Review: Tredegar Band at the RNCM International Brass Band Festival

Tredegar Band at the RNCM: An Impressive Display of Technique and Stamina

Under the baton of Ian Porthouse, Tredegar Band’s offering to the 2025 RNCM International Brass Band Festival was a feast of larger works for brass band, including a wrongfully overlooked work from our past, a premiere of a new concerto for French Horn and a homage to a controversial activist. 

Prague by Judith Bingham

Judith Bingham is one of the UK’s leading composers who has written a vast range of orchestral, choral, operatic and brass works. ‘Prague’ was commissioned in 2003 by Paul Hindmarsh for the Regional Championships and received a lot of wrongful and quite ignorant hate at the time of its release. I feel like to truly understand this work, context is key, as it is incredibly descriptive. I’m glad that twenty years later, this work has had an outing at an event of such stature that allowed the audience to gather an understanding of the story behind the work before we hear it. 

The piece, as you can tell by the title, was inspired by the composer’s trip to Prague and was influenced by the legends of the Golem and of a cursed crown that was said to depose anyone who wasn’t entitled to wear it - a fate that came true for a high-ranking SS officer during World War 2. The work heavily features the number seven, as there were seven locks on the vault to the crown. 

It is a piece that describes disruption and displacement, so is incredibly dark in nature, with complex harmonies, delicate but mournful solos and turbulent textures. Once you understand the story behind the work, the music goes beyond the, ignorantly condemned, harsh musical elements and paints a picture of a city torn apart by political chaos, and the power of local folklore. The piece was delivered with the utmost respect to Bingham’s writing - it was an exhilirating live performance that I hope has redeemed this piece to the glory that it deserves. 

French Horn Concerto by Edward Gregson, Performed by Ben Goldscheider

A piece in three movements that demonstrates a different facet of the French Horn’s character. The use of a fourth interval throughout the work paid tribute to the composer’s admiration for the music of Paul Hindemith and rhythmical elements throughout the work are an influence from Béla Bartók, another composer whom Gregson admires.

As promised, the work explores all the sounds and timbres that can be achieved throughout the range of the solo instrument, expertly delivered by the concert’s featured soloist, Ben Goldscheider. This is not your typical concerto, where the ensemble offers a simply supportive accompaniment. There was so much light and shade and immense detail to be heard and the band did well to ensure this detail shone without overpowering the soloist. 

The American Dream by Elgar Howarth

Written for the Cory and Grimethorpe Colliery Band’s 1976 tour of America that marked the bicentennial of the Declaration of Independence, Elgar Howarth’s The American Dream. The word dream sums up this piece well with flowing melodic lines, glittery, dreamlike percussion. The chordal makeup of this work is quintissentially American, drumming up images of lush old hollywood films and their accompanying soundtracks, with just a glimmer of Copland-esque depictions of the wild west. It’s a gem of a piece that I hope to either play or hear live again - I loved it!

A Road Less Travelled By by Philip Sparke

Inspired by the Robert Frost Poem, The Road Not Taken by Robert Frost, Philip Sparke’s epic work A Road Less Travelled By offered an epic musical journey frought with dramatic technical passages and absolutely glorious solo moments. 

This major work for brass band contains all of the pyrotechnics and excitement we come to expect from Philip Sparke’s music. The real standout performance for me in this piece was from the band’s flugel player, Cerys Hughes. From her seamless solo entries that seem to appear out of nowhere to her phrasing, lyricism and insane control in the quiet dynamics, her performance in this piece was a masterclass. Another element of this performance that needs to be commended alongside the bands precision within the virtuosic technical elements is there sound. It was HUGE, but in no way forced or harsh and it was so incredibly well-balanced - seriously impressive!

Homage to Julian Assange by Ed de Boer

Tredegar Band closed their performance with a world premiere of a piece that pays homage to the conterversial hacker, whistleblower and activist Julian Assange. Homage to Julian Assange was an incredibly colourful work depicting the turbulent life Assange has known since his arrest. It is a large-scale complex work, akin to his Vita Aeturna Variations (which he wrote under the pseudonym, Alexander Comitas), which consists of a theme and a series of movements concluding with a fugue.  The addition of a xylosynth in the percussion offered an electronic layer to the band’s texture, which considering the subject’s digital background with Wikileaks, I thought was a really clever illustrative element. 

After a hefty programme consisting of mostly major works for brass band the band delivered this work without even the slightest shred of fatigue, in an incredible display of stamina. From the intricate technical details to the full-bodied dynamics of the final movement, the band never faltered, waivered or took their foot off the gas.

All in all, it was a superb performance from Tredegar Band at the RNCM International Brass Band Festival.