Hepworth Persimmon Homes Band

Conductor: Mark Bentham
Kings Hall, Ilkley
Steeton Male Voice Choir
Conductor: Alan Clark
Accompanists: Anne Motts & Peter Abberton
Saturday October 8th

          
A combination of male voice choirs and brass bands has over the years been a guaranteed recipe for an entertaining concert and the good folk of IIkley must have had the same thoughts, as the eight hundred and fifty seated concert hall was sold out two months before the night.
 
The Choir opened the concert with the rousing Welsh hymn ‘Rachie' arranged Alwyn Humphreys and followed this by the beautiful ‘Sanctus' by Schubert in which the choir produced a lovely mellow sound and fine balance in this most moving music.
 
Two songs from 'West Side Story' followed on in a clever change of style; ‘Maria' and ‘Tonight' from the unique talents of Leonard Bernstein, and both were carried off with plenty of feeling and precise phrasing. It was a fine conclusion to the choirs first contribution to the evening.
 
Hepworth turned the heat up immediately so to speak with Manuel de Falla's dramatic ‘Ritual Fire Dance,' taken at a red-hot tempo and which proved to be  a scorcher of an opener from the band.                                        
 
The band's flugel horn player Catherine Booth was the first featured soloist of the evening and delivered the moving solo ‘Share My Yoke'  made famous in the sixties by the Salvation Army group the Joy Strings. The soloist played with great feeling for the music and the reception from the audience said it all.
 
Music from Hefti arranged by Philip Sparke in the light dance band number ‘Cute' kept the concert flowing along  before the lovely, but rarely heard Eric Ball work ‘Begin The Day With God' produced some lovely delicate playing from the band with principal cornet player Rob Westacott outstanding in this superb piece of music.
 
Toshiyuki Nizuma, a member of the bands bass section had his excellent arrangement by the Japanese composer Sakai of a piece entitled Tanabata ‘The Seventh Of July' given a world premiere on the evening. This music has a lovely melodic feel and featured some dramatic playing with Mark Smedley on soprano cornet and James Fieldhouse on euphonium. The audience gave both band and arranger a great ovation at the end this thrilling piece of music.
 
The Choir then returned to thrill the audience with another classic choral piece, ‘Llanfair' before music from the hit musical ‘Les Miserables' with ‘Bring Him Home' and ‘I Dreamed A Dream' led to their final contribution in the first half of the evening, a personal favourite of this reviewer, and the rousing hymn setting of ‘Gwahoddiad'.  The choir although not quite getting the emotion from the music you would except from a top Welsh ensemble never the less they gave a good account of this Lewis Hartsough arrangement.
 
After the break the concert continued with more music from the choir including a lively performance of ‘Hava Nagila' sang with great gusto and in complete contrast a fine arrangement of ‘The Lords Prayer' by Malotte.

The march ‘Lights Out' by Earl McCoy welcomed the band back with a nice steady tempo that had the audience tapping their feet (in time as well) in response to some fine ensemble playing. The trombone section then took centre stage with Heath's ‘Frolic for Trombones' – an oldie all right, but one that has retained its lightness of touch over the years and hasn't become too outdated. Yvonne Embury, Michael England and Graham Starr played it in the right style and with the amount of respect it deserved.
 
A song made famous by Frank Sinatra, Arlen's, 'Get Happy' kept the concert at a high tempo before music from the blockbuster epic ‘Gladiator' gave a dramatic ending to the bands contribution. This is great concert music and the band excelled with some fine individual contributions and great work from the percussion section.
 
The Welsh melody ‘Myfanwy' plus songs from the musical ‘Jesus Christ Superstar' once again showed the choir in fine form before band, choir and audience joined with flags waving in a bit of patriotic community singing in  ‘Jerusalem', followed by ‘Land Of Hope And Glory'.
 
This had been a well presented concert with both ensemble's in good form. The capacity audience certainly got their money's worth. To quote the poet William Congreve; 'Music alone with sudden charms can bind the wand'ring sence. And calm the troubled mind'.
 
Everyone at this concert would echo those words – a charming and untroubled evening's entertainment.
      
Dave Tinker

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