For the longest time
the Salvation Army and competing brass
bands existed side by side in almost
complete ignorance of one another. Although
individuals moved between the two worlds,
and indeed some of the greatest brass
band composers – among them Eric Ball
and Edward Gregson – came from the Army,
there was once an embargo on the use
of non-Salvationist music by Salvation
Army bands and the use of Salvation
Army music by competing bands.
Times have changed.
Nowadays Salvation Army bands have more
freedom in repertoire selection and
pieces by Salvationist composers like
Robert Redhead and Kenneth Downie are
frequently selected as test-pieces or
own choices for major competitions.
For that reason I hope that this album
will find an audience beyond the Army.
It deserves to. The ISB is on superb
form here, and the repertoire is certainly
worth hearing.
The album opens in
impressive grandeur with the first movement
of Stephen Bulla's Concertante for Cornets
and Band. In form this movement – based
loosely on Bach's Passion Chorale
– is more of a fanfare and overture
than a true concertante movement, but
no matter. Bulla creates impressive
effects by using the cornets of the
band as an antiphonal brass choir. The
ISB's playing is exciting here, Stephen
Cobb controlling the dynamics well and
the cornets projecting and blending
beautifully.
The other more substantial
works are just as impressive. Eric Ball's
classic piece Songs in Exile is
as fresh and moving today as it was
when Ball penned it some forty years
ago. Cobb and co. give an affectionate
performance, with the first trombone
playing his solo with a lovely plummy
tone.
Rodney Newton's The
Pilgrim's Progress is a substantial
tone poem that charts the narrative
of Bunyan's parable through a series
of variations on Eric Ball's Pilgrim
Song. The writing for band is challenging
– this is test-piece material – but
the musical substance is never put aside
for mere pyrotechnics. The City of
Destruction is depicted with hectic
figurations; the music for Vanity
Fair has an Arnoldian English
Dances jauntiness; and there is
a cornet figure in the passage reflecting
the lifting of Christian's burden that
resembles a tune from Rózsa's
score for Ben Hur which plays
as the shepherds and magi come to visit
the infant Christ.
The larger of the two
original works by composer Dean Jones
is the album's title track and brings
the disc to a close. Supremacy is
a tightly constructed work that weaves
hymn tunes new and old into an impressive
showpiece. Bright, celebratory statements
from the cornets surround the old hymn
tune Moscow at the outset, and
in the conclusion flashing fanfares
soar above a triumphant statement of
the hymn tune Pembroke . The
center-piece of the work, though, is
the sensitive setting of the contemporary
worship song Above All.
The London Symphony
Orchestra's principal trombonist, Dudley
Bright, is soloist in his own composition,
Life's Command. A significant
addition to the repertoire, this single
movement concertante work develops an
original theme in opposition to, and
then in harmony with, the tune of an
old Army chorus. Bright's immaculate
playing of his own challenging writing
is beyond reproach. He also contributes
a brief outline of the work to the liner-notes.
The shorter pieces
on the album are equally well written
and played. Two were penned by Dutch
Salvationist Olaf Ritman. The first
of these is a moving arrangement of
the old folk tune O Waley Waley,
which in Ritman's sensitive scoring
is inextricably bound with Isaac Watts'
powerful text for the hymn When I
survey. His second contribution
elaborates a song based on Psalm 103
by Darren Bartlett. Again, the arrangement
is all the more powerful for its understatement.
By way of contrast,
there is more than a whiff of Malcolm
Arnold to Brian Bowen's upbeat City
of God and the second of Dean Jones'
contributions, the snappy Él
Es El Señor has a spicy Mexican
minor-mode feel to it.
No ISB album would
be complete without a solo for Derick
Kane’s euphonium. Here he projects an
inwardness and quiet triumph in Richard
Phillips' arrangement of the great contemporary
worship song In Christ Alone.
The martial key change for the final
verse is a little jarring but it does
showcase the upper register of Kane's
euphonium and produces a fitting climax
in harmony with the song's words. Together
with Ritman's When I Survey,
this track has been a help to me
in my devotions.
Throughout this album,
the ISB play with burnished tone, but
mould it with great versatility. They
are powerful in the substantial works
where power is called for and subtle
in contemplative moments. At all times
their ensemble is superb.
The recorded sound
is close, but not too close, and has
plenty of warmth. Decent liner notes
too. If I have any complaint at all,
it is that I wish room had been found
for the remaining movements of Bulla's
superb Concertante for Cornets and Band.
I have no hesitation
recommending this album as an example
of premium brass playing in excellent
repertoire. Brass lovers of all persuasions
will find much to savour here. Believers
– and not just Salvationists, I might
add – will find something extra to move
and inspire them.
Tim Perry
Dudley Bright (trombone)*, Derick Kane
(euphonium)^ 
