The current batch of RNCM students ensured collective reputations were enhanced with their disciplined Saturday morning appearance under James Gourlay and Sam Hairsine.
A great deal of study work had obviously been undertaken for a demanding programme that included major works by Kenneth Downie and Martin Ellerby as well as a world premiere by American composer Drew Fennell and a UK premiere of Simon Dobson’s ‘Drive’ Euphonium Concerto.
ELP
Copland’s iconic ‘Fanfare for the Common Man’ opened proceedings; bold and commanding even with cornets instead of trumpets leading the way. With Jim at the helm you could have even forgiven them if they had broken into a bit of Emerson, Lake and Palmer to follow.
Instead it was the UK premiere of Downie’s ‘Handel in the Band’ - a welcome reprise for a work first heard at the 2013 Swiss National Championship directed by James Gourlay. Based on the composer’s famous ‘Sarabande’, the extended motif was explored and developed through a series of inventive variations before returning to its triumphant conclusion.
Stratosphere
The remarkable euphonium player Daniel Thomas - and there is no other word to describe him - was the brilliant soloist on Dobson’s jazz inflected concerto. The energy and vitality of his playing seems to have limitless possibilities: He could well take the euphonium into a new stratosphere.
Talking of which - it is now almost half a century since Neil Armstrong set foot on the moon, so to hear the astronaut utter his immortal words before Drew Fennell’s work, 'Apollo 11' exploded into life still sent a shiver down the spine. Full of filmatic drama it told its tale with a sense of daring adventure.
Triumphant ascent
A return to less rarefied altitudes closed things off, with Martin Ellbery’s colourful ‘Vistas’ - a postcard of the natural beauty of various mountain locations in the Bernese Oberland area of Switzerland.
Seductive reflection was mixed with terrifying icy tension before the final triumphant ascent to the Piz Gloria summit revealed the panoramic view of nature’s majesty in all its glory. It was a fitting way to round off a concert from students on tip-top form.
Iwan Fox
