childs understands the music precisely, and so we are given a most satisfying account – simple and loving, deftly shaped and coloured.

As with the previous Grimethorpe recording, the featured solo work is one that has not been extensively played since it debut premiere by Gordon Higginbottom in 1976. "September Fantasy" takes it's title from the fact that it was completed by Ball in a month before that first performance, but it is a work that deserves further renditions, especially if it is played to such a fine level as it is here by Lesley Howie. Her full tone allied to her technical brilliance make it a lovely work to be enjoyed by the listener and is a major contribution to the small list of quality works written for the instrument.

Finally we have "Sinfonietta for Brass Band: The Wayfarer, written by Eric Ball as the test piece for the 1976 National Finals, won by Black Dyke (as was Journey Into Freedom in 1967 and Kensington Concerto in 1972). In relation to the other major works on the CD it is not of the same class – sounding repetitive in material and lacking the visionary scope of the other on show here. However, mediocre Ball is still far better than the best of many other composers for brass and there is still something about the work that inspires satisfaction. Maybe not his best – by 1976 the great man had talked of being "composed out" but it still deserves its place here, and Black Dyke give a very restrained and respectful account.

It is interesting to note that not one of his major works here is more than fifteen and half minutes long (three are around 13 minutes in duration). This CD also benefits from a quite excellent sleeve insert of some 20 pages from the pen of Ronald W. Holz, which are perhaps the most extensive and comprehensive ever in a CD release. They are superbly researched and add tremendously to the release as a whole, and although long, they are well worth the read.

As for the music - Why write for writings sake when you have the God given talent to create perfectly formed musical pictures in two thirds of the time. Time itself has not wearied Eric Ball's music to the extent of many of his contemporaries, and like Mozart, his compositions are as relevant and as purposeful as they were the day he wrote them. That is the mark of his genius – a genius we should be forever thankful for.

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