‘Brassy and classy’ - the sound of Prince Bishops Brass

Prince Bishops Brass

‘Brassy and classy’ - the sound of Prince Bishops Brass, a group of five musicians who share a talent for presenting a delightful evening’s music-making with something to suit people of every taste.

Trumpeters Mike Walton and Derek Ruffel, Chris Senior on the horn and Trombonist Stuart Graycame together, underpinned by Stephen Boyd’s tuba, to produce a rich variety of timbre and tone that fully matched up to the demands of music such as the Fanfare “La Peri” by Paul Dukas which got the Rochdale Music Society’s concert in Heywood Civic Centre off to an appetising start.

Music composed for a particular instrument or group of instruments does not always show up at its best when translated for others. The PBB’s wide-ranging programme demonstrated that, when processed by sensitive and imaginative musicians like them, all kinds of music can indeed be convincingly performed, sometimes even enhanced, when played on instruments quite different from those originally envisaged. Much depends on the arranger, of course, and that is why those responsible for the arrangements performed on this occasion are mentioned by name.

The Dukas Fanfare was followed by Paul Archibald’s arrangement of the Suite in D by Jeremiah Clarke, with its concluding fanciful March (often played as a Bridal Procession). An arrangement of J.S.Bach’s Fugue in G minor was confidently presented, as was Elgar Howarth’s arrangement of Fancies, Toyes and Dreames by the lesser known English Elisabethan composer, Giles Farnaby. A work much-loved by Classic fm listeners when played in its string orchestra arrangement, Reff’s arrangement of the Adagio by the 20th century American composer Samuel Barber, gave the players the opportunity to show their technical skill in more nuanced and lyrical ways. This they did before bringing the first half of the concert to an end with a flourish as the music of a song often attributed to King Henry VIII, Pastime with Good Company, rang out in hearty fashion in Stephen Roberts’ arrangement.

The second half of the concert featured music of a somewhat different kind all of which made quite considerable interpretative and technical demands on the players, who rose to the occasion with aplomb. Bram Tovey’s Santa Barbara Sonata, Michael Kamen’s Quintet and three of George Gershwin’s songs injected a dose of jazz into the proceedings and left the audience happily reeling after being caught up in a cakewalk, a tango, a stomp and the rhythm anything more than which whocan ask for? Ray Chester’s Northumbrian Songs provided a suitably sobering moment of pause before Four Episodes from West Side Story by Leonard Bernstein rounded the evening’s music making off in style.

This was the last in the Rochdale Music Society’s present Concert Series. Details of the concerts planned for Season 2016-17 will be available in the near future. Among the artistes to be featured will be Clare Hammond, who held the audience enthralled by her pianism and artistry when she played for us a couple of seasons ago.