Granville Bantock was closely associated with the brass
band movement throughout his long and active career as composer and
educationalist. His initial interest was partly due to the famous
cornettist, J A Greenwood, who played in a professional military band
Bantock conducted during a period as musical director of the New
Brighton Tower Pleasure Gardens. Greenwood went on to become one of the
most famous cornettists in the band world whilst Bantock was to become
the first ever President of the Bandsmans College of Music. In reality
however his interest in amateur music making extended well beyond brass
bands and throughout his life he produced a steady flow of works for
amateur choirs as well as bands.
To my knowledge this is the first time a complete
anthology of Bantocks music for band has been released and what it
immediately shows is the somewhat erratic quality of the composers
inspiration. Of the two most enduring works, Prometheus Unbound
and The Frogs, it is not difficult to see why they have retained
a place in the repertoire, still often surfacing as test pieces at band
contests today. Both of these works display a freshness, if not
originality of melody, as well as a sense of inner drama and pacing that
is not always evident in the other works. Interestingly, The
Frogs is the only work not to have been scored for band by Bantock
himself, this being left to the Australian born cornettist and arranger
Frank Wright, who arranged the overture as the test piece for the 1952
National Brass Band Championships (amongst Wrights other fine
arrangements for band are Berliozs Roman Carnival and
Benvenuto Cellini overtures). The Shelley-inspired Prometheus
Unbound on the other hand, written in 1933, was later reworked by
the composer as the opening movement of a work for chorus and orchestra.
Although there are occasional moments of insecurity in the playing and
intonation there is much to enjoy in the performances of both works,
The Frogs being particularly effective (try the dream-like
sequence from around 6:25).
As previously hinted the other works hold less
interest, although Kubla Khan and The
Land-Of-The-Ever-Young both feature some attractive melodic writing.
Kubla Khan is an arrangement of a work originally written for six
part male voice choir and shows Bantock in "oriental mode" whilst The
Land-Of-The-Ever-Young, written at the very end of his life, finds
him returning to another favourite theme, the Hebrides.
King Lear and Orion are the longest works
of the seven and perhaps this is one of the reasons that I found them
lacking sufficient interest to sustain my attention throughout. Again,
there is attractive melody and a sense of organic structure but
ultimately there is little that lingers in the memory. The same can be
said of the Festival March, a suitably rousing conclusion to the
disc, yet little to distinguish it in terms of melodic originality.
Although I found myself wanting a little more
excitement in the performances at times, Roy Newsome and his Salford
University Brass Band acquit themselves well in repertoire that will be
essential listening for any Bantock enthusiasts. I found the recording
to be just a little recessed, affecting the lower end of the band
slightly but the sparser textures in particular come through with fine
clarity.
Christopher Thomas.
University of Salford Brass
Band-Dr. Roy Newsome