2009 has been quite a year for the Cory Band and its Musical
Director Robert Childs. The band from the Welsh Valleys has
celebrated its 125th anniversary in style with a
series of high profile concerts crowned by an appearance at
St David’s Hall Cardiff in June when the band were joined
by the Morriston Orpheus choir and legendary trombonist Wycliffe
Gordon.
Yet despite the celebrations, it has also been a phenomenally
successful year for the band on the contest stage.
Retaining its status as the Champion Band of Wales at the beginning
of the year, Cory has gone on to retain its European Champions
title for a second year, whilst adding the Wold Championship
crown and the British Open trophy to its cabinet. Victory in
the National Championships of Great Britain might have just
eluded the band as this review was written but with the Brass
in Concert title still to defend in November, the impact of
Cory on the band scene in 2009 has been little short of immense.
It was the band’s 2008 programme for Brass in Concert,
the leading entertainment contest fixture on the banding calendar,
that has largely provided the inspiration and material for
the band’s latest CD release Enter the Galaxies.
The repertoire is a typical cornucopia of original pieces from
leading brass band composers, thoughtfully interspersed with
arrangements of material familiar and not so familiar, all
captured with the brilliance of a brass band at the very peak
of its considerable powers.
One of Cory’s claims to fame in recent years has been
the close relationship the band has developed with fellow Welshman
Karl Jenkins and one of the more familiar pieces on the disc
is a selection from his commercially blockbusting score Adiemus,
arranged by Peter Graham under the collective banner Aspects
of Adiemus. It is not the most musically satisfying fare
on the disc but does provide a useful and accessible way into
brass band music for anyone that is not fully familiar with
what the modern brass band is capable of.
Of the well known music on offer, Mexican Hat Dance features
a stylish and virtuosic performance from the band’s principal
cornet player Ian Williams whilst Gareth Wood provides an up
beat and somewhat different arrangement of Men of Harlech,
originally written as an encore item and showing the talents
of the various sections around the band off to fine effect.
Chris Thomas - no relation - is a warmly lyrical trombone soloist
in Kenneth Downie’s arrangement of Tom Bowling whilst
Owen Farr puts the tenor horn into the spotlight in some style
with
Philip Sparke’s Capricorno. Stealing the show
amongst the soloists though is David Childs on euphonium, playing
the piece that won him the soloist prize at Brass in Concert
2008, The Hot Canary. A one time hit for Maynard Ferguson
with the Stan Kenton Orchestra, it’s a witty yet remarkable
display of what the euphonium is (or perhaps shouldn’t
be!) capable of, in the hands of a young man who is undoubtedly
the leading player of his generation.
The original pieces on the disc also carry the greatest musical
weight with Paul Lovatt-Cooper’s Enter the Galaxies,
a high octane three minute micro-journey through distant universes,
being an exhilarating opening number. Steven Ponsford’s Turris
Fortissima (Strongest Tower) is an approachable yet technically
taxing and musically dynamic tribute to the city of Plymouth,
thematically based around the hymns A Safe Stronghold is our
God, Blessed be the Name of the Lord and My Jesus, My Saviour,
and reflecting the composer’s Salvationist faith. The
composer’s name is still little known in secular brass
band circles but Turris Fortissima is a piece that should
win him a good number of fans. Rodney Newton’s King
Solomon’s Mines is an obvious homage to John Williams
but no less effective for it and bristling with plenty of gung-ho
Indiana Jones spirit. Dan Price, a young composer who has developed
close links to the Cory Band, provides two highly effective
pieces in Sunrise over Blue Ridge, a meltingly beautiful
evocation of the dawn landscape surrounding the Blue Ridge
Mountains and An American Tale. The latter brings the
disc to a rousing conclusion, being an effective drawing together
of well known melodies associated with the American Civil War,
culminating in a moving and strikingly original version of Amazing
Grace in a hymn of tribute to the many lives lost in the
conflict.
Doyen have captured the stunning sound of the Cory Band with
vivid and natural clarity in what is one of the most entertaining
and enjoyable brass band CDs released during 2009.
Christopher Thomas
Frank Renton (narration)
