As part of the RNCM's continuing trend to allow their students to perform side-by-side with professional musicians, this evening was saw several of their students take seats next to and perform with The Band Of HM Royal Marines Scotland.
When attending a military band concert there is a certain expectation of the style and kind of music that will be played; perhaps not exclusively, but certainly one would expect at least the majority of the concert to contain military marches by Sousa et al, as well as - with this being the Scottish Marines - a few traditional Scottish airs and reels too. Sadly, and most disappointingly, this was not the case this evening however.
The first half of the concert was given over to three ultra-contemporary pieces of classical music, either specially arranged for military band (first and third), whilst the central piece in the first half was a world premiere performance. We started therefore with 'Amphion' by Fergal Carroll (conducted by Anne Miller, both an RNCM student and captain in the Marines). An interesting piece but a strange choice as opener. The second was the World Premiere performance of Hannah Trudgeon's 'Winter Portrait' in which the band was required to emulate a symphony orchestra trying to recreate the sounds and feel of a winterscape. The piece was written during COVID lockdown and was conducted by the composer's husband, Captain Phil Trudgeon. The final piece in the first half was perhaps the most interesting of the three, as we were given a more tangible background to the piece - although extremely modern, it was much more accessible, a kind of tone poem having some narrative and progression and story to it. Called 'Ironbright' by Paul Saggers, it told the story of Isambard Kingdom Brunel, starting as Brunel started, with Time, then on to one of his bridges, before boarding the then largest ocean-going steamship there was, The Great Eastern.
The second half, we were promised, would be much more like the traditional fayre we were expecting and yearning for; however, even then it was sadly in very short supply. We started with what was basically an extended fanfare, 'Independence Day', before we welcomed members of the Royal Marine Drum Corps to perform with the band. The audience noticeably stood to attention in their seats, and we were all alert and ready for something more military and uplifting. In reality however, even this was a complete let-down. The drum corps (all four of them!) hardly touched their drums at all, but instead performed stick choreography (a-la American military style), in a precise and ,militaristic way, but it wasn't what we were expecting. The miming was irritating and we wanted them to actually play their drums!
Following this, after they had made a swift exit stage left, was a piece called 'Lollapalooza' by John Adams (conducted by RNCM student Lauren Wasynczuk), which again diverted from the usual band music we were expecting. Finally though, we reached something which tickled all the audience's fancy, and we were all highly delighted by this next offering. Called 'Zimba Zamba' by Goff Richards, this piece of Samba-esque writing called for a solo marimba player, and for this, the RNCM's Head Of Percussion, Simone Rebello, stepped up to the mark. This was absolutely brilliant and her playing was quite remarkable. Utterly brilliant and the first time the audience as a whole cheered and applauded loudly and heartily after the piece had been played.
The band's final piece was a little bit of an anticlimax after this, but was still enjoyable. 'Danzon no 2' by Arturo Marquez, was conducted by RNCM student Xinjie Yang. It was their encore however - a flashy quick march - which brought us all back into the mood again, with other concertgoers commenting that this style of music was what they were wanting and far too much emphasis and concert-time given to new works poorly suited for the military band.
Reviewer - Matthew Dougall
on - 23.2.23
on - 23.2.23
I was also at the Concert, and agree with this reviewer, an ex Military Bandie friend of mine, also said he would not go as he did not like the programme of music. It was good to see a Royal Marine Band perform in Manchester again, but the choice of music could have been better. The Bands obviously use Concerts like this to test new compositions. The one good thing that came out of it was I bought the CD of The 2022 Mountbatten Festival of Music, in which Scotland Band had been one of the Bands on stage.
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