The latest instalment of the Leeds Concert Season saw the newly crowned West of England Champion make the long journey from Gloucester to entertain a modest, but highly appreciative audience.

An initial glance at the programme promised a variety of music where the emphasis was on good music and entertainment:  It’s a philosophy which has served the band well in recent years.

Impressive

A solid, no-nonsense ‘Enter the Galaxies’ opened proceedings with percussion offering plenty of colour without dominating the ensemble, and a bright cornet section, which was to be featured in its entirety later in Goff Richards’ impressive ‘Hora Staccato’.

There was no shortage of fine soloists either.  

Principal cornet, Andy Smith set the high bar standard with the MD’s arrangement of ‘Fear Not’, highlighting a warmth of tone and control with some sympathetic accompaniment work from the band, which also allowed Rob Marsh (trombone) and Ben Stratford (baritone) to project with ease in their contributions, ‘All I Ask of You’ and ‘Donegal Bay’.

Will Norman’s sublime rendition of ‘Concerto de Aranjuez’ was greeted with well-deserved applause, whilst soprano Paul Richards showed total command of range and dynamics in his lovely rendition of ‘Memory’.

Selection problem

Paul Holland was faced with a bit of a ‘selection dilemma’ though on the night.  

With David Childs in the ranks and raring to go it was hard not feel a little sympathy for their other euphonium player, Grant Jameson, who was crowned ‘BBC Radio 2 Young Brass Soloist 2015’ the night before, co-incidentally playing the same solo (Peter Graham’s ‘Brilliante’).

Displaying the wisdom of Soloman, Paul stuck with the ‘main man’ and we were not disappointed: Class. Pure class.

Cracking style

A brace of works from the talented Dan Price were included.  His ‘Brassed Off Fantasy’ rounded off the first half in cracking style whilst the atmospheric ‘Sunrise over Blue Ridge’ enabled Flowers to display some wonderful lyrical playing, especially from the lower brass.

With no video screens it was refreshing to be able to simply concentrate and appreciate the wonderful music of Philip Wilby’s ‘Family Portraits’ and John Williams’ ‘Cadillac of the Skies’, tastefully arranged by Jonathan Bates. 

Funky Queen

Jonathan’s music has featured regularly by Flowers and the band was able to let its hair down in a couple his other compositions - the funky take on ‘God Save the Queen’ (where clever programming prevented anyone standing up accidentally), and the atmospheric ‘Upon the Celtic Cross’ - the finale played at lightning speed without any loss of detail.  

Everything was there, nothing was over-cooked and the balance of ensemble was especially noticeable throughout the evening. No wonder the audience demanded a few more encores. 

Graham Bates