CD: This Way
Cornet soloist: Tom HutchinsonDoyen: DOY CD386
Solo CD of the year 2018
THIS WAY
Cornet soloist: Tom Hutchinson
Cory Band
Conductor: Philip Harper
Doyen: DOY CD386
BUY THIS CD HERE!
It seems remarkable that it is now nearly a decade since a young Tom Hutchinson made his way from Black Dyke’s front row to the end chair at Cory and, perhaps, even more remarkable that it is the same period of time since the late, great Ian Williams occupied that very same chair.
Tom pays a deeply moving tribute to Ian on this CD in the form of Philip Harper’s beautiful arrangement of How Great Thou Art, played with palpable emotion by the soloist in memory of a player and personality that will continue to be missed by all who knew him. This second solo CD by Tom Hutchinson is, however, really all about a very special player that dazzles and beguiles in a sparklingly diverse range of repertoire, underpinning that he is as musically adaptable as he is famously rock solid on the contest stage.
The backbone of the disc is undoubtedly Derek Bourgeois’s epic Cornet Concerto, classically modelled on his Trombone Concerto, and here given a performance of startling virtuosity and musical athleticism. It’s a stamina-sapping tour-de-force, especially in the extended slow movement, which the soloist dispatches with a glowing sense of sepia-tinted nostalgia.
Elsewhere, the opening Latin-fuelled Fuego! by Philip Harper gets things off to a dazzling start. The Rafael Mendez tribute, Hejre Kati, and Dan Price’s evocative Ravel and Debussy-inspired Montmartre Jardins sous La Pluie are both given performances of rare élan, effectively counterbalanced by a brilliant account of Edward Gregson’s early Prelude and Capriccio.
The nostalgia is once again present in Haydn Wood’s A Brown Bird Singing and
Alec Templeton’s Sonia, both of which are wonderful vehicles for Tom Hutchinson’s innate lyricism and phrasing, which evokes recollections of the sound of James Shepherd. Nowhere is that comparison with James Shepherd as startling as it is in Tom’s performance of Edwin Sutton’s immortal The Paragon. The glorious open tone and breathtaking clarity of articulation recall the soloist’s hero at the height of his powers in recordings of Cleopatra and, indeed, The Paragon.
As he approaches his tenth year as principal cornet of the World’s number one ranked band, Tom Hutchinson is as synonymous with Cory as James Shepherd was to Black Dyke all those years ago - not a comparison made lightly and his new solo CD is ample evidence of one of the finest cornet players ever to stamp their mark on the brass band movement!
CHRISTOPHER THOMAS
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