Concert: Tredegar Town Band

Innovative Tredegar
Tredegar Town Band
Conductor: Ian Porthouse
Llandaff Cathedral

19 May 2018

There are few settings as grand as Llandaff Cathedral. For Tredegar there could simply be no other for its première of Thomas Tallis’s Spem in Alium -
a 40-part motet arranged for band by Chris Davies - the latest in a long line of innovations spearheaded by conductor, Ian Porthouse.

The evening began with the regal Festmusik der Stadt Wien by Strauss -
a perfect vehicle for Tredegar’s trademark big sound. From pomp to precision, the band showcased its technical prowess with a rousing rendition of Berlioz’s Le Corsair before a tender reading of Faure’s Pavane. The band’s principal horn, Chris Davies, then dispatched his own arrangement of the Finale from Strauss’s First Horn Concerto commandingly, before Ceri John’s arrangement of Dargomyzhsky’s fiendishly difficult Gypsy Dance rounded off the band’s first spot in sparkling style.

The evening’s centrepiece was truly magnificent. Spem in Alium was originally written for eight choirs of five voices. There are many theories regarding its genesis, the most plausible of which, perhaps, is as a present for Elizabeth I’s 40th birthday. Regardless of the origins of the work, few can dispute its grandeur and intensity - with eight quintets dispersed throughout the Cathedral, the audience was enveloped by sound and one member afterwards told me: “I thought I’d died and gone to heaven.” This was truly a moving performance and a fine arrangement exhibiting, once again, the versatility of the brass band as a medium.

Tredegar had more class to offer in the second-half. With Mozart’s Marriage of Figaro, Rutter’s The Lord Bless You and Keep You, and a dazzling delivery of Alan Morrison’s arrangement of Georgia on My Mind by the band’s principal cornet, Dewi Griffiths, nobody was left in any doubt about the superb quality around the band’s stands and its ability to impress, as well
as to entertain. Perhaps the highlight of the second-half was an astounding performance of Sparke’s Tallis Variations - a test-piece that is not performed as often as it should be.
A splendid concert that cemented Tredegar’s claim as one of the most innovative brass bands in Europe.

PETER RICHARDS

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