Start of Something Big Review

Review of Start of Something Big, Brass Band World, February 2003

Freshness, quality evident in Start of Something Big

This band has risen from the Third section to Chanpionship level in six years, and is rapidly gaining a reputation for the interest and high quality of their concerts. The programme here is representative and every item has an element of freshness about it (even the familiar John Ireland Minuet and Ballantine's Mid all the Traffic because they play them so well). Just one quibble - I thin the items could perhaps have been ordered more appropriately to form a slightly better shaped programme.

As far as the more substantial items are concerned, it's good to hear again Rodney Newton's Variations for Percussion which was originally written for Evelyn Glennie but is here performed excellently by soloist Rachel Maguire. I cannot understand why this work is not performed more often, as it's immediately accessible overall and the atmospheric beauty of the central movement is quite outstanding in this presentation.

The other 12-minute slot is G. Roberts' transacription of Elgar's Cockaignre Overture which for me is the high-point discovery of the whole programme in the way that it makes a most convincing band-piece. Rothwell play it with great conviction and attention to artistic detail, and conductor David Roberts judges its subtly varied progress with a sure Elgarian instinct.

The programme adds to the above delights the impressive demonstration of subtly blended scorings for band this is Martin Ellerby's Death of Don Quixote, and an intriguing transcription by G. Roberts of Standford's choral work The Blue Bird.

Then of the light entertainment items there are two arrangements new to me which I just loved straight away - the first is David Roberts' own brilliant transcription of The Start of Something Big, and the second Elgar Howarth's evocative arrangement of Embraceable You (performed beautifully by trombone soloist Steven Haynes).

Two other effectively presented solos are soprano player Paul Argyle's Live and Let Die, and Les McCormack's horn solo I'm Stone In Love With You.

Vernon Briggs

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