Before the doors to the hall were opened, the audience were treated to live entertainment from members of the West Lothian Schools Fiddle Group, and they could also watch a sample version of the band’s latest DVD which was recorded in December 2005, and will be released for sale shortly - we hope!
Unfortunately due to child protection legislation, no photography was allowed at the event, so the report is restricted to a verbal account only.
The band played in the final segment of the concert, and were scheduled to perform seven pieces, however, due to difficulty in obtaining the score for Andy Duncan’s ‘The Hebridean Suite’, it had to be removed from the programme.
So the band began with the up-beat ‘Folk Festival’, written by Shostakovic and arranged by Howard Snell. This was followed by the hauntingly beautiful ‘Scarlet Ribbons’, written by Jack Segal, arranged by Andy Duncan and performed beautifully by the band’s Principal Cornet, Susannah Downs.
Tuba player James Hudson got the next piece underway - ‘African Funk’, which was arranged by Alan Fernie and was influenced by the music of the Brazz Brothers. This piece was originally written for Brass Band Aid and you can find out more about this by visiting www.brassbandaid.com.
It was to Norway we headed next, and the unusual ‘Lokk Fra Den Grone Oye’ - Lokk from the Green Island to you and me! This piece was written by Torstein Aagaard-Nilsen in 1997, and features Tenor Horn, cowbells and singing band members! The piece reflects the sound of the cows being called in from the meadow.
The band’s next item featured the band’s Principal Euphonium Isla Cameron, who performed a piece composed specially for the band by Bruce Fraser entitled ‘Sun’. The piece has an African feel to it and it was originally written for Katrina Marzella, a previous principal euphonium player with the band.
The last item on the band’s programme was the well known ‘Kalinka’ arranged by Ray Woodfield. Nigel Boddice did intimate at the start of the piece that he would welcome anyone willing to perform the famous Russian Cossack dance in the isles, but as the tempo increased as the piece progressed, it was probably just as well nobody took up the challenge!
That was technically the end of the band’s contribution to the Spring Concert Series for the year, however, Nigel did hint that rapturous applause, hoots of joy, shouts of more and perhaps even a standing ovation might persuade the band to play an encore - and, strangely enough, that’s exactly what happened!
So as an encore, the band gave us firstly an excerpt from ‘Gaelforce’ by Peter Graham, featuring Hayley Edmond on flugel solo. Then came the final piece - ‘Rocking Trombones’ by Alan Fernie, with the band’s excellent trombone section showing just what they can do.
This brought the evening to a magnificent conclusion. An excellent evening of music which took us on a tour of Scotland, Russia, Africa and Norway.
