Tredegar made quite an impression on their Festival of Brass debut in 2012 when the centrepiece of their demanding avant-garde programme was Gavin Higgins’ savagely powerful ‘Destroy, Trample as Swiftly as She’.
 
Twelve months on and the Welsh band again provided a fulcrum of contemporary repertoire with Gavin Higgins featured as part of a collective co-commission alongside Lucy Pankhurst, Paul McGhee and Simon Dobson in celebration of Benjamin’s Britten’s centenary; a recurring theme in this year’s festival programme.
 
Compelling

They opened in compelling fashion with Robert Simpson’s ‘Energy’, a work that still retains its gripping, elemental sense of modernity even forty years after it was first performed.
 
The brooding Adagio drew sonorous sounds in a work that calls for a masterful sense of pacing. Ian Porthouse’s reading was one of innate understanding of the symphonic nature of the music, capturing both the escalating power and clarity of purpose of the writing.

Vivid

Inspired by four paintings by the Belgian surrealist artist Rene Magritte, Nigel Clarke’s tour de force cornet concerto, ‘Mysteries of the Horizon’, was brought vividly to life by Harmen Vanhoorne.

The benefits of their flourishing collaboration were clear to hear as the impish soloist delivered a performance of thrillingly virtuosity – displaying a magnificent open tone, clear upper register and remarkable dynamic contrasts that were exploited to stunning effect.     
 
The inherent drama and muscularity of the outer movements were offset by the yearning lyricism of the central section in a work Vanhoorne has already embossed with his personal stamp of definitive authority.  
 
Centrepiece

A brief lollop through the melodic collisions of Elgar Howarth’s ‘Hunt the Hare’ provided an enjoyable vignette, before attention turned to the programme centrepiece, ‘Diversions after Britten’; Paul Hindmarsh’s celebratory commission woven around the antiphonal sounds of the ‘Fanfare for St. Edmunsbury’.
 
Collective compositions can be a risky (especially as the composers were asked to provide their contributions in isolation), but the sheer diverse creativity displayed by the quartet, with the fanfares as bridging tools between each of the movements, resulted in a musical triumph.
 
Engrossing work

Out of the luminous, glowing tones of Lucy Pankhurst’s ‘His Depth’, emerged Simon Dobson’s fleet footed, rhythmically pulsating scherzo, ‘His Vitality’. 

The music then veered into the disturbing ciphers of Paul McGhee’s ‘His Sympathy’ - a reference to Britten’s pacifist beliefs that also darkly hinted at the inner demons that tortured him throughout his life.
 
The breathtaking virtuosity of Gavin Higgins’, ‘His Skill’, brought a conclusion of coruscating brilliance, along with the lasting hope that this engrossing work is not consigned to the history books following the passing of Britten’s anniversary.

Profound sadness

To conclude, Tredegar produced a fine performance of George Lloyd’s ‘Royal Parks’ – a work that although difficult to listen to without a sense of emotional unease at the profound sadness portrayed in his personal memorial to the bandsmen who lost their lives in the Regent’s Park bombing of 1982, remains one of the most uplifting compositions of the movement’s repertoire.     
 
Ian Porthouse’s insistence on not allowing ‘In Memoriam’ to become maudlin and ponderous, along with ensemble playing of emotional intensity left no doubt as to the impact on Lloyd’s fragile, previously war damaged state of mind.

As a result, the following ‘Holidays’ echoed with an ephemeral fragility that fully emphasised the composer’s captivating ability to balance heartfelt despair with carefree delight.

It made for an absorbing end to a fascinating concert. 
 
Christopher Thomas