Christopher Thomas reviews BBW's CD of the Month

The sheer quantity of brass band arrangements and transcriptions Stephen Roberts has produced over the years is verging on the bewildering. He remains one of the most prolific arrangers active in the brass band movement today.

Chief interest here, however, rests on Arabian Nights and Reflections on Swan Lake, the British Open test-pieces of 2013 and 2015 respectively that saw Tredegar and Grimethorpe Colliery storm to victory.

With the two major works book-ending a variety of lighter concert material, Black Dyke gives powerful accounts of both test-pieces, demonstrating the kind of technical and sure-footed detail to be expected, but perhaps even more crucially displaying to marvellous effect just what a fine array of soloists the band has at its disposal. With Richard Marshall, Zoe Hancock, Gary Curtin, Katrina Marzella and Chris Binns amongst the players on top form, both performances sparkle from start to finish, even though questions arise (particularly in the case of Arabian Nights) as to whether the technical demands of the scores take preference over their musical integrity.

Amongst the concert material, a bracing account of the stirring march Valiant and True rubs shoulders with euphonium soloist, Gary Curtin’s lyrically-charged account of The Water is Wide, whilst in The Lark in the Clear Air Stephen Roberts cleverly weaves in material from Vaughan Williams’s The lark Ascending in a fine vehicle for the gloriously rich tone of Katrina Marzella.

Perhaps the most interesting of the shorter works, however, is Chorale and Fanfares, a re-scoring of Roberts's own At the Tomb of the Unknown Soldier from his Malvern Chase Suite, originally written as a community project featuring Fine Arts Brass Ensemble, within which a series of fanfares are floated over an ethereal bi-tonal processional. It's a tantalising glimpse of what could be possible should Stephen Roberts be given free rein to write an original test-piece, free from the shackles of the likes of Rimsky-Korsakov and Tchaikovsky.

Ultimately, the longevity of Arabian Nights and Reflections on Swan Lake within the repertoire is perhaps questionable, but as champions of both his major works and concert repertoire, the composer could have no better service than is here provided by Black Dyke and Professor Nicholas Childs. 

Programme 4/5
Performance 5/5
Recording 5/5
Presentation 4/5